This seven-year partnership brings together school teams to implement and disseminate interdisciplinary teaching units using environmental health science as an integrating context to foster student learning. Each grade level team consists of four teachers drawn from science, mathematics, social science, health, and language arts. Each team will also include a school administrator, an undergraduate science education major, a university faculty member, and a community partner. These teams will be trained in environmental health science concepts and technologies and in the project-based learning instructional model at a three-week summer institute. Over the next academic year, the teams will design an interdisciplinary unit that is centered around nationally developed environmental health science curriculum materials related to a motivating local issue, extends learning by creating interdisciplinary connections, and infuses project-based learning experiences. The following summer, teams will participate in a one-week institute at the Toledo Center Of Science and Industry (Toledo-COSI) to master techniques and technologies to disseminate their local projects. During the second academic year, the teams will further refine and field test the environmental health science units and will continue working with COSI, the Ohio Department of Education, and Ohio EPA to finalize their dissemination products. During the third year the environmental health science units will be field tested in classrooms outside the project. This cohort approach will be repeated two additional times directly impacting a total of 18 school teams (or approximately 126 individuals) and more than 5,400 fifth through ninth grade students. The goals of the project are to advance the awareness of local environmental health science issues and generate social responsibility in students, to augment the range of inquiry-based teaching techniques and strategies for integrating both science and non-science concepts, and to enhance both environmental health science content knowledge and inquiry skills needed for success on standardized tests. A fundamental mission is to create and sustain a professional network of support by establishing and sustaining a collaboration of school, university, and community partners.
