Kevin+Hwang+-+Curriculum+Reviews+-+Cities

Radtown http://www3.epa.gov/radtown/

** W **** hat organization developed the curriculum module you are evaluating? ** Radtown was developed by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), an agency of the U.S. federal government founded in 1970.

** What is the mission of the organization? ** The mission of the EPA is “to protect human health and the environment.” To this purpose, the EPA writes regulations to implement environmental laws passed by Congress and enforces these regulations.

Source: http://www.epa.gov/aboutepa/our-mission-and-what-we-do ** What is the educational mission and philosophy of the organization? ** The educational mission of the EPA is to “increase public awareness and knowledge about environmental issues or problems.” This is done with the intention of providing “the public with the necessary skills to make informed decisions and take responsible action.”

The EPA defines environmental education as “ a process that allows individuals to explore environmental issues, engage in problem solving, and take action to improve the environment.” The components of environmental education that the EPA stresses in teaching are “awareness and sensitivityto the environment and environmental challenges,” “knowledge and understanding of the environment and environmental challenges,” “attitudes of concern for the environment and motivation to improve or maintain environmental quality,” ** “ ** skills to identify and help resolve environmental challenges,” and ** “participation ** in activities that lead to the resolution of environmental challenges.” Finally, the EPA believes that such education should not advocate any particular viewpoint. Instead, it should teach individuals to think critically and make their own decisions. Source: http://www.epa.gov/education/what-environmental-education ** What does the curriculum module aim to teach? In other words: what are the learning outcomes supposed to be? ** Radtown is an application that aims to teach students about sources of radiation that can be found in the city. By clicking on different parts of the fictional city Radtown, USA such as the hospital and the strip mall, students learn about the types of radiation produced. This includes benign radiation such as that generated to irradiate food as well as harmful radiation from radioactive waste material. In addition, the EPA offers additional lesson plans that go into more detail about various radiation topics.

** Do you think the curriculum is appropriately designed to produce the intended learning outcomes? ** The application does a good job of presenting both beneficial and harmful sources of radiation. Furthermore, by presenting a city that may be familiar to the students, Radtown makes it easy for students to relate the radiation found in Radtown to their own lives and the radiation in their own cities.

** Does this curriculum teach the kind of literacies the EcoEd Research Group advocates? ** The curriculum teaches students an understanding about how their health can be affected by everyday sources of radiation like x-rays. Furthermore, it helps them understand that radiation is not necessarily bad.

** What could be layered into this curriculum so that it addresses more of the learning outcomes that the EcoEd Group advocates? ** To make the curriculum address more of the learning outcomes that the EcoEd Group advocates, more of an effort should be made to teach students about the consequences of radiation on both the environment and inidividuals. Furthermore, students should be taught how radiation that is harmful can be mitigated.