Mission

The mission of the EnviroTech Project is to initiate, enable, and facilitate a critical examination of a contemporary issue which will ultimately enhance both the environmental literacy and technological literacy of technology teachers and their students and lead to more sound, better-informed decision-making.

Project Goals

EnviroTech will provide five instructional webinars, resources, and scaffolding that will enable a cohort of technology teachers to hone their:

1. understandings of environmental processes and systems;
2. skills for identifying, analyzing, and assessing the impacts of technology upon the environment; and
3. pedagogical skills in the use of guided-inquiry.

Essential Questions

Two essential questions will guide the inquiry experiences for both teachers and students:

 How might replacing incandescent lamps with compact fluorescent lamps (CFL) impact the environment and society?

What strategies might individuals and communities use to reduce the negative impacts of replacing incandescents with CFLs?

Outcomes

The EnviroTech Project will provide Web-based instruction, resources, and scaffolding that will enable both teachers and their students to:

1. Explain the advantages of replacing incandescent lamps with CFLs in terms of their relative energy efficiency, waste heat generation, and expected life-time.

2. Explain disadvantages of adopting CFLs in terms of the disposal and recycling practices for toxic materials and the release of mercury into the environment.

3. Describe physical, chemical, and biological processes involved with the transmission and dispersion of mercury through the environment, e.g., mercury deposition.

4. Describe qualities of healthy ecosystems and recognize technological threats to the integrity of these systems.

5. Describe impacts of mercury upon the environment, in terms of ecosystems, flora, and fauna, especially the bio accumulation of mercury within fish.

6. Explain the human risks and common routes of mercury exposure, especially inhalation and fish consumption.

7. Apply methods of analysis (e.g., experiments, flow analysis, life-cycle analysis, force-field analysis) to an environmental issue.

8. Explain appropriate procedures for cleaning up broken CFLs and disposing of spent CFLs.

9. Plan an experiment, systematically collect, analyze, and interpret data to inform personal decision-making and community action.

10. Develop predispositions to responsibly reduce environmental hazards, such as mercury pollution, through disposal and recycling practices, and to promote the design, management, and use of sustainable technologies.

Stewardship

Ultimately, this combination of new understandings and skills will better prepare
these technology teachers and their students to practice better environmental stewardship by making more sustainable decisions regarding the purchase, use, and disposal of CFLs and other mercury-containing technologies.

Revised: November 24, 2008
Author: Mary Annette Rose