From Disease Prevention to Disaster Preparedness: A New High School Course in Public Health

Since 2007, the CPHA Mentoring Organization Registry (MOR) has been training public health mentors to introduce middle and high school students to careers and skills needed to succeed in the field, from epidemiology to disaster preparedness. CPHA's work has led to a growing awareness of public health among Connecticut high school educators and to a new full-year public health 101 course. " From Disease Prevention to Disaster Preparedness" will be launched this fall as part of an established three-course health careers program (An Introduction to Health Careers, Anatomy and Physiology, and Biotechnology) already established in eight school districts in the state. Presented both online and in-class the course provides students with nine public health units taught through award-winning lesson plans such as those from Young Epidemiology Scholars. Guest speakers and career mentors will provide experiential public health activities in each unit to help students build the 21st century skills (collaboration, problem-solving, creativity, innovation, technology and communication literacy, etc.) necessary to give them a competitive edge in any occupation they pursue. This workshop covers: 1- A brief history of the health career curriculum initiative in Connecticut and educational partnerships needed to create the public health course; 2-An overview of the nine units with examples of lessons; 3-The training and matching necessary to incorporate public health mentors and experiential learning into the program; and 4-Next steps.