ATEEC Fellows Institute Themes
 Each year, as the ATEEC Fellows Institute ends, the Institute professors enthusiastically turn their attention to the next year's theme. Early in the new academic year, the professors' research and collaboration yields the book title(s), the overarching questions, and teaching ideas; an ATEEC instructional designer selects a curriculum project for the Institute; and in early October the next summer's Institute is ready to be announced.
In January, an Institute professor teaches the new "course" to University of Northern Iowa students, trying out the materials, seminars, labs, and field experiences. In mid-February returnees and first-time Fellows get the news: You're invited . . .
ATEEC's Core Curriculum Project
ATEEC's recommended core curriculum enables students to move "seamlessly" from four years of high school coursework to two years of associate’s degree coursework. The rigor of the core curriculum contributes to students’ potential of transferring to a university after earning an Associates Degree. As part of the ATEEC Fellows’ work on the core curriculum, they also identified math, critical thinking, science, technical, and communication knowledge and skills that must be achieved. These are expressed as the “minimum” skills needed for entry-level environmental technology occupational tasks. Since the Knowledge and Skills lists were developed in the late 1990s, students and teachers must consider the many changes in technologies since then.
NOTE: The core curriculum is in the process of being updated to correlate with ATEEC's 2008 "Defining Environmental Technology" and "Defining Energy Technologies and Services" reports.
Download ATEEC's original Model Environmental Technology 4+2 Core Program explained on the CD-ROM Bring Energy to Your Campus.
Lists of Minimum Knowledge and Skills to Achieve in High School and Two-Year College:
Five Resource Units for Contextual Teaching and Learning (CTL)
A group of ATEEC Fellows discusses Six CTL strategies. The year 2000 became a time of reflection among citizens of the U.S. and the rest of the world. It was natural to wonder what the impending era, a new millennium, would hold for the Earth. 2000 was thus the time for the ATEEC Fellows Institute to revisit the 1995-1999 themes. The year 2000 Fellows became engaged in examining and questioning environmental progress, from Vice President Al Gore's concerns and warnings versus Gregg Easterbrook's positive view of the Earth's ability to heal itself (1995) to the health effects of persons living by chemical plants - usually poor people without a voice and power (1999).
The next few paragraphs introduce all the Fellows themes since 1995, including the year 2000 review, and include links to free ATEEC resources identified or developed by participants.
1995 The State of the Earth
“The State of the Earth,” which was the theme of the inaugural ATEEC Fellows Institute in 1995, exposed conflicting views of environmental issues. Using Earth in the Balance by Al Gore and A Moment on the Earth by Gregg Easterbrook, a group of 2000 Fellows suggested problem-based activities.
1996 Environmental Disaster
Based on Degrees of Disaster: Prince William Sound: How Nature Reels and Rebounds by Jeff Wheelwright, a group of 2000 Fellows developed problem-based activities (new ones as well as applicable 1998 activity above).
1997 Environmental Risk Assessment
Risk Assessment means using the scientific method to determine how dangerous something can be. Based on their experiences at the Institute, a group of 2000 Fellows developed materials and suggested problem-based activities.
1998 Environmental Health
Newly identified as well as re-emerging infectious diseases are increasingly problematic as some pathogens are developing resistance to treatments, such as anti-biotics. Using the books And The Waters Turned To Blood by Rodney Barker, Virus X: Tracking the New Killer Plagues by Frank Ryan, as well as experiences at the Institute, a group of 2000 Fellows and the Fellows staff developed problem-based activities.
1999 Environmental Justice
Does the decline of a local neighborhood represent an environmental injustice caused by pollution or some other environmental factor, or are other causes responsible for the neighborhood’s condition, such as general economic downturn in the community? Based on their experiences at the Institute, a group of 2000 Fellows developed materials and suggested problem-based activities.
2000 Revisiting the 1995-1999 Themes
2001 Clean Transportation Fuels
The 2001 Fellows prepared for the Institute by reading the MIT and ATEEC Technology and Environmental Decision-Making CD-ROM module MTBE: From America’s Most Wanted to Most Unwanted Gasoline Additive. Methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) was added to gasoline to solve air pollution problems in the U.S., but years of leaks from underground storage tanks put MTBE in the nation’s ground water. Why didn’t we foresee the potential for water pollution? The 2001 Fellows Institute examined the emerging technology and related environmental and economic issues of ethanol production plants, which use renewable resources like corn.
