Making Industry Meaningful In College (MIMIC) is a multi-disciplinary project at Illinois Valley Community College that places students in engineering design, electronics and business into student "companies" to design, prototype, manufacture, market and sell products. The one-semester project emphasizes teamwork, critical thinking, problem solving and communication skills. MIMIC has been successful since the start, winning a Connections Award for Innovative Curriculum Integration in its first year. Supported by a National Science Foundation grant from 2005 - 2008, MIMIC is a cost-effective and highly adaptable project model.
This workshop is designed for instructors and administrators in high schools and community colleges who are interested in establishing a simple, cost-effective multi-disciplinary project that engages students in simulated workplace experiences. Workshop participants will learn to adapt the MIMIC model to include students from various disciplines and to organize and assess a similar project.
Specific objectives will be adapted to the high school or community college. General objectives might include the following.
Participants will
Learn to team students from a number of fields or courses to provide them with simulated workplace experiences.
Learn to organize a simple, cost-effective project that provides students with entrepreneurial experience in making products, providing a service, or developing a business.
Learn to effectively integrate workplace skills into a project.
Participants will develop their own project ideas and will emerge from the workshop with a plan for adapting the MIMIC model to their students and their college or high school setting.
Participants will receive the following materials:
Teacher's Resource Manual
for Adapting the MIMIC Project, which includes
- A description of MIMIC and other spin-off projects
- Ideas for adapting the MIMIC model
- Steps in adapting the MIMIC model
- Sample forms for project organization, student team meetings, product
approval and pricing, and financial/budget forms.
- Sample assessments for evaluating students
and projects
- An intellectual property agreement
- A description of a Leadership Team for students and paperwork and
forms utilized in organizing, training and publicizing a team
A handbook of modules or exercises for integrating workplace skills into courses or projects
MIMIC Student Guidebook, which
includes
- An explanation of the project
- Student expectations
- Sample copies of paperwork utilized by student teams
Project plans submitted by participants in previous workshops.