Iowa

Project: A Common Ground: A Professional Development Model Using Environmental Technology to Connect the Workplace to the Secondary and Postsecondary Classroom

Professional Development Provider Organization (PDPO):

Advanced Technology Environmental Education Center (ATEEC)
500 Belmont Road
Bettendorf, Iowa 52722
Phone: 319/441-4091
Contact: Diane Gere or Cindy

Vision and Goals:

The vision is to utilize environmental technology as the context to connect workplace and community applications with contextual teaching and learning at the high school and the community college level. ATEEC is dedicated to the advancement of environmental technology education through curriculum development, professional development, and program improvement. To achieve these missions, ATEEC will be collaborating with the Chamber of Commerce Business education Action Team, Hazardous Materials Training and Research Institute, Partnership for Environmental Technology Education and the University of Northern Iowa's Center for Energy and Environmental Education. Specifically, their goals are to:

prepare and enhance teachers' ability to use contextual teaching and learning strategies,
design and implement contextual teaching practices that focus on students as active learners,
evaluate experiences and accomplishments as a means to reflect on the professional development activities and the impact of contextual teaching practices, and
expand and disseminate project findings nationally.

Participating Institutions:

North Scott High School 200 South First Street Eldridge, Iowa 52748 319/285-9631	Calamus Wheatland Community School District 110 East Park Road P.O. Box 279 Wheatland, Iowa 52777 319/374-1292
Scott Community College 500 Belmont Road Bettendorf, Iowa 52722-6804 319/441-4001	Central High School Davenport Community School District 110 Main Street Davenport, Iowa 52803 319/323-9900

Summary of Project Activities:

The four participating educational institutions will include vocational and academic instructors from math, science, communications and technology. Summer internships will be established for each educator in an environmental industry to work on assigned projects, make observations and apply concepts learned during their worksite experience to the academic setting.

Central High School will focus on the development, study, and utilization of local prairie and marshland ecosystems. North Scott High School will study food production and population. Calamus-Wheatland High School will address the lack of contextualized applications in communications (reading, writing, marketing) curricula by studying environmental concerns related to the Mississippi Rover. They will study groundwater testing, watershed and runoff management, water quality standards, and environmental contaminants. Scott Community College will address air pollution and the fact that the Quad Cities and surrounding counties will soon be labeled as an ozone non-attainment designated area.