An unaware visitor to NYSUT headquarters one late-summer afternoon may have stumbled upon what could have been misconstrued as a giant version of the popular party game "Twister."

Casually dressed adults stretched, reached and — of course — twisted over various shaded blocks. There was some laughter but also an air of serious determination as the participants embraced their role as human game pieces.

These same people, an hour earlier, were on their hands and knees shooting hacky sacks across the NYSUT lobby with miniature catapults, again exhibiting a serious bemusement as they took on their task.

Welcome to SEMI High Tech University.

The Twister-like exercise was actually a simulation of electron flow in a microprocessor, while the "Statapult" related medieval technology to modern-day computer chip making, utilizing math and statistics skills.

For the second year, NYSUT was the principal sponsor and host of SEMI High Tech U, a two-day conference that brought together 45 educators from upstate middle-level and high schools to learn, share and discuss innovative strategies to prepare students to enter the high-tech work force.

Teachers — mostly from the science, technology and math disciplines — and school counselors were invited by their districts to participate in the program at no cost to them or their schools.

"Last year's program was such an overwhelming success that we are pleased to again offer this industry-quality math and science career exploration program," said NYSUT Vice President Maria Neira, who welcomed the conference participants in mid-August. "This is an opportunity to prepare our students and to provide for a well-educated, globally competitive work force that industry will need to thrive."

SEMI High Tech U is a not-for-profit charitable organization, based in California, created in 2001 to support education and career awareness in high-tech fields. It has presented programs similar to the ones offered at NYSUT to teachers and students in the U.S., Austria, France, Japan and Singapore.

The program provides practical, working knowledge of the emerging semiconductor, nanotechnology and renewable energy fields through industry tours and hands-on experiments.

It offers practical applications of math, science and technology for classroom instruction and curriculum development. Volunteer industry professionals teach the sessions.

"I love the model they used to put this together," said Maura Hibbitts, a high school science teacher at Broadalbin-Perth Central Schools in Fulton County and a leader in her local union. "You hear from experts from cutting-edge industry, so you know you are getting the latest and greatest knowledge; you get a teacher's perspective full of ideas on how to use this in the classroom; and you participate in hands-on activities that involve you in the nitty-gritty of nanotechnology."

Laura Belcastro, a member of NYSUT's Career and Technical Education Committee, teaches sixth-grade science at Shenendehowa Central Schools in Saratoga County. She said that, in addition to the classroom applications gleaned at High Tech U, she was able to take away an appreciation for how industry and education should work together for the betterment of the larger community.

"It's imperative for industry, the educational community and parents to continually collaborate about ways to motivate and excite children about their future," Belcastro said. "It's vital for our economy and the financial success of the families we serve that we join together to help the work force of tomorrow to be successful and to support the opportunities that we have around us."

Beverly Voos, a seventh-grade math teacher at Spry Middle School in Webster, Monroe County, and a member of NYSUT's Math, Science and Technology Committee, is a vocal advocate of that sort of collaboration. She went into teaching after 20 years in the technology and business worlds.

"I have found that bringing knowledge and experiences from the 'real world' into teaching not only excites students but brings relevance to the subject matter and, ultimately, helps students succeed," Voos said.

Hibbitts agreed: "We teach in isolation when we really need to teach how interconnected everything is. I realized at the conference that the technology connects medicine, biology, chemistry, physics and economics, among other fields. What if we were to completely rethink how we teach and focus on the connections and interdisciplinary nature of learning, rather than compartmentalizing what we teach? … As we face an increasingly complex world, maybe we really need to develop a paradigm shift in how we educate our students."