75th FOUR-STATES REGIONAL
TECHNOLOGY CONFERENCE
(Diamond Jubilee)
About the FSRTC
The FSRTC has a long standing tradition of supporting classroom teachers through professional development opportunities. The conference is designed to provide teachers with solutions to challenges they face in the classroom, new perspectives and ideas to improve their student's knowledge and skills. These solutions and ideas can include instructional techniques, organization and management applications, innovations in materials, tools and machines, instructional supplements such as textbooks, collaboration with other teachers and professors, promoting programs, how to work with administrations, state guidelines and policies, and funding as a few examples.
The conference meets the second Thursday and Friday in October. It provides workshops, presentations, tours, and social events which are all designed to improve the ability of a classroom teacher to be more successful in the classroom, improve student learning and abilities.
Topical Areas include:
1. Special Populations and Student Diversity
2. Leadership and Professionalism
3. Design, Problem Solving, & Engineering Concepts
4. Manufacturing and Construction
5. Graphic Communications
6. Power, Energy and Transportation
Thursday afternoon workshops are 2 - 2 1/2 hours in length and are hands-on in nature. There will be 18 workshops provided if people register.
Friday morning (9am-1pm) presentations are 45-50 minutes long. There will be 30 different sessions on Friday.
History of the Four States Regional Technology Conference
The FSRTC was first introduced as the Four-State Conference on Industrial Arts and Vocational Education in 1938 on the campus of then Kansas State Teachers College, Pittsburg, KS. After just a few short years, the conference grew from a very specialized conference to a general regional conference. The first conference consisted of five presentations which were "The Problems of the Supervisor", "Techniques for Shop Organization and Class Management", Industrial Arts for the Superintendent and Principal", and "Philosophy of Education as Applied to Industrial Arts" and finally, "Improvement of Teachers in Service". All of the sessions were two hours long. Seven vendors took part in the first conference. The conference quickly grew from just over a dozen participants in 1937, to 287 participants after WWII in 1947, to a whopping 550 attendees in 1950. The conference recognized and added Technology Education in the mid-1980s reaching 350-400 attendees in the late 1980s.
The conference had years where it did not meet, for example, the conference took a five year hiatus during WWII. It also was displaced in 2014 and an ISEA conference took its place in Branson, MO. That conference lost support and the FSRTC was resurrected once again in 2017, The conference has met over 70 times since its first sessions. The name has not changed, however, the profession titles have changed over the years, using names like Industrial Arts, Vocational Education, Technology Education, Career & Technical Education, STEM, and Technology & Engineering Education. Although the name has changed the purpose has always remained focused on the teachers in the field, and on their professional development as educators.
The precepts of the conference from the late 1930s included.
1) Opportunity for contact with other teachers, and with state and national leaders who will be in attendance.
2) More comprehensive understanding of the problems of the industrial arts teacher.
3) Opportunity to acquire new ideas on teaching methods, materials and devices.
4) Improvement of the status of industrial arts in public education.
5) Improved understanding of the place and importance of industrial arts on the part of the school administrators.
6) Improvement in pride, enthusiasm, and self confidence on the part of the industrial arts teacher.
7) Personal/professional growth, especially for those who participate.
8) In connection with commercial exhibits, opportunity to examine tools, machines, materials, books, and other teaching aids not usually accessible by teachers in the small community.
Ironically, sessions in those early days can easily be applied to today's educational setting.
Focus of FSRTC
• Provide opportunities for teachers to collaborate with other middle and high school teachers, college professors, state and national officials, and subject area vendors
• Provide plausible solutions to problems teachers face in their schools and classrooms.
• Allow teachers to share ideas on teaching methods, new materials, tools and machines used in their classrooms.
• Improve the status and perception of CTE, Technology & Engineering Education in public schools and beyond.
• Improve teachers sense of pride, enthusiasm and self-confidence in the profession,
• Provide personal and professional growth for those who participate.
• Provide a connection between vendors and the classroom through displays and presentations.