2002 Epidemic!
Osterholm, M.T. and J. Schwartz. 2000. Living Terrors. Delacorte Press, NY
ATEEC. 2002. "Epidemic” Emerging/Re-emerging Infectious Diseases. ATEEC Module
The Fellows returned to an environmental health theme through case studies of recent outbreaks of bacterial, protozoan and viral diseases affected by environmental change and/or bioterrorism. Researchers from MIT, and other institutions such as Purdue, the Wisconsin Laboratory of Hygiene, and the University of Iowa joined UNI faculty and graduate students to help the ATEEC Fellows understand the environmental biology, epidemiology, detection and human health effects of living environmental contaminates.
2003 Climate Change
The 2003 Fellows Institute explored the issues surrounding climate change. The Fellows examined a Cape Wind case study, which includes the aspect of a "not in my back yard" (commonly referred to as NIMBY) reaction by residents in the Cape Cod area of a proposed wind farm (a controversy that continues to stall the wind farm as of 2007). The Institute teaching and learning resource is the ATEEC-MIT CD-ROM, Technology and Environmental Decisionmaking: A critical-thinking approach to 7 environmental challenges.
2004 Hypoxia in the Gulf of Mexico
The 2004 Fellows Institute explored the large area of the Gulf of Mexico called the “Dead Zone.” Issues surrounded farm chemicals from the vast Mississippi River watershed, which empties into the Gulf.
2005 Solid Waste Issues - Social Injustice vs Environmental Benefits
Using Garbage Wars: The Struggle for Environmental Justice in Chicago by D. N. Pellow and additional resources, the Fellows Institute examined this question: “Do social injustices and/or human health risks outweigh the environmental benefits of waste recycling?”
2006 Invasive Species
Using Out of Eden: An Odyssey of Ecological Invasion by A. Burdick and additional resources and field experiences, the Fellows Institute examined the question, “Is biological control the best strategy for managing ecosystems that are being altered by alien invasive species?”
2007 Fossil Fuel Sustainability
Using the book Beyond Oil by Kenneth S. Deffeyes and additional resources, the Fellows will examine these questions while in Alaska: “Are liquid fossil fuels sustainable?" and “Will technological innovations allow humanity to use coal to meet all of its future energy needs?” The Fellows Institute will produce a "virtual field trip" to an oil production facility in Prudhoe Bay as well as a coal mine and “clean coal” power facility in Healy, Alaska. The virtual field trip will be offered as free downloadable segments during the Fall semester of the 2007-2008 academic year. The Fellows will also recommend an action research evaluation strategy for assessing the impact of the virtual field trip.
2008 Sustainable Alternatives for Fueling Transportation
The theme for the 2008 Fellows Institute was fossil fuel sustainability, which built on the 2007 theme of fossil fuel production and transportation. Based on the book Fueling Our Future: An Introduction to Sustainable Energy and additional resources (e.g., field experiences, seminars, and labs), the Fellows examined these questions: "What are the costs and benefits associated with the use of liquid fossil fuels?" and "Have technological innovations provided sustainable alternatives for fueling our transportation needs?" The 2008 Fellows built on the Google Earth-based virtual field trip produced by the 2007 Fellows (available for download from the Products section of the ATEEC Web site). The participating teachers evaluated the Google Earth virtual field trip’s potential usefulness for classrooms and developed additional teaching and learning strategies that complement/enhance the Google Earth virtual field trip.
2009 Wind Power
The theme for the 2009 Fellows Institute examined the renewable energy field of wind power (both utility-scale and small wind generators). Based on the book Cape Wind: Money, Celebrity, Class, Politics, and the Battle for Our Energy Future on Nantucket Sound by Wendy Williams and Robert Whitcomb (published 2007) and additional resources (e.g., readings, field experiences, seminars, and labs), the Fellows examined these questions: "What factors are or should be involved in the siting of wind farms?" and "What transmission and storage technologies are needed to increase the sustainable use of wind energy?" The Fellows designed theme- and problem-based educational activities emphasizing opportunities for student learning within the context of their community (available for download from the Products section of the ATEEC Web site). The Fellows also critiqued ATEEC’s 2008 report Defining Energy Technologies and Services and will advise ATEEC on its use with students who may consider occupations in environmental and energy technologies.
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