The ATEEC Fellows Institute

Annually, ATEEC selects outstanding math, science, and environmental technology educators to participate in the ATEEC Fellows Institute hosted each summer by the University of Northern Iowa (UNI) in Cedar Falls, Iowa. These secondary education and two-year college teachers study cutting-edge environmental technology issues and engage in special projects designed to enhance the quality of environmental technology education.

The Next Institute page linked in the left menu provides Institute details and an application form.

Institute Goals

Participants of each ATEEC Fellows Institute complete two goals. First, the Fellows experience personal professional development by examining—with UNI’s ATEEC professors—a cutting-edge environmental theme. Second, the Fellows advise an ATEEC instructional designer on sharing their professional development experiences with all teachers.

Professional Development Goal

Each Fellows Institute focuses on an environmental theme of powerful and current interest. Past themes are listed below. At the ATEEC Fellows Institute, the teachers participate in seminars, labs, and field experiences that raise issues for the Fellows’ consideration. By preparing group presentations, the teachers together examine and inform each other about an aspect of an issue and then develop materials and strategies to share with other teachers via the ATEEC Web site or CD-ROM teaching and learning modules.

Advising Goal

Since 1995 the Fellows have given advice about approaches to designing ATEEC curricular projects. While some of the Fellows’ assistance is scheduled for the summer Institutes, other assistance occurs during the academic year. Individual Fellows are frequently invited to assist directly with product development and assessment; for example, technical production of the Brownfields in a Box CD-ROM, “jurying” of Web sites for inclusion in the eERL Digital Library, and piloting of various products, such as the ATEEC-MIT Environmental Decisionmaking modules on CD-ROM. Because a core group of Fellows returns to the Institutes for multiple years, instructional designers have come to know the teachers very well and can avail themselves of individual Fellows’ particular talents when needed. An infusion each year of first-time Fellows ensures new perspectives. Examples of the Fellows’ participation in ATEEC curriculum projects include the following:

• Environmental Technology Core Curriculum Project
• ATEEC’s digital library projects
• Fellows’ development of contextual teaching and learning activities
• ATEEC product evaluations, such as the Epidemic, Brownfields in a Box, and Decisionmaking CD-ROMs

Note about the banner photo: The 2006 Fellows, ATEEC staff, and Fish and Wildlife Service guides at the Upper Mississippi National Wildlife and Fish Refuge; there they examined the increasing incidence of invasive Zebra Mussels.