Advanced Career (AC) Curriculum
The Engineering Center of Excellence is proud to support the implementation of Advanced Career (AC) curriculum into schools and school districts. The Minnesota State Engineering Center of Excellence is the Minnesota AC Lead Education Agency.
The Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) has developed Advanced Career (AC), the culmination of years of work by states and the nation’s largest school improvement network at SREB. The result is turn-key pathways with everything a school needs to be sure they work, from curriculum to assessments to extensive training and support for teachers.
Each course in these pathways is hands-on, rich with projects and intellectually demanding. In addition, all require the application of college- and career-readiness standards in reading, writing, math, science and other areas so the students are ready for postsecondary study. Students master complex academic and technical concepts and graduate ready for the workplace, technical colleges, and universities.
SREB’s Advanced Career (AC) STEM high school curricula pathways:
Automated Materials Joining Technology
Clean Energy Technology
Energy and Power
Global Logistics & Supply Chain
Innovations in Science and Technology
Integrated Production Technologies
Oil and Gas
The STEM- and project-based AC curricula prepare high school students for college and career in high-skill, high-demand, and high-wage fields. The pathway programs consist of four increasingly challenging courses that require students to apply literacy, math, science and technology skills to solve problems from the workforce in the AC classroom. AC is affordable for schools and districts since there is a one-time fee to join and no annual cost of the curriculum and software.
Watch Webinar – What is Advanced Career?
Middle Grades STEM Curricula Now Available!
SREB and West Virginia, with support from Benedum Foundation, have developed two full-year STEM-based courses, each course containing six projects that allow middle grades students to engage in heads-on, hands-on learning that requires them to apply science, technology, engineering, mathematics and knowledge and skills to the solution of authentic problems. To complete projects students will research technical materials, prepare written designs, keep an engineering notebook, and use mathematics, deepen their understanding of science and use technology.
Teachers attend an intense Summer Teacher Training Institute (STTI) to prepare to use the student-centered approach to teaching AC courses and to use the required technology and software to complete student projects. AC teachers are empowered to deliver the curriculum to students and have a co-hart of fellow teachers to support their efforts for the success of the students.
Siemens Engineering STEM Curriculum
We created the framework for the curriculum with the intent of empowering students to develop their own solutions to the problem presented in each project. The use of project/problem based learning is the best approach to prepare students for what careers will demand in the future. There is less emphasis on the mastery of procedures and more expectation for original thinking, collaboration among team members, and innovation by students. It’s good when there is more than one right answer.
These courses can be used as either stand-alone full year course or taught in a semester double period block schedule. They are a great foundation to the SREB Advanced Career program or any other similar type program.
Attributes of the Siemens Engineering Design and Manufacturing and Automation courses:
No Cost to schools to download and use the curriculum
Integrated using the latest College and Career Readiness Standards AND the Next Generation Science Standards
Students do research, design & development, and communication of design solutions
Uses the engineering design and problem solving process
Students keep an engineering notebook
Appropriate for all students
Lists of equipment and supplies are provided for course projects by Studica.