The COEC received a competitive EPA Environmental Education Grant to develop and implement curriculum about the TCE contamination and cleanup in Tucson in late 2005.
The Community Outreach and Education Core (COEC) of the NIEHS funded Southwest Environmental Health Sciences Center (SWEHSC) is developing an interdisciplinary curriculum to engage the high school students in the Sunnyside Unified School District (SUSD) and their teachers in both the hard sciences and the social studies aspects of the TCE problem in Tucson. SUSD has a growing population, currently 3500 high school students.
A team of classroom teachers from the neighborhoods in the area most highly affected by problem, SWEHSC scientists, and experienced COEC curriculum developers worked together during the summer of 2006 to complete the curriculum to be piloted during the 2006-2007 school year.Important to the curriculum is the physical cleanup of the TCE from the soil and water of the Superfund site in Tucson and the social, community, and health impacts of the TCE contamination and cleanup over the past five decades.
The PI for the project is Marti Lindsey, Director of the COEC. Its creation was funded by an EPA Environmental Education grant #NE969435010, entitled TCE Contamination and Cleanup Curriculum (TCE CCC).