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MAKING INDUSTRY MEANINGFUL IN COLLEGE
INDUSTRY PROJECT
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MIMIC Description
MIMIC Course-BUS 2260
National Science Foundation Grant
Awards and Presentations
Organizers of the Project
History of the Project
Funding for the ProjectElectronics instructor Jim Gibson and engineering design instructor Dorene Perez examine a light designed and produced by students and sold at the MIMIC fair.
IVCC’s award-winning MIMIC-Industry project places students from electronics, engineering design and a variety of business fields in companies to design, manufacture and market a product. While MIMIC is a capstone project for the electronics, engineering design and business students, work on the project actually begins with freshman students reengineering products previously designed and sold by MIMIC student "companies." The students design, prototype, and redesign products over the course of three semesters. In their fourth semester, the engineering design and electronics students are joined by business students for the MIMIC project. The students are assigned to "companies," and each company selects a product to produce and market. Marketing students conduct a marketing survey, analyze the results and make recommendations. Engineering students complete the final product design and the student teams produce a prototype. During this time, accounting students prepare budgets and do cost accounting, information technology students handle company correspondence, and graphics design students produce advertising materials and web pages. All of the students participate in manufacturing the products. Business students plan and organize an on-campus fair where the products are sold. All students also participate in product sales. After the sales, accounting students do a cost analysis and make recommendations on the commercial potential of the products.
Students in the various disciplines work on the project at different times throughout the semester. The classes, however, are scheduled at a common time to allow them to meet in their companies as needed.
Throughout the semester, MIMIC students present oral reports about
their projects at meetings attended by all MIMIC participants and by members of the college administration and the teaching staff.During the semester-long project, instructors in other disciplines deliver integrated lessons to MIMIC students, to all of the MIMIC students or just to a selected group. A study skills instructor, for example, may teach goal setting, and a communications instructor may teach conflict resolution. Other students may also participate as consultants, assisting in the design of a company logo, for example.
MIMIC is truly an interdisciplinary concept that allows students to practice teamwork skills and to learn through inquiry, discovery and investigation. MIMIC-Industry makes the connection from school to the workplace, and it makes education more than just an imitation of life.
MIMIC COURSE – BUS 2260 – Integrated Business Operations
Following the successful introduction of MIMIC, a business course entitled Integrated Business Operations was developed. Taught by the business instructor on the MIMIC team, the course offers students credit as they form and run a MIMIC company. Aimed at sophomores in business programs, the course is required in some Associate in Applied Science Programs including most business and computer programs.
NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION GRANT
In 2005, IVCC received a National Science Foundation Grant (#0501885) to utilize the MIMIC project to build continuous quality improvement into the two-year technical programs in engineering design and electronics. The three-year grant totaling $229,875 provides some funding for MIMIC. Instructors who applied for and are supervising the grant are
- Dorene Perez, NSF Principal Investigator, Engineering Design Instructor and MIMIC organizer
- Jim Gibson, co-Principal Investigator, Electronics Instructor and MIMIC organizer
- Rose Marie Lynch, co-Principal Investigator, Communications Instructor
For more information about the NSF grant, go to the NSF grant web site
The MIMIC-Industry project won a Connections 2000 Award for Innovative Curriculum Integration, from the Illinois State Board of Education, in 1995.
Project organizers have given presentations about MIMIC at a number of conferences and meetings including the following:
- American Society for Engineering Education International Colloquium at Tsinghua University in Beijing, People's Republic of China
- American Society for Engineering Education National Conference at Salt Lake City, Utah and at Chicago.
- Lilly Conference on Excellence in College Teaching at Miami University
- Society of Educators and Scholars International Conference in Louisville, Ky,
- National Association of Industrial Technology at Cleveland, Ohio
- National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development Conference in Austin, Texas.
- National Council for Occupational Education Conference in St. Louis,
- Tech Ed Conference in Long Beach, Calif.
- American Technical Education Association Regional Meeting in Wisconsin
- Connections conferences
Organizers of the project were
Dorene Perez, Engineering Design Instructor
Alice Steljes, Accounting and Business (MIMIC) Instructor (retired)
On the team now
Jim Gibson, Electronics Instructor
Susan Koepke, Accounting and Business (MIMIC) Instructor
Making Industry Meaningful in College emerged from a Tech Prep Integration Team inservice session in March 1994. Developed from a plan to integrate students as well as subject matter, MIMIC started in spring 1995 with students in business, engineering design and plastics technology. In its first year, MIMIC won a Connections 2000 Award for Innovative Integrated Curriculum Effort.
The project now includes electronics students, and a MIMIC business course has been developed to allow students from a variety of business areas to benefit from the project.
Funding for the MIMIC-industry project has come primarily through the IVCC Tech Prep team from funding provided by the IVCC/SRAVTE consortium with some funds coming from the sale of the products produced by the MIMIC companies. For 2005 - 2008, some funding for the project is from a National Science Foundation grant.
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