ATEEC News Online–Summer 2003

For Going Against the Current!

The environmental work of EICCD’s Advanced Technology Environmental Education Center (ATEEC) was applauded by River Action, Inc. on Earth Day 2003. ATEEC was acknowledged at a special ceremony and fish fry dinner on April 26 by receiving an Eddy award for "going against the current."

Among other environmental initiatives, the award recognizes the Brownfields in a Box educational CD ATEEC produced to highlight the clean-up and restoration of Davenport's Nahant Marsh. ATEEC's award was in the education category, one of six categories with 61 entries.

Kathy Wine, executive director of River Action, said, "The program tells about environmental clean ups, reflects the beauty and the diversity of the Mississippi river and its wetlands, looks to the future, educates about city planning, serves students in a wide range of ages, and gives a virtual tour of Nahant Marsh, both before and after its EPA Brownfields Superfund Site Clean-up, all in one CD-ROM."

River Action is a non-profit organization located in Davenport, Iowa. Its mission is to foster environmental, economic, and cultural vitality of the Mississippi River and its riverfront in the Quad City region.

Shown above, content experts, many PETE educators of excellence, work on eERL at their meeting in April 2003 in Florida.

In 1999 ATEEC received a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) to develop a library of environmental education resources for community college educators and students. ATEEL, the Advanced Technology Environmental Education Library, resulted from that grant and is located at ateel.ateec.org. In October 2002 ATEEC received an NSDL grant to expand and enhance its first library site, ATEEL. The new electronic environmental resources library, eERL, will replace ATEEL in 2004.

ATEEL was a "silo" of excellent information reviewed by expert educators chosen from the Partnership of Environmental Technology Education (PETE). These community college educators knew their audience, students and educators, as well as practitioners, in environmental science and technology. However, ATEEL is not part of a community of libraries. So ATEEC wrote a grant to the National Science Digital Library (NSDL) to transform ATEEL into an expanded site that will share its data and become part of the NSDL community of over 100 math, science, engineering and technology libraries. eERL will include links to original research from MIT's Laboratory for Energy and the Environment as well as 10 new vocational technical areas.

eERL, currently in its first year of development, benefits from the support of the NSDL community. It takes a lot of behind the scenes work to create libraries that have information that can be harvested and shared and used seamlessly. With all of the portals soon to be available at nsdl.org, students and educators can look forward to NSDL's "treasure" of resources.

John Morgan (pictured above) has been chosen as EICCD’s new Health, Safety, and Environmental Technology trainer. Welcome, John!

John became interested in the field of hazardous material and occupational safety and health in 1989 when he was employed at a footwear manufacturing company. He was required to handle and deliver a very large amount of hazardous materials in and around the facility. He was also responsible for manufacturing the various adhesives used by the production department, which generated a small amount of hazardous waste that had to be collected, stored, and prepared for shipment. “As I performed these duties, I realized that I was doing a lot of things that were dangerous to my health and the environment, and all without the proper training,” said John.

John has an A.A.S. in Hazardous Materials Technology and is currently working on a B.S. in Occupational Safety and Health. He is a World Safety Organization - Certified Safety Manager. His continuing education courses and professional certifications include training as an Authorized OSHA Outreach Trainer for both General Industry and Construction Industry Standards, Hazardous Waste Operation Emergency Responder (HAZWOPER), SSPC C-3 Lead Abatement Supervisor, Certified Occupational Hearing Conservationist, and NIOSH - Approved Spirometry Training to perform Pulmonary Functions Testing. Over the past 14 years he has worked as the Health, Safety and Environmental Director in several types of manufacturing facilities, warehouse and transportation operations, and an industrial service contractor.

Here is a short reminder from Western PETE about upcoming events. On June 6 - 10, 2003 the National Environmental Training Association (NETA) 25th Annual Conference and Workshop was held in Reno, Nevada at the Reno Hilton Hotel. The Northwestern/Western PETE instructors’ conference will take place in Portland, Oregon August 6 - 9, 2003.

Premier event for anyone interested in redevelopment, revitalization, reuse, assessment, and cleanup of contaminated properties.

July 2003

With war beginning and the fear of traveling a factor for many people, the 60 attendees at the 2003 Central PETE Conference were treated to many sessions that will revitalize their teaching strategies, materials, and students. Everyone was welcomed to Davenport, Iowa by John Blong, the Chancellor of Eastern Iowa Community College. Julie Maurer of North Central PETE and Sharon Flanagan of South Central PETE emceed the proceedings.

Kirk Laflin, Executive Director of National PETE, opened the conference by providing an overview of the organization–both pending projects and future possibilities. Ellen Kabat Lensch, Director of ATEEC, reported on the past and future of ATEEC's programs. The Midwest OSHA Education Center was introduced by Chris King, St. Louis University, and Ron Snyder, Kirkwood Community College. The Keynote Address by Dr. Jay Lehr, Ohio, entitled "Teaching the Truth about Our Environment While Navigating in a Sea of Junk Science" was designed to make us evaluate the slant of information we receive from all sources.

