Institute for Real World Education and Curriculum Advancement
IRWECA is a partnership between the Office of Research and Innovation at SCSU and the Connecticut State Department of Education.
The goals are: 1) increase educator awareness of academic and career opportunities in Connecticut AND 2) support educators’ development and implementation of new teaching and learning aligned with the needs of those companies
IRWECA has 2 components: 1) industry experiences – sites visits throughout the year AND 2) supports for education teams during the academic year
Behind the Scenes: Industry Site Visits during the academic year
Connecticut educators have an opportunity to
- Tour Leading Companies in Manufacturing, Food & Sustainability, and Emerging Technologies
- See first-hand how your students will use the knowledge you (their educator) impart in their future career
- Learn about resources and supports available to enhance teaching and learning
Fall 2025 Dates and Companies:
- September 17, Wednesday 4-630pm: Culture Fresh Foods (Naugatuck, CT)
- makers of plant-based yogurt you can find in CT grocery stores (albeit under a different brand name
- https://www.culturefreshfoods.com/
- October 7, Tuesday 4-630pm: American Green Fuels (New Haven, CT)
- produces biodiesel for commercial use from a multitude of sources including used cooking oil
- https://americangreenfuels.com/
- November 5, Wednesday 4-630pm: ACMT (Manchester, CT)
- manufactures components for aerospace and industrial industries
- https://acmt-usa.com/
Register today for our fall industry site visits by completing this form
Summer Industry Experience 2025
Connecticut educators have an opportunity to
- Tour Leading Companies in Manufacturing, Life Science, and Emerging Technologies
- See first-hand how your students will use the knowledge you (their educator) impart in their future career
- Learn about resources and supports available to enhance teaching and learning
Dates and Venues for 2025 (~9am to 3pm each day)
- June 24, Rebellion Group (Cheshire)
- June 25, Modern Plastics (Shelton)
- July 1, BioTechne (Wallingford)
- July 2, Carey Manufacturing (Cromwell)
Academic Year Supports
Academic year supports are “made-to-order” in which support personnel (i.e., curriculum facilitators and industry professionals) who match the needs of a given educator team, are hired and retained.
What the IRWECA team at SCSU does: we retain a highly experienced curriculum facilitator who assists in sharing what other schools and districts have implemented, best practices, meeting facilitation (if that is needed) as well as recruiting an industry professional aligned with the needs of individual teams
Who can participate:
Interdisciplinary educator teams from schools and districts across Connecticut are invited to apply to the IRWECA program.
Teams must have at least 3 educators, 1 must be a CTE (Career and Technical Education teacher) and another must be STEM (i.e., Math, Science, or Computer Science). School counselors, administrators and Educators from other disciplines are also encouraged to be part of the team.
Teams select from among one of the CTE career clusters including but not limited to Agriculture (including Aquaculture), Manufacturing (including food products and processing), or Health Care (including Biotechnology), and are supported in their work to develop and implement industry-aligned curriculum modules
IRWECA is designed to be flexible. Individual teams get to schedule when to meet in coordination with their industry partner and the curriculum facilitator, both of whom are retained to support each team for up to 30 hours per year. We ask that you meet regularly, at least 1-3 hours per month, and work to develop and implement 1 or more industry-aligned curriculum modules.
History of IRWECA and MMSTI
Since 2013, in partnership with Platt Technical High School and ManufactureCT (formerly the New Haven Manufacturers Association), we ran the Materials and Manufacturing Summer Teachers Institute (MMSTI). We have rebranded and incorporated MMSTI into IRWECA, as the IRWECA Summer Industry Experience for Educators. This is coupled with year-round support for educators so that what is learned during the summer experience and can be further considered, developed, and implemented with on-going supports.
More information about MMSTI: video from 2014 AND website from MMSTI 2019
Were it not for all of the partnerships and learning associated with MMSTI, IRWECA would not exist.
Many thanks to the Connecticut State Department of Education, ManufactureCT, and Southern Connecticut State University for making IRWECA possible.