While many teachers take summers off to wind down and get ready for the next year, a rare breed of other faculty kick off their summer through an intense but fun workshop. The 2008 ATEEC Fellows Institute held their 14th annual workshop in Alaska for the second year. The theme this year- "Fueling the Future."
Fellows attended various lectures and field trips focused around energy, climate, sustainability, fossil fuel usage and transportation in Alaska. Alaska's vast resources have long been a topic of controversy regarding U.S. energy and environmental issues.
The University of Northern Iowa (UNI) conducts the professional development workshop each year in conjunction with ATEEC. This year, we also partnered with the University of Alaska Fairbanks to utlize their expertise and services. The mission is to bring environmental, science, and math faculty from across the nation together to learn about hot environmental topics and discuss new teaching strategies that they can share with other instructors and students across the nation.
This years innovative teaching strategy was focused on the use of virtual field trips utilizing free Google services such as Google Earth, Blogger, and YouTube. ATEEC Fellows learned how to create virtual field trips with the use of GPS, digital cameras, and video equipment. Instructors used the ATEEC "Illustrated Guide to Creating Virtual Field Trips" product to help learn the process. The Fellows were split into groups to complete their projects based on various energy or environmentally related topics.
The result will be six new ATEEC virtual field trip activities that other instructors across the nation can use in their classroom. Look for them in the coming months.
Interested in applying for the ATEEC Fellows Institute next year? Check out our website at www.ateec.org for new information.
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