Learn about environmental technology in the contexts of HazMat, Safety, and Water Quality. Environmental students have the opportunity to earn nationally recognized federal certificates from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and are prepared for positions focusing on environmental issues, laboratory and field tests, and workplace safety.

The National STEM Consortium’s (NSC) Environmental Technology Pathway is a one-year, 30-credit hybrid course (mixture of online and face-to-face) consisting of 12 mini-courses. The entire Pathway consists of a set of materials a school or institution can customize for their program’s or students’ needs. Each mini-course includes:

  • A downloadable Teaching Toolkit with the following documents:
    • A course introduction (READ ME) that explains the course, including course structure, learning outcomes, prerequisites, and suggested texts.
    • A suggested syllabus that you can customize to your college, department, course, and individual preferences.
    • Suggested lesson plans with learning outcomes and assessments, lesson outline, teaching tips, and instructional resources.
    • Supplemental materials as labeled.
  • OLI online modules to help prepare students for face-to-face instruction, by providing mini-lessons and interactive drills that address common sticking points

NOT INCLUDED are the recommended textbooks. See the README First document in the Teaching Toolkit for each mini-course for a list of recommended texts.

Created through a collaboration with the OPEN Platform+ program, the National STEM Consortium academic certificate in Environmental Technology is built on a 30-semester-credit model and includes two tracks: (1) HazMat, Safety, and Health, and (2) Water Quality. Graduates have the opportunity to earn nationally recognized federal certificates from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and are prepared for positions focusing on environmental issues, laboratory and field tests, and workplace safety.

NSC STEM Pathways

STEM Pathways are five certificate programs developed by the National STEM Consortium (NSC). NSC is a collaborative of ten colleges in nine states, funded by a U.S. Department of Labor grantto develop one-year, 30-credit certificate programs in five Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields: Composites Technology, Cyber Technology, Electric Vehicle Technology, Environmental Technology,and Mechatronics Technology.In collaboration with the OPENPlatform+ program, these have been implemented and made available on the OLI platform, with learning activities targeting specific areas of challenge, resources to support instructors and implementation guides for administrators.

The STEM Pathways use an innovative two-part STEM Bridge program to improve completion and success rates of students. This program embeds contextualized refresher instruction in mathematics, communication, and professionalism to eliminate traditional remedial courses and prepare students for success in demanding technical courses. The NSC STEM Readiness course enables students who are not fully college-ready in math to enroll and succeed in the technical curriculum, thus broadening the pool of potential students and opening STEM careers to a greater number of workers. The second element of the STEM Bridge is designed as a FAST TRACK program to support learners who require more intensive, up-front development of the basic skills required for access to the technically demanding educational pathways into STEM occupation. The STEM Foundations courseprovides elements of this FAST TRACK approach.

The NSC academic model is built on four research-based strategies that, when combined, yielded an average 69% on-time completion rateacross its students nationwide.