Feroce+Curriculum+Review+2

Emma Feroce Fenceline Communities

The Manhattan High School for Superintendency established the High School for Environmental Studies, where they invited the Secondary Education Through Health Program (SETH) to be the source of external education for their curriculum. This program is aimed at the underrepresented minority student population.
 * What organization developed the curriculum module you are evaluating? **

This organization was developed to - “increase Science literacy and expand career knowledge in environmental health among a cohort of minority high school students from New York City”. The organization's goal, or mission, was to interest minority students in the urban environment’s effects on their health and to understand other aspects of science. By using this curriculum to get these students more involved in environmental science, they hoped to change the sense of helplessness for change that they felt most urban students feel.
 * What is the mission of the organization? **

The SETH Superfund program states that they bear to witness the Chinese proverb- “I hear and I forget; I see and I remember; I do and I understand—and have fun, too, we add”. This seems to be the philosophy that they embed in their program. Having the children engaged in what they are learning, they feel will best help them to understand. Some of their main highlights of involvement in this program involve having the students enrolled meet with scientists to understand their efforts that might address Superfund and environmental health. They then would have the students actually go to the labs and be engaged with the Superfund scientists. The students would also stay involved by going to seminars run by these Superfund scientists. Being able to actually do what they are learning, this organization feels will help most and that is evident throughout their curriculum.
 * What is the educational mission and philosophy of the organization? **

Because this curriculum is designed to draw more students into understanding science and specifically environmental health, parts of it are designed really well to do so. I do think there are some holes in their curriculum where they could’ve broadened their program. In order to be eligible for this program the student had to be an underrepresented minority with a minimum GPA of 3.0 and an interest in learning about environmental health. If this curriculum truly accomplished their learning outcomes, their program would not be so limited. Since they want to get kids- mostly in the East Harlem and South Bronx communities- more aware of their urban environment’s health impacts, they should’ve extended this program to all students. It also might have been more beneficial to teach these students what is built into this curriculum during the school day. Most minority students might not be able to stay after school depending on modes of transportation, or because they are unaware they might be interested, so having it during school would be more effective and could benefit a lot more student’s. Having a GPA requirement is also ineffective; those who have lower GPAs might need a program like this the most.
 * What does the curriculum module aim to teach? In other words: what are the learning outcomes supposed to be? Do you think the curriculum is appropriately designed to produce the intended learning outcomes? **

This curriculum, as well EcoEd’s curriculum, both stress the importance of learning about our environment. It seems this program is a lot more optimistic about ways to teach of the environment, which might not make it entirely as effective. EcoEd’s curriculum addresses more of the issues around the environment - disasters, what students might be doing to contribute to the problem, and healthy decisions students need to make. SETH seems to focus more on just a basis of this knowledge and wanting kids to become interested in science. That is certainly a good start to getting kids involved, but incorporating more of EcoEd’s goals on the bigger picture and the reality of what is happening to our environment might help their students come away feeling a bigger impact.
 * Does this curriculum teach the kind of literacies the EcoEd Research Group advocates? What could be layered into this curriculum so that it address more of the learning outcomes that the EcoEd Group advocates? **

Link to curriculum: [|__https://www.engg.ksu.edu/HSRC/96Proceed/sherman.pdf__]