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Kids Get the Bugs Out - Philadelphia School Benefits from Penn State Service Learning Project - January 2004
January 7, 2004
UNIVERSITY PARK, PA -- Pests and pesticide use in schools and other urban dwellings can result in unhealthy indoor environments, especially among those with asthma. A new Penn State service learning project at Shaw Middle School in West Philadelphia will try to alleviate these problems by empowering students, teachers and the community to implement Integrated Pest Management, or IPM.
IPM is a safe, economical and scientific, step-wise approach to pest management. IPM integrates knowledge of pest identity and biology with pest monitoring so that actions, if any, can be taken at just the right time. In addition, IPM uses a combination of management tactics such as biological, cultural, physical and chemical that is more likely to be safe and effective. Emphasis is placed on prevention of problems by eliminating conditions conducive to pest entry and survival.
In Pennsylvania, two new legislative initiatives are encouraging IPM in schools:
1) IPM must be taught in K-12 as part of the new PA Academic Standards in Environment and Ecology. This creates an opportunity for combining IPM education and implementation using service-learning models.
2) IPM is now required to manage pests on all Pennsylvania public school property. This creates opportunities to partner with schools and school students to improve pest management practices in their schools and surrounding community.
Teresina Bailey, the Community IPM Outreach Coordinator for the Pennsylvania IPM Program, and Nicole Webster, assistant professor of agricultural extension and education at Penn State, are developing the service learning project. "Service learning provides a tremendous asset to youth by providing them with skills to promote self-confidence, citizenship, and leadership to deal with these situations," says Webster. "Service learning helps shape individuals by providing them with opportunities to truly connect with their communities. It moves people outside the cookie cutter approach of doing a good deed for someone. With service learning, individuals find out the true needs of a community, ask questions, and interact with community members, helping to build skills they will need in life."
The service learning project aims to build the capacity of students at the Shaw Middle School to recognize, manage, and prevent pest and pesticide related health risks by using IPM rationale and methods. Awareness of these risks and IPM solutions will be both taught and implemented at Shaw and simultaneously spread to the students' larger community through curriculum development and educational outreach and demonstration programs.
In January, approximately 90 students and their parents will be assessed on IPM knowledge. Selected students will review the assessments and later the entire school will be tested. Teams will be formed to develop posters, write articles on environmental issues, create eco-logs, begin a school recycling program, and help develop a monthly newsletter. Other possible activities will include a health fair, a parent night showcasing the IPM program, and attending a summer program at Penn State.
"Students will leave the program as empowered community educators," says Bailey. "They'll learn about the ways IPM can reduce health risks associated with pest occurrence and inappropriate use of pesticides. Shaw students will create projects that will serve as a model for implementation of IPM in schools throughout the School District of Philadelphia and statewide."
The PA IPM Program is dedicated to partnering with others to overcome obstacles and to promote IPM education and use in both schools and urban communities. Partnerships for this project include people involved in education, policy and outreach from Penn State Education Partnership Program, Philadelphia Allies Against Asthma, American Lung Association, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia - Community Asthma Prevention Program, Cobbs Creek Community Environmental Center, Delaware Valley Earth Force, Philadelphia Department of Public Health - Vector Control, EPA Region III, Grace Community Christian Center, Health Promotion Council of Southeastern Pennsylvania, Inc., Lancaster Avenue Business Association, Penn State Department of Agriculture Extension and Outreach, Penn State Philadelphia County Cooperative Extension, Michigan Department of Agriculture - Pesticide & Plant Pest Mgt. Div., Mid-Atlantic Regional Asthma Initiative, Philadelphia Area Labor-Management Committee - Good Schoolkeeping Program, Philadelphia Department of Education, Pittsburgh Board of Education - Plant Operations, School District of Philadelphia - Office of Grants Development and Support, Schuylkill Environmental Education Center, Serious Teens and Adults Acting Responsibly, Shaw Middle School, Philadelphia.
To find out more about the School IPM effort in Pennsylvania and links to educational material from across the country, go to the program's Web site at http://paipm.cas.psu.edu/schools/schoolIPM.html. Teachers will find an interactive database at http://paipm.cas.psu.edu/schoolipmdb/ along with IPM background information, lesson plans and support materials. To find out more about the program's Community IPM effort, go to Web site http://paipm.cas.psu.edu/community.html
The PA IPM Program is a collaboration between the Pennsylvania State University and the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture aimed at promoting integrated pest management in both agricultural and nonagricultural situations. For more information, contact the program at (814) 865-2839, or Web site http://paipm.cas.psu.edu. To find out more about the service learning project, contact Bailey at tab124@psu.edu, or Webster at (814) 863-4753 or nsw10@psu.edu.