Citizens as Scientists, Scientists as Citizens (Part 2): Using multi-faceted popular educational outreach to build bi-directional capacity for community based participatory research and address chronic and emerging environmental health issues across the life span

Popular education network approaches to community-focused environmental health education provide a platform for multigenerational co-learning with the inherent flexibility to accommodate a variety of learning styles and degrees of prior scientific literacy. Popular education readily accommodates integrated training of community and academic CBPR practitioners to promote bi-directional capacity of both research and citizen communities to collaborate and support each other's efforts to leverage change. This presentation will focus on tools and techniques used for outreach, education and dialogue including: 1) the popular education based community toxicology program used by UTMB environmental health educators to cover basic concepts such exposure pathways, parameters of dose response, the effects of timing of environmental exposures in terms of effect with emphasis on age and associated vulnerability factors, epigenetic responses to exposure, genetic susceptibility, multiple chemical exposures, multiple social/economic stressor impacts and cumulative risk; 2) didactic and arts-based popular education techniques to develop interpersonal skills and understanding of barriers to participation, perceptions and points-of-view, and power dynamic issues related to CBPR practice. Various means of qualitative evaluation that gauge behavioral and perceptual outcomes will be discussed to compliment traditional quantitative methods.

1. List steps in sequence of bidirectionally communicating basic toxicology and health disparity concepts using popular education techniques with low science literacy audience. 2. Discuss the unique dynamics involved in facilitating popular education based learning activities with multigenerational audiences, and groups with varying degrees of scientific literacy. 3. Frame the evaluation of popular education-based learning activities in terms of a variety of qualitative outcomes: perceptual changes, behavioral shifts, increases in sense of personal agency.