Students present their plans for a surveillance system that will accurately depict drug use in the United States.

Forty-nine students and 10 teachers from area high schools have been participating in an innovative educational program at Montclair State since last semester. They are attending an undergraduate course called "The Science of Public Health: Epidemiology." The class consists of student/teacher teams from six high schools from four school districts that are members of the New Jersey Network for Educational Renewal (NJNER).

Participating schools include Eastside High School, Rosa Parks High School, and the Health and Related-Professions Academy (HARP) in Paterson, and the high schools in Cedar Grove, Kearny and Montclair. Each team consists of a science, mathematics or health teacher, and five students selected by the teacher.

The class is the result of the formation of an Epidemiology Education Partnership (EEP), through the cooperation and support of NJNER, MSU, a Science Education Partnership Award from the National Center for Research Resources at the National Institutes of Health, and a Science Education Drug Abuse Partnership Award from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA).

Taught by Mark Kaelin and Wendy Huebner of the College of Education and Human Services, the goal of the class is to introduce high school students and their teachers to the science of epidemiology, the study of the distribution of disease and determinants and the control of health problems. A second goal is to pilot-test portions of a NIDA-supported curriculum, "Exploring Drug Abuse through the Science of Epidemiology," which is designed to explore drug abuse issues that are relevant to high school students, while simultaneously developing their understanding of the science of epidemiology.

"Usually, epidemiology courses are taught at graduate schools of public health," explained Kaelin, "but the Center for Disease Control is advocating for the teaching of epidemiology in grades K-12."

The class content is centered around five major areas related to the science of epidemiology: describing distributions of disease in populations and generating hypotheses (descriptive epidemiology); performing studies to determine factors that are associated with disease (analytic epidemiology); determining causality; understanding the balance between science and society in developing prevention strategies; and using epidemiological methods to evaluate the effectiveness of prevention strategies. Throughout the course students have a variety of experiences to illustrate and practice epidemiology methods--those of general interest and those that apply to the epidemiology of drug abuse. "There's a sleuthing aspect, which is neat in the classroom," said Kaelin. "The content is relevant and the detective work gets students' attention. It doesn't hurt to have these 'CSI' shows on television."

In the first several classes, students learned about descriptive epidemiology and the three important factors that epidemiologists consider when investigating the distribution of a disease: person, place and time. In a theoretical exercise, students hypothesized why certain students were designated as sick and others remained healthy, and in another class, students looked at descriptive epidemiological data and tried to figure out what event would have produced such data. Students also have learned about surveillance systems for detecting and monitoring disease and, specifically, how HIV/AIDS surveillance is conducted and what has been learned from this surveillance. To further their understanding of surveillance systems, students worked in groups devising ways of creating an accurate data description of drug use in the United States. Students then compared their suggestions to methods used in the National Survey on Drug Use and Health.

Students look at descriptive epidemiological clues and formulate hypotheses to explain the distribution of disease.

"This course is interdisciplinary and brings relevance and excitement to the classroom. It develops students' analytical skills through deductive reasoning and problem solving," said Kaelin."The goal is to improve their scientific literacy. To get them to a point where they are able to read articles about science and not only understand what has been written, but for their antennae to go up and realize what may not have been included in the article."

At the end of the course, students are required to teach 5-10 "Detectives in the Classroom" epidemiology lessons to middle school students in their community, supervised by their participating teachers. "The best way for students to learn something is for them to teach it to others," said Kaelin. In addition, participating teachers have agreed to teach 5-10 epidemiological lessons in their regular high school classes during the 2005-2006 academic year.

"It is exciting to have these students and teachers with us in our university setting. We are delighted with the enthusiasm we see in the classroom," said Kaelin. "These are teachers who want to do better, even if they're already the best at what they do. It's wonderful to see the students' eyes light up, for them to 'get' a concept and realize how useful it is to them."