It is estimated that, globally, over 1.1 billion people lack access to safe drinking water. Even in the United States (with the safest drinking water in the world), over 4000 Americans fell ill to drinking water and recreational water outbreaks between 1997 and 1998. Last July, the Environmental Protection Agency proposed to increase protection against Cryptosporidium by proposing its Long Term 2 Enhanced Surface Water Treatment Rule. Health education is essential for public awareness of this far-reaching issue. A previous market survey of educators indicated that current water classroom activities do not include DNA-based experiments. Those same educators also communicated that such experiments were often are prohibitively expensive for most institutions of learning. To address these needs, Edvotek, Inc. the applicant organization, will research and in Phase III market several inquiry-based educational products for microbial detection in water. Two of these are classroom experiments illustrating detection of coliforms by chromagenic assays and techniques using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). During the phase II proposal, two additional educational products, extensions to the PCR experiment, will be researched. To address the issue of affordability, Edvotek(R) will complete development of two prototype low-cost thermal cyclers for the performance of classroom PCR experiments. To allow shared, long-distance learning from various U.S. locations, a Web-based data entry site will be developed. Finally, the educational quality of such experiments will be determined by educator input assessing the ability of these products to meet National Science Standards and their impact to classroom science. The development of these products will address a strong market need in the educational community. This will allow for a greater public awareness of this important health topic and provide the foundation for a better workforce in the future.
