Open House at Madison Area Technical College Highlights Internship Opportunities
Melissa Tully

On March 7, 2006,  Delta, a program of the Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching and Learning, participated in an open house at Madison Area Technical College (MATC) to inform potential Delta interns of opportunities available at MATC.  The partnership between UW-Madison and MATC brings together a diverse group of faculty, staff, and students interested in creating internship projects aimed at developing and implementing materials for STEM courses.  The internships are structured around developing solutions to instructional problems faculty members face in their courses.   Developing materials to better engage students and increase students’ understanding of course material is a major concern for faculty and interns.  The open house attracted a large group of students and faculty and was highly informative, showcasing past, present, and future internships from both student and faculty perspectives.    

The Open House began with students’ presentations about their MATC internship experience.  Matt D’Amato discussed his experience working with Dr. Barbara Anderegg (Consortium for Education in Renewable Energy Technologies) and others at MATC to develop a fuel-cell technology learning object.  (To learn more about Matt’s internship visit http://www.cirtl.net/news/interns.html).  Sara Kerr spoke about her internship, which focused on developing materials to correct students’ misconceptions about the relationship between ozone depletion and the greenhouse effect.  She enjoyed working at MATC because it gave her the opportunity to experience a two-year college environment and work with a diverse student population.  David Ennis concluded the student presentations with a discussion of his ongoing internship project.  He is in the early stages of developing materials to correct students’ misconceptions about nuclear energy, particularly their understanding of fission and fusion.

After the student presentations, MATC faculty discussed available internship opportunities in their respective fields.  Professor Lisa Seidman (Biotechnology) discussed the need for internship projects focused on revising and developing laboratory experiences and lecture materials for various lab-based, hands-on courses in biotechnology.  Professor Ken Walz (Renewable Energy) was excited about the potential for interns to develop lab experiments, lecture materials, and online tools to be piloted in new courses being developed at MATC.  Professor Holly Walter Kerby wrapped up this session with her discussion of informal science education.  She is looking for interns to help develop and produce science shows with local theater groups that are both educational and family oriented.  These three presentations represent a sample of the internship possibilities available at MATC.  The wide-ranging interests of MATC faculty and their desire to work with Delta interns create a great number of opportunities at MATC.  Students can develop internships with faculty working in electrical engineering, computers, and networking; laboratory skills courses development and instruction; and automotives.

The Delta Internship Program offers students the opportunity to intern at UW-Madison, UW Colleges, Edgewood College, and MATC.  To learn more about the Delta Internship Program, visit http://www.delta.wisc.edu/Programs/internships/intern_main.html.

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