Advanced Technology Environmental Education Center: A Resource Center

美国的水基础设施包括超过15.1万个公共饮用水处理系统和超过1.5万个公共拥有的废水处理系统。这些数字不包括工业用水和废水系统。这一庞大的基础设施正面临着水在国家安全问题中的作用日益增强、国家和地区监管合规要求的变化、退休的劳动力、新技术以及不断变化的行业需求。因此，有必要重新调整学术界、工业界、商界和政府的关系，以确保美国水利基础设施的弹性。水利基础设施劳动力的重要组成部分是供水和废水处理技术人员。技术员工作岗位的增长速度快于平均水平，其中包括水操作技术员、废水处理技术员以及给水和废水系统技术员和操作员。这些职业的工资高于全国中位数，而且因为这些工作是法规规定的，所以不能外包。水技术工作经历了经济低迷周期，因为人们总是需要清洁的饮用水和废水处理来生存，而企业和工业需要清洁的水来生产商品和服务。高级技术环境教育中心(ATEEC)是一个高级技术教育资源中心，通过课程开发、专业发展和项目改进来支持和推进高中和社区大学的环境技术教育。ATEEC将为新的水/废水技术项目创建专业学习社区网络研讨会；开展全国定义论坛和职业分析，以确定当前的水技术员级别的工作；更新高中/社区大学职业顾问和学生的互动定义水管理职业图表；用最新的技术修订Brownfield in a Box，以吸引新学生对水事业感兴趣；扩大司法水技术内容的电子环境资源库；开发水/废水内容的增强/虚拟现实模块；以及协助大学计划在人行横道上增加退伍军人因军事训练/经历而获得大学学分的人数。将广泛传播ATEEC活动和评估的结果。该项目由NSF高级技术教育计划资助，该计划专注于为推动国家经济的先进技术领域培养技术人员。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The U.S. water infrastructure includes more than 151,000 public drinking water treatment systems and more than 15,000 publicly-owned wastewater treatment systems. These numbers do not include the industrial water and wastewater systems. This massive infrastructure is confronting the increased role of water in national security issues, changes in national and regional regulatory compliance requirements, a retiring workforce, new technology, and the changing demands of industry. Thus, there is a need for realignment of academia, industry, business, and government to ensure the resilience of the U.S. water infrastructure. An important part of the water infrastructure labor force are water and wastewater technicians. Technician jobs are growing faster than average and include water operations technicians, wastewater treatment technicians, and water and wastewater system technicians and operators. These occupations have wages above the national median and, because the jobs are mandated by regulations, they cannot be outsourced. Water technology jobs survive economic downturn cycles because populations will always need clean drinking water and wastewater treatment to survive, and business and industry need clean water to produce goods and services. The Advanced Technology Environmental Education Center (ATEEC) is an Advanced Technological Education Resource Center that supports and advances high school and community college environmental technology education through curriculum development, professional development, and program improvement. ATEEC will create Professional Learning Community webinars for new water/wastewater technology programs; conduct a national Defining Forum and occupational analyses to define current water technician level jobs; update the interactive Defining Water Management Careers Chart for high school/community college career counselors and students; revise the Brownfields in a Box with updated technology to interest new students in water careers; expand the electronic environmental resource library of juried water technology content; develop augmented/virtual reality modules in water/wastewater content; and assist college programs in crosswalks to increase the number of veterans receiving college credit for military training/experience. Results of ATEEC activities and evaluation will be broadly disseminated. This project is funded by the NSF Advanced Technological Education program that focuses on the education of technicians for the advanced-technology fields that drive the nation's economy.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.