The breakout sessions concerned GIS, Online courses, Energy Services Curriculum, Energy Efficiency, Building Operator Certification, and Cedar Valley Contractor's Safety Council. The second day's offerings included today's more immediate concerns of homeland security, terrorism, and the psychological aspects of terrorism in addition to information on governmental web sites, using Blackboard 5, and ATEEL. The post-conference workshop on Cameo was well attended.

The 2004 North Central / South Central PETE Conference will be held in Oklahoma City, OK, March 18 - 20 at the Oklahoma State University - Oklahoma City Campus. Make plans to answer the Call for Papers and to attend now!

Nunez Community College Completes Electrical Construction Training for Corps of Engineers

June 6, 2003 marked the end of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Construction Skills Job Training Program in Electrical Construction. Instruction began February 6 with 18 participants in the program (see photo below). Dr. Sharon Flanagan, pictured in the center below, took the lead as Program Manager and 40-hour. OSHA Trainer for the project. Participants were trained in electrical theory and the National Electrical Code, and additional skills such as Basic Computer and Applied Writing were included in their 16 week program. The project from the COE is part of a mitigation project for the Inner Harbor Navigation Canal Lock Project that will impact an area of New Orleans. Nunez was able to bid on the training for electrical construction, welding and carpentry.

2003 Conference in Orlando, Florida: October 15-17

Great News! Northeast/Southeast PETE has rescheduled the Instructors’ Conference in Orlando, Florida on October 15th, 16th, and 17th, 2003. It will be held at the Hilton in the Walt Disney World Resort, so plan to bring the whole family. The hotel has offered us special room rates at only $95 per day with discounted passes to Disney, MGM Studios, EPCOT, the Magic and Animal Kingdom. If that doesn't suit your pleasure, Universal Studio is just a few blocks away, and the Kennedy Space Center is less than an hour away. 35 rooms have been reserved at that low price, and I expect them to go fast so just as soon as you receive your Conference Brochure, I suggest you move fast. These should be in the mail by the end of June. Our conference will feature future Environmental Technology and Bio Terrorism Security.

NE/SE PETE is also in the process of conducting the annual membership drive. For our current members, you can renew your membership anytime. For those who are not currently members, we invite you to join our very important not-for-profit organization that strives to coordinate outstanding environmental and safety programs throughout the Eastern United States, including Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. The NE/SE PETE Annual membership fee is ($50) fifty dollars.

Professor Steinfeld, pictured with panda on a recent trip to China, says, “I would like to see the introduction of environmental and sustainability content across the environmental curricula, both at MIT and at other institutions.”

Biographical Facts

• Professor of Chemistry
• Education Program Director, Laboratory for Energy and the Environment (LfEE)
• His research is focused on developing high sensitivity spectroscopic techniques, used for environmental measurements, particularly trace gas components in the atmostphere
• Another area of investigation: application of supercritical fluids as environmentally acceptable reaction media

Integral to a healthy relationship developing between ATEEC and MIT’s Laboratory for Energy and the Environment is a man with a vision. Dr. Jeff Steinfeld, Professor of Chemistry and Education Director of LfEE, is that man. Dr. Steinfeld is committed to making research at MIT’s LfEE accessible to a broader audience. He also envisions providing the information that helps folks understand environmental issues in a less simplistic way than is provided by the media.

Jeff was directed by the NSF to contact ATEEC, an NSF center located on a community college campus. This contact led to a collaboration which resulted in the recently released CD-ROM, “Technology and Environmental Decisionmaking: A critical-thinking approach to 7 environmental challenges.”

Currently LfEE is providing resources for the new ATEEC digital library, eERL (electronic Environmental Resources Library). Using the digital library venue will be another opportunity to disseminate efficiently LfEE’s energy resources.

Coming this Fall, ATEEC will be featuring White papers and presentations from the American Chemical Society’s (ACS) Symposium on the Chemistry of Global Climate Change, which occurs on September 7. This connection was made through and thanks to Dr. Steinfeld.

William Gregerson

After graduating from high school in Sturgeon Bay, WI, Bill Gregerson (shown above), our feature this issue, went into the marine construction field. He worked for a military shipyard for 15 years, eventually becoming a manager. He then provided training support for the Saudi Arabian government in refurbishing a number of Minesweeper vessels after the Iranian crisis in 1988 -1990.

When he returned from Saudi, he worked for a Fiberglass pleasure boat manufacturer in Michigan, eventually becoming Production Manager. In 1991 he returned to Wisconsin and joined his current employer, Fru-Con construction corp. “As you probably are aware, construction is a mobile business and there's always the potential that my company will want me to move. If, and when, that time comes, I would like to have some options available so, with that in mind, I decided it was time to formalize my education,” stated Bill.

Over a 12-year period, Bill began taking courses through Mineral Area College, who suggested taking on-line courses through HSET (formerly ECAT) for an Associates degree. His goal is to tie all of this together at some point and complete a BA or BS degree and to attain a CSP designation. Short term he is able to use the information gained from his courses to provide assistance to his company and their clients, as well as to manage the Community Association, of which he is President of the Board of Directors. He also serves on the Core Team for Procter and Gamble's North American Safety Network, as well as the Measures and Benchmarks team for that same entity.

His hobbies include: spending time with his daughters, Sydney and Riley, and working on his yard and house. He loves to play golf, when time permits.