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Spring Issue 2007
K–12 Activities in Charlotte
The Charlotte SOT Annual Meeting week was busy with K–12 activities.
The activities started on Friday, March 23, with middle school student
programs at two schools, one in the morning and one in the afternoon.
These workshops were a great opportunity to work directly
with students
and talk to them about "Connecting the Environment and Health."
It was a teacher workday so the students had the day off from school—but
that didn't stop the 39 students from learning and asking lots of questions!
The event was organized by Kathleen Gray, Neasha
Bryant, and Dianna Tarrant, all from the University
of North Carolina (UNC) Center for Environmental Health and Susceptibility
(CEHS)—Chapel Hill, with help from Sarah Yelton,
NC Department of Environment and Local Resources. The student program
utilized lessons from the Environmental Health Fact Files (Integrated
Environmental Health Middle School Project, University of Washington
Center
for Ecogenetics and Environmental Health). These lessons were also used
for the March 27th middle school teacher workshop, and activities included
building soda bottle lungs, identifying objects containing lead, and
learning about asthma.
The Committee on K–12 Education also sponsored an exhibition booth
that attracted over 250 attendees. On display were outreach materials
grouped by grade-level, the newly printed career poster (from a prototype
developed by Northland Regional Chapter), Milestones of Toxicology posters
(authored by Steve Gilbert and Toni Hayes),
and many tips for doing K–12 outreach. The booth ran smoothly and
efficiently thanks to the dedicated oversight of Clara Thomas,
many volunteers and the preparation done by Committee members Nicole
Soucy and Vanessa Fitsanakis.
The K–12 booth hosted a special visitor, Anirudh Kota,
a high school student from Cary Academy, Cary, North Carolina. Anirudh
shared his research poster which was honored at the NIEHS Summers of Discovery
Program last year. He did a wonderful job presenting his work "Comparison
of Injury-Induced Neurogenesis in Young and Aged Mice."
On Tuesday, the committee sponsored middle school and high school teacher
workshops lead by UNC—CEHS/UNC Charlotte/NC Department of Environment
and Local Resources and DESTINY Traveling Science Learning Program, respectively.
The teacher workshops followed past tradition of the "Paracelsus
goes to School" program. Approximately 55 teachers enjoyed the day-long
program and took home numerous supplies to use in the classroom. The middle
school program used the exercises conducted during the student program
on Friday. The high school program featured "The State We're In"
curriculum developed by Betty Brown of the DESTINY Program.
After attending the 2005 SOT "Paracelsus goes to School"
program in New Orleans, Ms. Brown developed this curriculum with toxicology
concepts embedded in the context of environmental concerns in North Carolina.
A special attraction was the DESTINY Bus in the ToxExpo exhibit hall.
Eric Brown drove the bus onto the floor and offered tours
to SOT attendees. The DESTINY Bus travels around North Carolina introducing
explorations to students and teachers using up-to-date technologies in
high quality science curricula.
The final activity of the week was the Informational Session on Wednesday
afternoon "K–12 Outreach: Investing in the Future of Toxicology." ( Quick
Time Player required) The session started with past SOT President Ken Wallace speaking
about the importance of K–12 education. Bruce Fuchs,
director of the Office of Science Education at NIH, followed up with an
eye-opening presentation on making a case for improving K–12 education
in the face of outsourcing, off shoring, and the challenges of the global
economy. The session was completed with talks on doing K–12 outreach
with Stacie Wild presenting on the "nuts and bolts"
of planning K–12 events and Steve Gilbert on the "dos and don'ts"
of presenting in the K–12 classroom. We encourage you to click on
the link above to hear these presentations via the SOT Web site.
The Committee on K–12 Education thanks Kathleen Gray and the local
organizing committee for providing a wonderful program. Melissa
Rhodes coordinated a large number of SOT volunteers who shared
the excitement of toxicology in many places in the student and teacher
workshops, and we extend our appreciation to all of them (see list below).
We also thank the following organizations for their financial assistance
and/or resources provided that contributed to a successful event: Eastman
Charitable Foundation, UNC-Chapel Hill Center for Environmental Health
and Susceptibility, UNC-Charlotte, NC Department of Environment and Natural
Resources, DESTINY Science Traveling Laboratory, and the Society of Toxicology
for supporting all these events.
| Local
Organizing Committee: K–12 SOT Events |
| Kathleen Gray |
Local Chair, Committee on K–12 Education
UNC, Center for Environmental Health and Susceptibility |
| Neasha Bryant |
UNC, Center for Environmental Health and Susceptibility |
| Melissa Rhodes |
NC SOT; GSK |
| Darlene Dixon |
NC SOT; NIEHS |
| Sarah Yelton |
NC Department of Environment and Natural Resources |
| Michelle La Merrill |
NC SOT; UNC-Chapel Hill |
| Diana Tarrant |
UNC-Chapel Hill |
| Betty Brown |
DESTINY Traveling Science Learning Program |
| Amber Vogel |
DESTINY Traveling Science Learning Program |
| Stacie Wild |
Chair, Committee on K-12 Education |
| Betty Eidemiller |
Headquarters Liaison, SOT |
Paracelsus Goes to School Volunteers
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