Community Outreach and Education Program
Highlights
Environmental Health Education Program (EHEP) and Teacher Training
The goals of this program are two-fold:
- to present young people with hands-on educational experiences that help them draw connections between their health and the environment in which they live, and to present science in a way that encourages students to continue their science education and to consider careers in science; and
- to build capacity in the schools for the teaching of science and health by providing workshops for teachers through collaboration with personnel associated with our Center laboratories.
Classroom and field trip activities
The EHEP offers outreach educational classes to Boston Public Schools. Through hands-on activities, demonstrations, and take-home experiments, students gain insight into human physiology and how their environment affects their health. The Program offers both "one-time" classroom sessions, and "year-long" programs.
The single classroom sessions focus on physiologic systems with emphasis on the connections between health and the environment. They receive a one- to two-hour program on a body system, e.g. respiration, along with information on an environmental condition that may impair that system's workings, e.g. air pollution.
The year-long programs, which are much more intensive, spend up to two months each on the topics of indoor and outdoor air pollution, noise pollution, as well as land use and misuse. Center faculty, staff, and graduate students incorporate experiments employing environmental testing equipment, take home projects, field trips, and visits to the Center laboratories.
Teacher Training Workshops
The Teacher Workshop Series is for K-5 level teachers in the Boston Public Schools. Three teachers from each of four schools attended four five-hour long workshops held throughout the year at Harvard. The workshops focused on general science, physiology, and environmental issues that are mandated by the Boston School Committee's science curriculum guidelines. The workshops included comprehensive discussions and hands-on demonstrations that can be used in the classrooms. The sessions also covered projects for students and integration of the materials with other disciplines, such as math, English, and social studies. The attending teachers received notebooks with in-depth information, instructions for experiments and demonstrations, and lists of Websites at both K-5 and adult levels. The notebooks are designed to be used by the trained teachers when they teach their peers.
SMILE Program: A Collaboration with the University of Rhode Island
The goal of this program is to provide minority students from the SMILE program in Rhode Island an opportunity to see scientists working and to raise their awareness about science research as a career. SMILE (Science and Mathematics Investigative Learning Experiences) has been a component of the Oregon State University Center for Environmental Health Science, for over five years. In the East, a SMILE program is directed out of the University of Rhode Island (URI) in Providence. The after school program is designed to provide integrative learning experiences for under-represented youth and especially girls in Grades 4-12 with the goal of encouraging the students to complete their high school education and continue on in post-secondary education headed for careers in engineering, science, mathematics, computer science, health, and teaching.
SMILE organizers and teachers are oriented to Harvard NIEHS Center laboratories and a subsequent visit of organizers, teachers, and SMILE participants allows students to learn about scientific equipment, research processes, and to hear brief presentations by researchers about what they are studying and what health implications their research has.
In August 2001, our Center hosted several SMILE organizers and teachers from URI in a day of orientation to the laboratories. Laboratory personnel gave demonstrations of and information about the equipment and how it is used in environmental sciences research. The six labs visited were molecular epidemiology, biomechanics/ergonomics, environmental microbiology, organic chemistry, trace metals, and bioimaging. In February 2002, COEP Director Ann Backus participated with SMILE students at EPA Narragansett labs in their day-long simulation of a hazardous spill near a drinking water source, and in March 2002 the SMILE participants spent a day visiting the Center laboratories. We will continue to augment the offerings of the SMILE Program by arranging visits to our Center that include seeing the laboratories, talking with researchers, and discussing science as process and as career.
Educational Programs for Minority Youth and Minority College Students
There is national importance to increase the number of minorities in public health. Public health problems including childhood asthma, exposure to toxic substances, poor air quality, and cardiovascular disease disproportionately affect minority populations whether because of socioeconomic reasons or potential genetic susceptibility.
Minority Undergraduate Summer Internship Program
This program provides an intense educational-internship experience for minority undergraduates who are committed to research careers in the biological sciences with the hope that these undergraduates will choose to matriculate in a graduate program in the sciences upon completion of their undergraduate degrees.
Each student admitted to the summer internship chooses a laboratory research project with a focus on disease prevention. The students work with faculty mentors, attend seminars by faculty from a variety of disciplines, and present their research at the conclusion of their 10-week summer program. A stipend and graduate housing are provided.
During the past five years, more than 80 students have participated as interns. Four interns have become doctoral students at HSPH, one new doctoral application is expected, and more than 50 have entered other graduate or medical schools.
Short-term Summer Training Program in Biostatistics for Minority Students
The goals of this program are to encourage talented minority undergraduates to consider careers in public health by involving them in summer research internships at HSPH; to provide financial support and a nurturing training environment for predoctoral students at HSPH; to foster community-based research at Harvard, especially related to health disparities associated with race, ethnicity, and other social factors; and to strengthen the offerings at HSPH in terms of quantitative training for study design, analysis and evaluation for community-based research.
Six summer interns spend 10 weeks during which they participate in an introductory course, a research seminar concerning specific applications of biostatistics in environmental health and cancer research, and a one-day symposium on environmental health disparities.
A total of 38 interns have participated since 1998. Nine are finishing a BS degree; 12 are in MS or DS programs, with five of those at HSPH; four are working in the health field; and one was lost to follow-up.