Reporting back environmental exposure data and free choice learning

Environmental Health

Commentary

Phil Brown¹  Monica D. Ramirez-Andreotta²  Nathan Lothrop³  Paloma I. Beamer³  Miranda Loh⁴  Julia Green Brody⁵ 

[1] Department of Sociology and Anthropology and Department of Health Sciences, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA;Department of Soil, Water, and Environmental Science, University of Arizona, 1177 E Fourth Street, Rm. 429, Tucson, Arizona, USA;Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health, University of Arizona, 85721, Tucson, AZ, USA;Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health, University of Arizona, 85721, Tucson, AZ, USA;Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health, University of Arizona, 85721, Tucson, AZ, USA;Institute of Occupational Medicine, Edinburgh, UK;Silent Spring Institute, Newton, MA, USA;

关键词: Biomonitoring;    Exposure assessment;    Environmental health literacy;    Risk communication;    Arsenic;    Heavy metals;    Informal science education;    Free-choice learning;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12940-015-0080-1

 received in 2015-06-25, accepted in 2015-12-05,  发布年份 2016

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

Reporting data back to study participants is increasingly being integrated into exposure and biomonitoring studies. Informal science learning opportunities are valuable in environmental health literacy efforts and report back efforts are filling an important gap in these efforts. Using the University of Arizona’s Metals Exposure Study in Homes, this commentary reflects on how community-engaged exposure assessment studies, partnered with data report back efforts are providing a new informal education setting and stimulating free-choice learning. Participants are capitalizing on participating in research and leveraging their research experience to meet personal and community environmental health literacy goals. Observations from report back activities conducted in a mining community support the idea that reporting back biomonitoring data reinforces free-choice learning and this activity can lead to improvements in environmental health literacy. By linking the field of informal science education to the environmental health literacy concepts, this commentary demonstrates how reporting data back to participants is tapping into what an individual is intrinsically motivated to learn and how these efforts are successfully responding to community-identified education and research needs.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© Ramirez-Andreotta et al. 2016