REU Site: Globalization and Community Health: Combining Social Science and Engineering

REU网站“全球化与社区健康：结合社会科学和工程学”为本科生提供了密集的跨学科方法和伦理培训、指导，以及将社会科学和土木与环境工程(CEE)结合在一起的基于社区的健康研究的实践经验。该项目在哥斯达黎加蒙特韦尔德进行，该地区正在经历与全球化相关的快速变化，特别是旅游业，过去十年来，PI团队一直与蒙特韦尔德研究所和当地的各种利益攸关方密切合作。该项目每年有来自中东欧、医学人类学、公共卫生和其他健康相关领域的10名本科生参加。智力优势：该项目在将医学人类学和中东欧这两个学科结合在一起方面是独一无二的，这两个学科在很大程度上是相互孤立的，但它们可以有效地结合在一起，以文化上适当和可持续的方式解决社区卫生问题。该计划还培养参与者的批判性思维技能和社区参与，并有助于科学理解全球化和旅游业对农村社区健康的影响。该计划将为期六周的跨学科方法培训与为期四周的关于健康相关问题的研究结合在一起，当地社区已经确定了这些问题，可以从跨学科的角度进行研究。两个这样的项目是：1.地方社区参与查明饮用水污染的潜在来源，并通过生物砂滤池处理受污染的水，生物砂滤池去除家庭饮用水中的浑浊、天然有机物和病原体，这些家庭的水来自国家输水管道以外的来源(如河流和泉水)；2.在家庭和社区一级建立关键的坑塘花园和其他形式的可持续食物生产；应对日益严重的食品不安全问题和相关的健康影响，如成人和儿童超重和肥胖的增加。广泛影响：该项目有助于NSF努力提高本科生的研究能力。它为学生提供了宝贵的跨学科实践经验，有助于未来从多个角度解决全球问题的研究生学习。为了将他们的培训和研究与背景联系起来，学生们首先要熟悉东道国社区的历史和现状、社会经济和环境状况、影响人口的主要健康相关问题以及当地的卫生保健系统。学生们在南佛罗里达大学人类学和中东欧系的教职员工和研究生导师的指导下，以小组形式进行研究。此外，每个小组与社区顾问(即在待解决问题上具有专业知识的当地居民)密切合作，以确保研究符合文化并符合当地的需求和愿望。学生向社区成员和合作机构展示他们的研究成果。该计划还包括一个社区健康博览会，在此期间，学生们收集与身体健康、环境条件、人口统计等相关的各种数据，进行水测试，进行基本的营养人体测量(例如，身高、体重、皮褶)，进行简单的测试，如血压、血糖和胆固醇，并提供健康教育。该网站由国防部与NSF REU计划合作资助。该网站也由NSF国际科学与工程办公室通过其全球风险基金共同资助。

The REU Site "Globalization and Community Health: Combining Social Science and Engineering" provides undergraduate students with intensive interdisciplinary methodological and ethics training, mentorship, and practical experience in the conduct of community-based health research that brings together social sciences and civil and environmental engineering (CEE). The program is conducted in Monteverde, Costa Rica, a region that is undergoing rapid changes associated with globalization in general, and tourism specifically, and where the PI-team has worked for the past ten years in close association with the Monteverde Institute and a variety of local stakeholders. Each year the program involves 10 undergraduate students from CEE, medical anthropology, public health, and other health-related fields. Intellectual merit: The program is unique in bringing together medical anthropology and CEE, two disciplines that have, for the most part, been isolated from each other, but that can be combined effectively to address issues of community health in a culturally appropriate and sustainable way. The program also fosters critical thinking skills and community engagement among participants, and contributes to the scientific understanding of the impact of globalization and tourism on the health of rural communities. The program combines six weeks of interdisciplinary methods training with four weeks of research on health-related issues that have already been identified by local communities and that can be approached from an interdisciplinary perspective. Two such projects are 1. the involvement of the local community in the identification of potential sources of drinking water contamination and the treatment of polluted water through BioSand filters (BSF) that remove turbidity, natural organic matter and pathogens from drinking water in households that obtain their water from sources other than the national aqueduct (e.g., rivers and springs) and 2. the establishment of key hole gardens and other forms of sustainable food production at the household and community levels, to respond to the rising problem of food insecurity and associated health impacts such as increases in overweight and obesity in adults and children.Broader impacts: This project contributes to NSF's efforts to increase research capacity among undergraduate students. It provides students with valuable interdisciplinary hands-on experience useful for future graduate studies addressing global issues from multiple perspectives. In order to contextualize their training and research, students first become familiarized with the historical and present political, socio-economic, and environmental conditions of the host communities, with the main health related issues that affect the population, and with the local health care system. Students carry out their research in small teams under the guidance of faculty members and graduate mentors from the University of South Florida departments of Anthropology and CEE. In addition, each team works closely with community advisors (i.e., local residents with expertise in the issues to be addressed) to ensure that the research is culturally appropriate and responsive to local needs and desires. The students present the results of their research to community members and to the collaborating institutions. The program also includes a community health fair during which students collect a variety of data related to physical health, environmental conditions, demographics, etc., conduct water testing, take basic nutritional anthropometry measures (e.g., stature, weight, skinfolds), perform simple tests such as blood pressure, glucose, and cholesterol, and provide health education.The site is co-funded by the Department of Defense in partnership with the NSF REU program.This site is also co-funded by the NSF Office of International Science and Engineering via its Global Venture Fund.