Learning Public Health Through Civic Issues

This course is organized around current challenging health issues, such as mandatory immunization, childhood obesity, health insurance, tobacco control, etc. Activities included issues-focused debates, lecture and video presentations, case study discussions, and guest speakers. Students completed fifteen hours of community-based service learning, many in the Lawrence Math-Science Partnership, an outreach program in which undergraduates work on after-school STEM enrichment activities with middle-school students. Several activities complemented the course issues, allowing college students to make connections between course theory and community needs, while engaging middle-school students in important public health concepts. The SENCER-SALG assessment (N=189/192 (98%) of enrolled students) indicated that the course was of much/great help for learning in addressing real world issues (80%), looking at the interplay of science and civic issues (71%) and in the service learning activities (53%). 58% of students indicated good/great gains in their interest in volunteering for science-related community service