Activities for High School Students

Outreach provides a variety of services to high school students. Goals for these services include raising awareness of the connections between environmental quality and human health, developing knowledge about specific environmental health issues, especially those of local interest, and expanding student interest in environmental health research as a career. Examples include: Introduction to Environmental Health PULSE Service Learning Pharmacy Students Reading Research Papers ToxRAP Internships Career Fairs University of Arizona Events

To promote interest in environmental health and environmental health research the COEC hosts a variety of activities for high school students Introduction to Environmental Health

• High school students at BASIS Charter High School (12), Catalina Health Magnet High School (300) and Howenstine Service Learning Magnet High School (100) have participated during the fall of 2006.
• The junior and senior students at Catalina (100) did a science fair of posters addressing environmental health topics.
• The freshmen and sophomores at Catalina (200) participated in the lead poisoning ToxRAP curriculum.
• The students at BASIS, who have taken AP science classes, learned to read research papers and are preparing posters based on their reading.
• One group (50) at Howenstine have participated in the pilot of the Industrialization, Chemicals and Human Health unit of the PULSE curriculum
• Another group (50) at Howenstine participated in the Striding into the Scientific Future: Illuminating Clinical Trials unit of PULSE, about skin cancer, during the spring of 2007.
• Pinal County School District has requested training for the gifted and talented teachers based on this promotion of the SWEHSC materials. Twelve elementary, five middle school and three high school teachers learned the three ToxRAP (Toxicology, Risk Assessment, & Pollution) modules and the three high school teachers learned the Dawn of New Revolutions: Revolutionizing Biology unit of the PULSE curriculum. Thus, over 400 students received environmental health science literacy training, related to genetically engineered food, asthma and allergies, lead poisoning, and carbon monoxide poisoning.

Reading Research Papers lessons

• Located at http://coep.pharmacy.arizona.edu/hope2/formal_ed/index.html
• Were taught to high school teachers at the Summer Institute
• Were taught to high school students at the new ToxStart, a summer institute for high school students begun in 2006. http://coep.pharmacy.arizona.edu/events/index.html
• Students who attended ToxStart knew fewer than six of the words in the pre-test and were able to use most of the words correctly on their final presentation posters;
• Students ranked the lessons as the most important instruction for their futures;
• were provided as part of the Introduction to Environmental Health course for high school students preparing for on campus internships at BASIS Charter High School http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7773524/site/newsweek/.

ToxRAP - Toxicology, Risk Assessment, & Pollution

• The freshmen and sophomores at Catalina Health Magnet High School (200) participated in the lead poisoning ToxRAP curriculum.
• Pinal County School District has requested training for the gifted and talented teachers based on this promotion of the SWEHSC materials. Twelve elementary, five middle school and three high school teachers learned the three ToxRAP (Toxicology, Risk Assessment, & Pollution) modules.

Arizona Environmental Health Internships:

• Located at http://coep.pharmacy.arizona.edu/
• Academic Internships 2005-2009
• ToxStart 2006
• Summer Internships 2007
• Recruitment of local high school students: BASIS Charter High School, Catalina Health Magnet High School, Howenstine Service Learning Magnet High School, Ironwood Ridge High School, Canyon del Oro High School
• The COEC recruits students each year at an event that promotes higher education for Hispanic students, sponsored by the League of United Latin American Citizens.

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