In 2003, the CRED COEP received funding from the Science Education Partnership Award (SEPA) Program of the NCRR of the NIH to provide five years of support for the MIDAS ( Models of Implementation and Dissemination of environmental health and science Across Subjects) Project (P.I. Robin Fuchs-Young, Ph.D). The goals of this project are to enhance EHS education through a novel, thematically integrated implementation plan, coupled with a program of professional development, the Environmental Health Sciences Summer Institute for K12 Educators.
Phase I involves implementation of an integrated, interdisciplinary EHS curriculum in a model school system. High quality, standards-based, EHS curricula are integrated in science, math, language arts, social studies, and technology at both the primary and secondary levels of education. Curricular implementation is coordinated with a thematically related program of field experiences, scientific seminars and student projects to enhance classroom learning.
The Phase I Implementation Goals are:
- Goal I: Advance science education and improve scientific literacy by integrating environmental health science materials across subjects in a model school system.
- Goal II: Provide a self-sustaining, integrated curricular model that utilizes existing, local and accessible resources and infrastructure.
Implementation is coordinated with a Phase II Dissemination program called the Environmental Health Sciences Summer Institute for K-12 Educators. The Summer Institute is a professional development conference that disseminates and trains teachers to implement high quality EHS curricula.
The Phase II Dissemination Goals are:
- Goal I: Train teachers and disseminate EHS curricular materials through professional development.
- Goal II: Advance education through improved instruction and integration of EHS materials across subjects, including science, mathematics, theater, reading, writing and social studies.
PHASE I: Integrated Implementation
The Curricula – MIDAS utilizes EHS curricula that emphasize the environmental research themes and are integrateable across subjects
Grade |
Curriculum |
Source |
4 |
* MY HEALTH MY WORLD - WATER & MY WORLD This innovative module provides a fresh look at water and why it is important to the well-being of all living creatures. * MY HEALTH MY WORLD - FOOD & MY WORLDFood and My World takes a fun approach to healthy eating habits, safe food preparation and handling, food groups and overall nutrition. |
Baylor College of Medicine |
5 |
* BRAINLINKBrainlink materials engage students in neuroscience issues as they learn fundamental concepts and acquire problem-solving and decision-making skills. |
Baylor College of Medicine |
7 |
* PEER INTEGRATIVE CURRICULUM Through an adventure storybook, characters travel to different parts of the world and are faced with various health problems that they are required to solve. |
Texas A & M University |
HOLES The 7th grade team developed a module based on Holes, written by Texas author Louis Sacher. It provides a framework for integration of EHS topics including UV exposure, nutrition, and food safety. |
7th Grade BISD Teachers |
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8 |
* WATER’S THE MATTER The focus is on measurable properties of water. Students learn that these characteristics are impacted by humans, animals and plants., |
Texas A & M University |
9 |
* HYDROVILLE Real-world scenarios, based on actual occurrences and real data is the focus of this curriculum. This particular Hydroville Challenge Problem deals with a pesticide spill. |
Oregon State University |
10 |
HUMAN GENETIC VARIATION Introduces students to major concepts related to human genetic variation and conveys the relationship between research findings and the improvement of personal health. |
NIH |
* SCREAM: Student Cancer Research Education and Assessment Module Students explore the interaction of genes and environmental factors in determining disease risks. |
UTMDACC CRED COEP |
The Field Experience Program – The student Field Experience Program enhances classroom learning by providing hands-on, interactive EHS educational activities that relate to the cohesive thematic framework. The goal is to allow students to discover facts, concepts, and laws of science for themselves. These experiences extend the educational process beyond the classroom and allow students to question, explore, observe and investigate natural phenomena that cannot be brought into the classroom. State standards require that students at every grade level have field experiences. Field experiences are conducted at:
- Austin Nature and Science Center
- The Center for Environmental Research (CER) at Hornsby Bend
- The State Capitol
- The Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum
- McKinney Roughs Nature Park, LCRA
- UTMDACC,Science Park - Research Division Campus
The field experiences at Hornsby Bend are conducted by undergraduate and graduate interns in the UTEACH Program. UTEACH is a secondary science and mathematics teacher preparation program at UT Austin. UTEACH interns interact with teachers and students before, during, and after their field trips to enhance and strengthen the experience by relating it to classroom lessons.
Students collecting water samples from a purification pond.
Red Rock Elementary student collecting a hyacinth leaf specimen in the Hornsby Bend greenhouse.
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Cedar Creek 7th graders visit exhibits at the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum. |
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Cedar Creek 7 th graders visit the State Capitol to learn about the legislative process. |
The Seminar Series – To enhance and enrich the educational experience for MIDAS students, the Project includes a Seminar Series. Scientists and educators from the CRED, University of Texas at Austin, Texas A&M University, Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) and others provide environmental and scientific presentations for the MIDAS students. Seminars are aligned to themes and curricular requirements. As many of the seminars include information about environmental risk factors, the Seminar Series also advances the overall goal of the CRED COEP to convey and translate scientific research findings and to inform educators, students and the community about disease prevention. The Seminar Series also increases interactions between scientists, regional experts, teachers and students, thereby enhancing the educational experience and providing career development and role models.
2004-2005 MIDAS Seminars
David Mitchell, Ph.D., CRED UTMDACC |
“Glaciers and Penguins” |
Red Rock Elementary School (4th Grade) |
Garry Parker, State Trooper |
CSI: Crash Scene Investigation |
Cedar Creek Intermediate School (5th Grade) |
The MIDAS Student Project/Mini-Symposium Program – Over the course of the school year, students develop age-appropriate, thematically related projects to demonstrate their understanding of an EHS topic or issue. Ideally, the projects will stimulate discovery, exploration, verification, and communication of gained knowledge. Projects represent a culmination of the integrated approach and the application of inquiry-based learning. They provide an opportunity for the students to demonstrate that knowledge and skills from multiple disciplines are required to address and solve environmental issues or problems. The students will present their findings at a Mini-Symposium at the end of the school year to an audience composed of their peers, teachers, administrators, scientists, parents, and community members.
The Process of Integrating
Educators are overwhelmed with numerous curricular materials from a wide variety of sources, making it difficult for them to determine which would be the most effective for student achievement and which can be easily integrated across subjects. The MIDAS Project assists by selecting high quality EHS curricular modules that include a coherent series of effective problem scenarios. To help the BISD teachers successfully navigate through curricular integration, the MIDAS Project has provided step-by-step guidance through the integration process.
Step 1. Correlation of Curricula with State Standards - Texas Essential Knowledge & Skills (TEKS) Each of the curricula chosen for the MIDAS Project was correlated to the state standards (TEKS) for science, math, language arts, social studies, and technology.
Step 2. Integration Workshop for MIDAS Teams – The second step in the integration process was to familiarize the MIDAS teachers with the process of integrated instruction and to enable them to spend time planning with teachers in other disciplines.
The Integration Workshop provided BISD teachers with practical information including:
- A definition of curricular integration across subjects.
- Strategies for integration and successful teamwork.
- Activities to enhance teaming skills and to demonstrate the value of teamwork.
- Instruments to aid development of a plan for the integration of EHS curricula across subjects for the coming school year.
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Step 3. Resourcing – Through the planning year of the MIDAS Project it became obvious that in addition to time constraints, another huge obstruction to implementing EHS curricula is cost. With the average cost of supplies necessary to implement each of the chosen EHS curricula being over $1,700, it is easy to see why there is a lack of implementation nationwide. Identifying cost as an issue, the MIDAS Project provided classroom and curriculum-specific supplies at the Make ’N Take Workshop.
