The Automotive Technology program relies on curriculum from two sources:  1) CDX Online; and, 2) AYES Learning.  The curriculum includes not only knowledge and skill development, but also higher level activities that require critical thinking skills.

One AYES activity used in the class is the one attached on Automotive Shop Operation.  One of the explicit parts of this lesson, which focuses on the diagnosis and repair or vehicles in a working automotive shop, is the embedded educational standard, "Problem Solving and Decision Making Skills".

This lesson is introduced to students in order to prepare them to asses, diagnose and report the problems with real vehicles brought into the shop for repair by community members.  These cars will be repaired at minimal cost (parts-only) and then either returned to the customer or sold at public auction.  The lesson is authentic because it requires students to verify the complaint, find the cause and make the correction.  Once the repair has been made, the student is reponsible for verifying the fix.

A student repair order resulting from this lesson is shown in the next Artifact #58.

Student example of completed repair order showing all vehicle information as well as customer concern, cause and correction.

Other lessons are hands on work testing batteries and determining their percentage of degradation from their rated capacity and if the battery can be used or needs to be replaced. 

The brake lesson is also hands on work that involves measuring a disc brake rotor with a micrometer and comparing the reading to the manufacturer's specification to determine if the rotor is safe to reuse.

The Steering and suspension lesson involves the students performing a four wheel alignment on a live vehicle while interpreting the customer concern in relation to what alignment angle is out of specification.

All units in Automotive Technology other than those concerning routine maintenance are based on problem and project-based learning -- specifically those problems that lead car owners to seek service and repair in the first place.

Looking at the CDX curriculum, the parts of the each unit that are specifically devoted to project/problem-based learning are those highlighted in purple.  In a typical unit, such as the one on Brakes, we first introduce the topic and cover basic theory.  Next, we review online videos demonstrating the execution of various task required for brake repair.  After these simulations, we take students to the shop floor where the same brake procedures are performed on a live vehicle -- first by an instructor, and then by students working individually and in groups.

Last, students are required to implement their knowledge and skills by diagnosing brake problems and performing repairs on problem-cars that are set-up for them by instructors.  This instructional sequence prepares students to work on the stream of real vehicles that are brought into our working shop, using the lesson and repair tickets shown in Artifacts 57 and 58.

This past academic year 2009-2010, both Automotive Technology instructors participated in a year-long professional development activity called "Math-in-CTE".  The goal of this two-week training is to increase the mathematics content in CTE lessons, by bringing together pairs of CTE and math instructors to develop math-infused CTE lesson plans.

The methodology is supported by research which shows that CTE students using these lessons demonstrate improvement of 10% or more in standardized math tests by the end of the year.

During the course of the workshop, the Automotive Technology instructors:

1) Learned how to write and teach lessons using the "Math-in-CTE 7 Elements" lesson plan template.

2) Developed two lessons each by working with math teacher parnters.

3) Taught and evaluated both lessons.

The link for the web portal that contains the lesson plan template and actual lessons developed with this process is attached.