Chip-in teacher externships!
CHIP IN! WEEK LONG EXTERNSHIP
Portland Metro STEM Partnership collaborated with Oregon STEM to develop the CHIP In Educator Externship! This is the first week-long externship experience we’ve ever offered. Twenty-four high school educators participated in the pilot this summer. Educators included Physics, Chemistry, Math, and CTE-Engineering/CS/Manufacturing teachers, career guidance professionals, and the executive director from a community based organization.
Participants spent a week visiting seven semiconductor locations in our region! They toured fabs, sub fabs, manufacturing shops, and more. They put on bunny suits in a mock clean room and a working clean room! They heard from and talked with employees from across the Semiconductor ecosystem about jobs and made connections between the content they teach and this industry sector.
”It was inspiring to see the collaboration, innovation, and precision involved in the processes, and it gave me valuable ideas for connecting Algebra II concepts to real-world careers and applications in STEM.” - Math Teacher Participant
“I learned so much from this externship! Not only the state of the industry and how chips are made, but all of the infrastructure that goes into it and pathways for students to learn and train. I think there are many places in chemistry curriculum where this industry can be highlighted and called out.“ - Chemistry Teacher Participant
Thank you Intel Corporation, Edwards Vacuum, Jireh Semiconductor, Portland Community College Willow Creek, Analog Devices, and Tektronics for co-creating and hosting this amazing experience so that educators can bring back information about pathways to high demand, high skill, and high interest jobs to their students.
SINGLE DAY EXTERNSHIPS!
In addition to the CHIP In experience, we hosted 119 classroom teachers, career guidance professionals, and educators in community STEM programs in single day externship visits this summer!
“Getting to see the variety of jobs at a variety of education levels, talk with a wide variety of people, and especially hear about their professional + academic journey was super interesting.” - Teacher Participant
We visited the Water Resource Recovery Facility, the Tualatin River Farm, and the CWS administrative building - seeing the many ways that Clean Water Services is leading innovation in storm and wastewater processing and is caring for the Tualatin River Watershed!
We visited the Kaiser Permanente NW Lab to tour the lab and learn about jobs in Clinical Chemistry, Cytogenetics, Cytotechnology, Flow Cytometry, Hematology, Histotechnology, Microbiology, Molecular Genetics, Pathology, and toured the optical fabrication lab!
For a clean energy focused day, we visited the PAE Living Building where we heard from the Earth Advantage team and PAE engineers about strategies to lower carbon, water, and energy usage in residential and commercial settings. We then spent the afternoon with the Celik Lab team at PSU, exploring how to make turbines and photovoltaic cells more and more efficient.
For a semiconductor focused day, we visited the Maseeh College of Engineering and Computer Science at PSU where we designed chips, explored lithography, and explored the materials used in semiconductor fabrication. We also visited the Power Lab, Electronics Prototyping Lab, and the Computational Imaging Lab.
Thank you Clean Water Services, Kaiser Permanente, PAE Engineering, Earth Advantage, and the Maseeh College of Engineering and Computer Science at PSU for opening your doors and providing these incredible learning experiences to educators!
