Overview: This project is a collaborative opportunity for two Centers to make science tangible and immediate for the public. Each year, the COEC’s from HSPH and MIT jointly organize an exhibit on environmental exposures that engages all ages at various interactive stations. The public gains a sense of the nature of NIEHS-funded environmental health research and of its applicability to every day choices (e.g., wear sun screen?) and to public policy (e.g., Clean Air Act.)

1. Measure the health of their airways using peak flow meters and put the results on large community charts

2. Inflate real lungs and observe ways that inhaled particles can damage lung function
    

3. Use a LEGO™ kit to show how incomplete combustion results in soot as well as CO₂ and water
    

4. “Age themselves” using a computer program that shows how smoking, obesity, and sun damage can affect the way they will age

5. Observe how sunscreen blocks ultraviolet light from color-changing UV beads
    
    

6. Build DNA with magnetic LEGO™ blocks and discuss DNA damage from sun exposure and smoking