Environmental Health Informational Assignment

Description

And that is the essence of what I’m aiming for you to do in this assignment: Identify an environmental health problem in a specific community. Learn about the health issue that you have selected, including the general nature of the problem (a specific air pollutant or water-related issue such as lead contamination, for example, or something related to any of the other lesson topics), its health implications, how those affected by the issue can be helped (through treatment or prevention), whether or not it’s a problem for the general population or specific vulnerable groups, and how the problem itself can be ameliorated. If you are unsure about your topic, feel free to run it by me. This should be informed by scholarly literature in the first instance, reliable government sources in the second instance, and environmental advocacy and health-condition-related non-profits (e.g. the Lung Association, the Canadian Cancer Society, etc.). News items (newspaper, etc.) can be used for context (the “whats” and “wheres” of the issue for your selected community or population), but should not be used to inform your understanding of the health concern specifically (e.g., signs and symptoms, treatments, etc., should always be informed by scholarly sources or, in their absence, government reports and web sites). Design an educational intervention for the community or population in question, providing relevant information identified in your research in an accessible way. “Accessible” refers to your effort to make scholarly research understandable to those who do not have your educational background. The information provided should be understandable to someone with a middle school (or late elementary school) education. The assignment can take many forms: An informational pamphlet about your health issue of interest. (Word and other word processors have templates for their layout.) You should keep the amount of textual material to a minimum necessary to provide the important information, while leaving space for illustrations (pictures, diagrams, graphs, etc.) to support the text. A website (it need not be posted to the web, as it can be uploaded to the drop box as an HTML file. This will be much like the pamphlet with respect to the visual approach, but offers opportunities for external links and multimedia should you wish to include it. A documentary or video blog, 10-15 minutes in length. This can include visual imagery with audio commentary, interviews, on-site reporting, etc. A script for a short (~15 minutes in duration) play or other form of performance, or an art installation of some sort. A policy brief (This is a substantial departure from the “health education” orientation of the assignment, but I offer it as an option for those who would prefer a more typical assignment.) In this instance, you will be educating municipal staff and politicians, and the information that you provide would hypothetically be used to shape policy aimed at addressing the issue that you’ve identified. You brief should be extensively referenced (no less than 10 refereed articles), using APA or Vancouver style, and be approximately five pages in length, exclusive of your reference list (double-spaced, 11-point font such as Calibri, Arial, or Times New Roman. No novelty fonts, please, as this is formal writing). Something that you think of that is in a similar vein to the options provided, as long as you clear the approach with me first. For all but the policy brief option (which includes a reference list as part of the deliverable), students must submit a reference list along with their project. This should include no less than 10 sources, with no fewer than seven refereed journal articles among them. The policy brief requires in-text citations, but all other options require only the list of references used. Reference lists shall be provided, in a separate submission to the drop box, in APA or Vancouver style. (MyLS handles Word documents and PDFs well. In my experience, everything else is questionable, so please stick to one of those formats.) If you choose to do the pamphlet, it might be beneficial to include some of these references as a “Suggested Reading” list at the end of the pamphlet. The term project is due by 11:59PM on Day 7 of Week 11. It will be accepted without late penalty until 11:59PM on Day 7 of Week 12. After the drop box is closed, submissions will not be accepted. If need be my login for the materials covered kong3060 March0223! Laurier My Learning Space HS303 Term Project Assessment Form Submitted by:______________________________________________________ Topic:____________________________________________________ Component Score Comments Integration of relevant academic research /5 Potential effectiveness of the educational intervention/policy brief /10 Spelling and grammar /5 Visual presentation/organization /5 Final Mark /25 (Accounts for 20% of the course grade)