The Need for Indoor Air Quality Enrichment Activities for Elementary Schools Students in Poor Rural Schools in the Unit

1. The Need for Indoor Air Quality Enrichment Activities for Elementary Schools Students in Poor Rural Schools in the United States Robin Anderson MPH Final Project Spring 2006

2. Presentation Overview • Background Information • The Creation of the Workbook • Teacher and Students’ Comments on the Workbook • Conclusion

3. Background: The Environmental Health Education Crisis in the United States • Environmental health: Understanding how the environment affects human health and how humans affect the environment. • High school students lag behind students in other countries in general science areas. • Teachers feel there should be more environmental health education taught in schools.

4. Background: Why More Environmental Health Topics are not being Taught in Schools Today • Elementary teachers have little or no environmental health background • There are restrictions placed on curriculum content. • Teachers must comply with state curriculum standards, NSES, and No Child Left Behind Act of 2001.

5. Background: Who to Target for Intervention • The achievement gap in science-related studies like environmental health begins in elementary school. • Students in rural areas perform at levels below those achieved by others on national tests. • Rural students are less likely to study science-related topics throughout their college years.

6. Background: Who to Target for Intervention • Positive experiences in elementary school help students develop the skills, interests, and habits necessary for continued interest and success in science-related areas like environmental health.

7. Background: The Need to Teach Indoor Air Quality in Schools • In 1999, indoor air quality was reported to be unsatisfactory in about one in five public schools in the United States. • Approximately 20 percent of the U.S. population nearly 55 million people, spend their days inside elementary and secondary schools. • The health of students and teachers in schools is a cause for great concern.

8. Background: The Need to Teach Indoor Air Quality in Schools • Failure to prevent indoor air problems can: • Increase the chance for long and short term health problems for occupants; • Impact the learning environment, comfort and attendance and • Reduce productivity of teachers and staff due to discomfort, sickness or absenteeism.

9. The Creation of an Indoor Air Quality Workbook for Elementary Students • Michele Morrone (Morrone, 2001) found that using the environment as an integrating theme “significantly improves student performance in reading, writing, math, science, and social studies, and enriches the overall school experience.”

10. The Creation of an Indoor Air Quality Workbook for Elementary Students • The environment and environmental issues offer opportunities to promote hands on learning, critical thinking, and other skills that lead to lifelong learning.

11. The Creation of an Indoor Air Quality Workbook for Elementary Students • The characteristics of the environmental health education materials that are likely to be used by teachers are: • Easy for the teacher to implement quickly in the classroom; • Challenges students not only in environmental science and health, but also in reading, mathematics, social studies, and other standard objectives and • Has personal meaning to the students.

12. The Creation of an Indoor Air Quality Workbook for Elementary Students • An independent environmental health workbook to understand indoor air quality in schools was developed for poor rural elementary schools students. • The targeted grade levels are 5th and 6th grades.

13. West Virginia Elementary Schools Targeted • West Virginia is considered one of the poorest states in the United States. • It ranks: • 49th for per capita income • 48th for personal per capita income and • 50th for median household income

14. West Virginia Elementary Schools Targeted • West Virginia is committed to improving their standards of education. • In the Fall of 2005, a new intermediate school opened in Berkeley county, The Potomack Intermediate School. • This school serves the 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade levels.

15. West Virginia Elementary Schools Targeted • Mrs. Flamand, a 5th grade teacher agreed to test a draft of the indoor air quality workbook. • She has 28 students. Six are gifted and talented and seven are learning disabled. • The students were very excited to participate in the testing of the workbook.

16. My Happy Healthy School Building and Me! • The workbook was created by: • Literature searches on existing indoor air quality teaching tools • Interviewing elementary school teachers • Following the structure of the current 5th grade science book used by Mrs. Flamand.

17. My Happy Healthy School Building and Me! • Upon completion of the first draft of the Workbook, Mrs. Flamand provided the following comments: • Provide many examples; • Do not assume that elementary schools students have prior knowledge about the concept of cleanliness; • Radon is important to discuss; • It is against the law to smoke in or near a school building in West Virginia; • The checklists are easy to read and understand; • There are no locker rooms in elementary schools; and • There should be several additional activities for students to apply what they have learned. Refer to My Happy Healthy School Building and Me!

18. Implementation of the Workbook • Steps taken by Mrs. Flamand: • First two weeks consisted of covering Sections 1 through 5. • Custodian spoke to the class about how the building is maintained. • The class was divided into teams of four. • Each team was responsible for completing the checklists in six classrooms.

19. Comments after using the Workbook • Students are now more aware of their school, how it’s run, how it’s cared for, and what clean up needs to take place. • The definitions and pictures were a great aid to the students. • Include actual temperature and humidity levels as part of Fact 4 on page 7. • The students felt empowered to do something about their classroom and its cleanliness. • Students are more aware of the building. • Include making clay models showing air that is polluted. • The Workbook was easily read by all the students. • The project is very informative to both adults and children. • Students are applying mathematical principles they have learned in the past. • Due to laws about students being unsupervised, students were escorted around the building in order to complete the checklists. • Students have learned new vocabulary associated with indoor air quality. • Best of all it was fun and the students really enjoyed the project.

20. Conclusion: Evaluation of the Workbook • Apply nonrandomized pretest-posttest control group design. • The intervention group is Mrs. Flamand’s 5th grade class. • The control group is another 5th grade class in Berkeley county, West Virginia.

21. Conclusion: Evaluation of the Workbook • Before the Workbook is given to the intervention group, both groups would receive a test to determine their level of understanding of indoor air pollution. • For identical pretest results, then threats to internal and external validity are identical to the true experimental pretest-posttest control group design. • For different pretest results, then attributing change measured at posttest strictly to the intervention would be difficult.

22. Conclusion: Evaluation of the Workbook • If the pretest results are identical, then threats to internal validity include room conditions and personality and teaching style of the teacher. • The design does not control for threats to external validity – reactive effect of pretesting or other outside influences. • This design is considered powerful if conducted correctly and generalizations can be made based on the results of this intervention.

23. Conclusion: What I Have Learned • To create the Workbook, I needed the cooperation of teachers. Their feedback was invaluable. • Teachers want useful teaching materials. It does not have to be an independent student Workbook but woven into the current curriculum. • Students want to be involved in the creation of teaching materials. • Teaching environmental health can be fun for everyone!