Science Take-Out Kits for Environmental Health Education

摘要 全世界近25%的死亡和疾病与环境因素有关(世卫组织，2006年)；因此， 至关重要的是，公众对环境如何影响他们的健康和 它们如何保护自己不受环境暴露的影响。不幸的是，环境健康是 通常在中学课堂上的覆盖面最小，如果有的话(Martina，2009)，而且很少有 目前可用的实践活动，让公众了解重要的概念 与环境健康有关。 这项拟议的第二阶段STTR项目将涉及以下合作伙伴关系： 科学外卖是一家小企业，创造和制造“袋装实验室”科学工具包。 罗切斯特大学环境健康的社区推广和参与核心-- 科学中心，与来自北方大学的社区外展专业人员合作 卡罗莱纳、德克萨斯大学医学部和西哈莱姆环境行动组织。 这个合作项目将在我们开发和试验的成功的STTR第一阶段项目的基础上进行扩展 测试了8个关于环境健康科学(EHS)主题的动手科学外卖工具包，这些工具包可以轻松 被引入到科学教师现有的课程中。这些EHS试剂盒结合了“袋装实验室”的特点 所有科学外卖工具包都有共同的活动，让学生学习重要概念 EHS，如：环境制剂对人体系统和生物过程的影响； 在不同的生命阶段对环境制剂的敏感性，以及；防止环境暴露。 在这个第二阶段的STTR项目中，我们计划： 1.为每个EHS试剂盒制定有效/可靠的事前/事后测试。然后，我们将使用前/后测试来确定 试剂盒对高中生理解EHS概念的影响。 2.修改EHS工具包，创建“社区EHS”工具包，用于社区外展环境。 3.开发和评估研讨会材料，供同行讲师使用，以增加教师 以及使用实际操作的EHS教材的社区推广能力。 这个项目意义重大，因为它将培养教师和社区教育工作者使用双手的能力- 关于提高学生和不同非正式学习者的环境健康素养的活动。 这个拟议的项目具有创新性，因为：(1)科学外卖工具包活动使用科学过程技能 增加学习者对EHS概念的理解；(2)组装齐全的试剂盒制作实际操作的EHS 活动方便、经济和方便教育工作者实施；以及(3)我们将专门定制我们的 “社区EHS”工具包，使之适合社区外展团体使用，从而增加 让公众参与EHS实践学习的能力。

ABSTRACT Nearly 25 percent of death and disease, worldwide, is linked to environmental factors (WHO, 2006); therefore, it is critical that the general public has a basic understanding of how the environment affects their health and how they might protect themselves against environmental exposures. Unfortunately, environmental health is typically covered minimally, if at all, in secondary school classrooms (Martina, 2009) and there are few currently available hands-on activities that engage the general public in learning about important concepts related to environmental health. This proposed Phase II STTR project will involve a partnership between:  Science Take-Out, a small business that creates and manufactures “lab in a bag” science kits.  The Community Outreach and Engagement Core of University of Rochester's Environmental Health Sciences Center, in collaboration with community outreach professionals from the University of North Carolina, the University of Texas Medical Branch, and West Harlem Environmental Action. This collaborative project will expand on our successful STTR Phase I project in which we developed and pilot tested eight hands-on Science Take-Out kits on topics in environmental health science (EHS) that can easily be introduced into science teachers' existing curricula. These EHS kits combine the “lab in a bag” features common to all Science Take-Out kits with activities that engage students in learning important concepts in EHS such as: effects of environmental agents on body systems and biological processes; changes in susceptibility to environmental agents at different life stages, and; prevention of environmental exposures. In this Phase II STTR project we plan to: 1. Develop valid/reliable pre/post tests for each EHS kit. We will then use the pre/post tests to determine the impact of the kits on high school students' understanding of EHS concepts. 2. Modify the EHS kits to create “Community EHS” kits for use in community outreach settings. 3. Develop and evaluate workshop materials that will be used by “peer-presenters” to increase teacher and community outreach capacity for using hands-on EHS educational materials. This project is significant because it will build the capacity of teachers and community educators to use hands- on activities to increase the environmental health literacy of students and diverse informal learners. This proposed project is innovative because: (1) The Science Take-Out kit activities use science process skills to increase learners' understanding of EHS concepts; (2) The fully assembled kits make hand-on EHS activities easy, economical and convenient for educators to implement, and; (3) We will specifically tailor our “Community EHS” kits to make them appropriate for use by community outreach groups, thus increasing the capacity to engage the general public in hands-on EHS learning.