Community college administrators or instructors trying to ramp up their institutions’ green programs should look at the free resources available from the National Science Foundation’s Advanced Technological Education (ATE) program.
As Gerhard Salinger, co-lead ATE program director at the federal science agency, points out, community college educators who have received grants for innovative technician education programs are generous with sharing what they know.
The treasure trove of content they have generated to create or improve courses on energy, the environment and a wide array of science, technology, engineering and math topics are available from several related sources.
ATE Central offers a digital library of curricula, learning objects and podcasts from the entire range of ATE centers and projects. The portal at http://atecentral.net makes it possible for educators, students and the general public to search for information by subject and context-appropriate keywords. It also posts events that ATE centers and projects offer.
The Advanced Technology Environmental and Energy Center (ATEEC) at Eastern Iowa Community College District offers three types of summer professional development workshops. The center is now taking applications for next summer’s institute for tribal college instructors, sustainable energy education workshops for energy technology educators, and a fellows institute on flooding for community college and high school faculty. NSF support covers program costs, travel and sometimes stipends. Curricula developed by ATEEC staff and workshop participants are free at www.ateec.org. The Web site also has peer-reviewed materials, instructional materials, occupational analyses, discussion forums and a resource library.
Northwest Center for Sustainable Resources at Chemeketa Community College (Oregon) focuses on preparing technicians to ensure the sustainable use of natural resources. It provides free, classroom-ready curricula at www.ncsr.org on critical knowledge for natural resource students and offers faculty development institutes. The center also provides community-based approaches that integrate regional environmental issues into life science courses and other high school subjects.
Teaching Technicians.org at the South Carolina ATE Center of Excellence at Florence-Darlington Technical College makes it easy to locate exemplary professional development opportunities throughout the country. Because most of the programs listed at www.TeachingTechnicians.org receive NSF support, they are free or low cost.
The Consortium for Education in Renewable Energy Technology at Madison Area Technical College (Wisconsin) offers online and face-to-face courses in solar energy, wind energy, biofuels and sustainable home design at www.ceret.us. Faculty may copy all or part of the 23 courses, and students may combine the courses with traditional degree programs.
An overview of all the resources available from ATE centers is at www.atecenters.org.
Additional information about ATE projects and centers is available at www.aacc.nche.edu/ateprogram and www.nsf.gov/ate.