Developing resources to promote Environmental Health as a career option for secondary school students

The low number of students enrolling and graduating from recognised environmental health courses is of great concern, both nationally and internationally. One of the reasons for this might be the low profile of environmental health in the minds of secondary school students when they are choosing graduate degree courses. We are currently developing teaching resources that give high school age students (years 10/11) an understanding of what environmental health is, and promote environmental health as a career path.

We are developing teaching resources that can be used by a teacher in the school, by a professional visiting the school, or by a graduate sponsored by the university or the Institute to promote environmental health to high school aged students. The work is being undertaken at Flinders University as a joint project between Flinders University staff, SA AIEH Branch Council Workforce Review Portfolio members and teachers from the Australian Sciences and Mathematics School.

The package is an investigation based on the scenario of a town hit by a cyclone, followed by a disease outbreak. Evidence is given sequentially, and the students carry out water testing, a mapping exercise and analysis of media releases and other incoming information in order to determine the cause of the disease. This guided forensic investigation allows students to gain an understanding of the broad nature of environmental health.

This presentation will present an overview of the package and the methods used in the development of the package. Materials made available for examination and discussion. The success of the package will be discussed, with the aim of further development of this relationship between the industry and schools to promote environmental health as a career path.