The proposal will focus on developing new curricula that incorporate environmental health education into science, social studies, and health classes. The goals of this program will be the following: 1. To integrate environmental health science activities into a variety of curricular areas in order to improve academic performance as well as enhance students' comprehension of and interest in environmental health sciences. 2. To enable students to synthesize knowledge and experience across several academic disciplines. 3. To increase students' (and teachers') understanding about the relationship between the environment and human health. 4. To provoke students to take actions to address environmental problems and to share information with others. Fifteen teams of middle and high school teachers, composed of a science teacher, a social studies teacher, and a health teacher, will take part in this program over the course of the seven-year grant period. Teacher teams will participate in a one-week training workshop at the University of Rochester Medical Center during the summer. The training workshop will allow teachers to be introduced to relevant environmental issues by experts in the field. Teachers will work with faculty from the University of Rochester's Environmental Health Sciences Center and the Warner Graduate School of Education and Human Development to develop multidisciplinary curriculum units around a specific environmental health question or problem. Each team will develop a different curriculum unit, based on an environmental issue that is of concern in their school or community. Curriculum units will adhere to national and New York State education standards for social studies, science, and health and will be infused into existing curricula in the three subject areas. Funding will be provided for classroom materials, and University of Rochester faculty will provide significant follow-up and evaluation of the program during the entire grant period. At the end of the grant period, all participating schools will submit their curriculum units, which will be combined into a """"""""workbook"""""""" that will be available for national dissemination. Students participating in this program will hopefully gain a better understanding of environmental problems and their association with human health. It is also anticipated that participants will understand the nature of the health risk and that they will have a greater knowledge of how to protect themselves.
