To address the critical need for educational materials that will reveal the links between our environment and our personal health, Maryland Public Television, in collaboration with The Department and Center for Environmental Health Sciences at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, propose to develop EnviroMysteries: Explorations in Environmental Health Science, a set of video-based instructional materials for students in the middle grades, with particular attention to addressing the needs of all students, including those traditionally underrepresented in indicators of science interest. This instructional package will encourage group and individual problem-solving related to water, combining environmental issues of scarcity and pollution with the importance and impact of this resource on human health. This topic is of vital importance in the end of this century as the supply of fresh water diminishes. Drawing on current educational principles, EnvIroMysteries: Explorations in Environmental Health Science will emphasize active student involvement through the presentation of salient, inquiry- based problems about environmental health issues. The project will offer students a clear and meaningful context in which to draw connections between environmental and health issues, to think critically about this information, and to constructively react to the concepts that they discover. The integrated set of materials will begin with a core video program that will model the scientific process through a detective mystery format, introducing students to broad environmental health concepts as they relate to water. This will be accompanied by three extension video modules that will amplify the scientific concepts introduced in the core video and suggest real-life activities for students to pursue in the classroom. A companion Teachers' Guide will encourage students to apply their new insight to classroom activities that foster a group- centered cooperative learning approach to firmly implant concepts. This guide will be designed so that teachers can address activities in the extension modules in a variety of ways.
