Technology and the environment are inextricably linked. We extract materials and energy from the land, air, and water in order to create, produce, and use technological systems. When the rate of technological activity outpaces the ability of ecosystems to regenerate or to counterbalance their negative impacts, we alter the health and balance of the biotic and abiotic systems which sustain life on the planet. In essence, the challenges of our modern age demand that future citizens become critical designers, managers, evaluators, and consumers who are both environmentally literate and technologically literate.

Within U.S. public schools, technology education (TE) programs have been the primary conduit
to enhance students’ technological literacy. As articulated by the fairly recent Standards for
Technological Literacy (STL; ITEA, 2000), two content standards and their associated benchmarks mutually support environmental education guidelines (NAAEE, 2004), including:

5. Students will develop an understanding of the effects of technology on the environment.
13. Students will develop the abilities to assess the impact of products and systems.

The inclusion of these two standards marked new content for technology curriculum which had traditionally focused students’ on the development of problem solving skills and making wise occupational choices (Sanders, 1999). There is some evidence to suggest that these two standards have been adopted by some sectors of the TE profession. For instance, Daughtery’s (2005) study of technology teacher educators indicates widespread support for these standards and some technology teacher preparation programs have included relevant coursework, e.g., the Technology Use and Assessment (Flowers, 2006) course at Ball State University. As with most national curricular change initiatives, diffusion is spotty and the most critical need rests with the estimated 35,000 practicing technology teachers (ITEA, 2007) who
have not had formal education related to these new standards.

Unfortunately, practicing technology teachers have had few formal opportunities to build sophisticated levels of environmental literacy, especially within their formal science coursework. McAlister’s (2005) survey of 24 technology teacher preparation programs indicated that technology teachers take an average of 8 credits of science (range = 6 to 13) with physics (10 of 24) being the most commonly reported science requirement, followed by chemistry (4), and biology (3). Only single occurrences of environmental life, natural science, and biotechnology were evident in these survey results.

This combined evidence indicates that practicing technology educators need professional development opportunities to enhance both their environmental and technological literacy. EnviroTech is an action-oriented strategy for addressing these needs. EnviroTech enables a cohort of secondary (grade 7-12) technology teachers to develop the analytical, decision-making, and pedagogical skills they will need to implement learning experiences which mutually support environmental education and technological literacy standards.

Revised: December 1, 2008
Author: Mary Annette Rose