THE NATIONAL VISITING COMMITTEE (NVC) ANNUAL REPORT

for

THE ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY ENVIRONMENTAL AND ENERGY CENTER (ATEEC), a Center of Excellence within the Advanced Technological Education (ATE) program of the National Science Foundation (NSF)

and

EASTERN IOWA COMMUNITY COLLEGE DISTRICT (EICCD)

National Visiting Committee (NVC) Annual Meeting: April 2, 2015

Meeting Location: ATEEC Center, Davenport, IA

Meeting Format: In Person and Conference Call

National Visiting Committee (NVC) Meeting Participants:

Kathleen Alfano, CREATE, CA

Kirk Laflin, PETE, ME

Dale Wriedt, Deere & Co., IL

Michael Schmidt, MD&A/WindIngen, Ft. Collins, CO

Cheryl Stith, Comcast Cable Corp., CA

Bruce Wood, Consultant, IL

Julie Plummer, EICC, IA

Members not able to attend, review and input via email:

Daniel Bedell, Engineer, IA

Nolan Curtis, Savannah River Site, SC

Matthew Gardner, Sustainserv, Inc., MA

Report Prepared by: ATEEC National Visiting Committee

The NVC listened to the following presentations and were able to ask questions of the presenters:

9:30 Welcome and Introductions {Dr. Ellen Kabat Lensch}

9:40 Meeting Objectives {Dr. Jeremy L. Pickard and Kirk Laflin, Committee Chair}

9:45 Management Plan {Dr. Ellen Kabat Lensch, Doug Feil, and Dr. Jeremy Pickard}

9:50 Impact and Outreach

oNahant Marsh New Education Facility {Brian Ritter}

oATEEC Interactive Lab {Heather Ballou}

oEERL {Sarah Gross and Dr. Jeremy Pickard}

oRegional Water Conversations Report and Chart {Dr. Jeremy Pickard}

oOnline Water Interactive Chart {Bryan Glanz and Michael Beck}

oDefining Environmental Technology Report and Chart {Melonee Docherty}

oBest Practices Report {Melonee Docherty and Michael Beck}

oDACUMS {Melonee Docherty}

oWebinars {Melonee Docherty and Michael Beck}

oWebsite Updates {Bryan Glanz}

oWebsite Analytics {Dr. Jeremy Pickard and Bryan Glanz}

oPrograms Database {Melonee Docherty}

11:00 Leveraging Support/Projects o PETE {Kirk Laflin}

o PETE Tribal {Sarah Gross}

oCCCHST {Doug Feil and John Morgan}

oHSET Program {John Morgan}

oUSDA BP3 and BP4 {Michael Beck}

oSCENE {Julie Plummer}

oBrownfields {Glo Hanne}

oColorado School of Mines Defining Conference {Dr. Ellen Kabat Lensch}

oGrainger Collaboration {Kirk Laflin, Doug Feil, and Dr. Jeremy Pickard}

oEICC Summer Camps {Dr. Lensch, Heather Ballou, and Dr. Pickard}

oIndian Hills Community College B-TEC {Doug Feil}

ATEEC noted that the 11:00 am support projects presented were not funded by NSF but added leverage and support to NSF projects.

11:45 ATEEC Independent Evaluation Report {Dr. Jeremy Pickard}

At noon the NVC adjourned for lunch and the committee met privately in executive session. After a discussion between those NVC members attending both in person and by phone, the NVC generated a list of commendations, recommendations, and challenges to be addressed.

At 1:45 the NVC reported these preliminary recommendations back to ATEEC Administrative Staff .

Summary

ATEEC met (if not exceeded) key objectives detailed in the base ATE Center Grant. Under the direction of Drs. Jeremy Pickard and Ellen Kabat-Lensch, ATEEC continuously displays creativity in leveraging partnerships to help support projects. For example, thirty five different partnerships were established

The NVC wants to commend ATEEC on its continued march towards excellence. Year after year, a review of the operations and products show that ATTEC continues to distinguish itself as a premier organization. Strong leaders who have a knack for developing people and producing quality products/services are what make this organization tick.

The list below represents a consensus of comments from the NVC:

Commendations

  1. Summarizing graphic on projects. This is a great tool which helps highlight projects.
  2. Excellent leveraging of multiple funding sources (35 different partnerships)
  3. Increased digital resources and interactive charts, especially focusing on job opportunities
  4. Plan for quarterly updating
  5. Partnerships on live Webinars: e.g. AgEnergy with Iowa State and SEED with AACC, will help with dissemination
  6. Updating TED modules. This is important and the use of expert reviewers is important and value added
  7. Quality of staff continues to be high (i.e. Heather, MS in biology)
  8. EERL site: System was strengthened, going in the right way
  9. Increase from 26 summer camps from 3 is outstanding
  10. Continued success of the Nahant Marsh has engendered community support for a new $550K facility
  11. Increase in ATEEC website downloads, however tracking still presents a challenge (do to no lack of effort of ATEEC)
  12. ATEEC staff is open minded and responsive to NVC suggestions
  13. The ATEEC organization operates like a well oiled machine staffed with focused leaders who encourage team members to be innovated and committed to quality.

Recommendations

  1. Be sensitive to using NSF ATE funding for 7-12 and college level not K-6.
  2. Continue to link and coordinate resources to ATE Central to expand use of materials.
  3. Submit supplement to pay the DACUM costs that are creating barriers.
  4. Generate a list of projects with estimated percentage paid for by NSF funds.
  5. Push demographics shift information, maintain focus on retiring experts.
  6. Send out a tickle to Community college contacts to help update program maps
  7. Add numbers (and a scale) to the project graphic map.
  8. Focus efforts on the requirements of the educators. Where possible, use educators to train educators.
  9. Continue to update the NVC midyear.
  10. Supports the idea of ATEEC being setup like a repository.
  11. Supports requesting NSF to request DACUMs be sent to ATEEC for compiling on website as a resource.
  12. NSF Program Officer should attend the 2016 NVC meeting. If an onsite visit if not viable, NVC suggests attendance via conference call
  13. Come up with a best use of the charts

Challenge

  1. How to take the outreach interest, connect it with the jobs information and get it

to counselors for review with students.

Conclusion

ATEEC continues to serve the education community well. The quality of the products and services that ATEEC generates on a consistent basis is focused on innovation and are trend setting.

Visibility to its resources continues to increase as evidenced by the number of website visits ( > 100,000), number of downloads (82% of products downloaded) and average time on website increasing by 25%. Continued progress is noted with many projects but just to highlight a few. Updating Best Practices manual, interactive map on EH&S programs, Defining Water & Environmental Technologies websites and professional development support via partnerships with PETE and GreatEST Institute.

Overall, the NVC feels that ATEEC should commended for doing an excellent job of leveraging multiple projects to advance environmental and energy education. In addition, NSF should continue to fully fund ATEEC’s core program under the NSF ATE grant.