The Institute of Medicine has recommended that “…all undergraduates should have access to education in public health.” To bring this goal alive, the Consensus Conference on Undergraduate Public Health Education, funded by the Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation, is developing recommendations to expand and enrich undergraduate learning outcomes by incorporating public health curricula into general or liberal education. The following curriculum frameworks have been developed for “Public Health 101” and an epidemiology laboratory to support “Epidemiology 101” courses. Teaching materials on undergraduate (college level) public health are organized in PERC according to these two frameworks.

View/Download Public Health 101 Framework
View/Download Epidemiology 101 Framework

The Introductory Public Health component in PERC is designed to include the following components:

• The curriculum frameworks for “Public Health 101” and “Epidemiology 101” undergraduate courses.
• Learning outcomes that may be used in conjunction with the frameworks to develop syllabi.
These are tied to the “LEAP” learning outcomes developed by the Association of American Colleges and Universities.

• Reports of the Consensus Conference on Undergraduate Public Health Education.
  
• Existing materials that may be used to fulfill each of the components of the frameworks (see below).
  
• Opportunities to add new materials linked to the curriculum frameworks.
  
• Consultants, links to outside organizations and resources, a discussion board, and other features available through the Resource Center.

TEACHING EPIDEMIOLOGY

The introductory-level Epidemiology component of PERC is made possible through a collaboration with the Young Epidemiology Scholars (YES) Program, sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and administered by the College Board. The “Epidemiology Teaching Units for the High School Classroom” were authored by a working group of academicians, instructing at both the high school and college levels. These introductory instructional units are designed for teachers and faculty to freely download and use in the classroom. Each teaching unit identifies subject areas, level of difficulty, and knowledge prerequisites. Although they were designed for advanced high school instruction, they are appropriate for introductory undergraduate education. The Epidemiology Teaching Units can be found in PERC and organized by the frameworks above. Each unit explores and emphasizes one or more epidemiological themes.

To become more acquainted with epidemiology and explore a suggested approach in teaching elements of the science, read the Intellectual Framework, which will orient you to many important principles of epidemiology.

The YES program acknowledges both the importance of epidemiological curriculum in the classroom as well as scholarship opportunities for students to become engaged in the field of epidemiology. As a result, the YES program facilitates a national scholarship competition, and since 2004, has awarded approximately $500,000 in college scholarship awards each year to high school juniors and seniors who submit outstanding research papers in the field of epidemiology. To learn more about the YES competition, teaching units, or the YES program, please go to www.collegeboard.com/yes.