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The MIDAS Project:
Models of Implementation and Dissemination of environmental health science Across Subjects
The MIDAS Project is a new educational initiative that integrates environmental health and science curricula across subjects.
In today’s society the challenge of fully understanding the impact of environmental exposures on human health continues to increase in complexity. MIDAS seeks to improve the understanding of environmental health and science by teachers and their students and enable both to make informed decisions about the environment and their health.
The Community Outreach & Education Program of the Center for Research on Environmental Disease (CRED) at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center (UTMDACC) recently received a five year Science Education Partnership Award grant to launch MIDAS, a fully integrated dissemination and implementation program of environmental health and science education.
MIDAS includes development of an implementation plan that integrates environmental health and science modules across existing K-12 curriculum in a model school system and the continuation and expansion of the Environmental Health Sciences SUmmer Institute.
The implementation model includes integration of new environmental health and science education modules and curricular enrichment through a seminar series, a field experience program and student projects. All activities and modules are coordinated through age-appropriate research and educational themes. These elements will be thematically interwoven into the existing curricular framework and are designed to exceed statewide scholastic requirements. The underlying conceptual basis is to provide a self-sustaining, integrated curriculum in the schools that utilizes existing local and accessible resources and infrastructure. The seminar series will include a balanced presentation of environmental health and science issues from experts in the field including representatives from many local and state agencies and leading biomedical research institutions. Field experiences to educational sites, parks, facilities, museums, and universities will engage students and reinforce environmental health and science lessons.
The Summer Institute serves as a curricular foundation for the integrated K-12 implementation model of environmental health and science education by introducing new educational modules and materials. This professional development paradigm for improving environmental health and science education will be used to disseminate new and innovative curricular materials developed by several of the nation's leading science research institutions.
Summer Institute, a component of the MIDAS Project, is supported by a