Findlay, Ohio, Aug. 1, 2000 – The University of Findlay’s National Center of Excellence for Environmental Management has announced a new professional development program designed to make teachers more aware of current environmental, safety and health issues and how to integrate these issues into the curriculum.

Career paths in the environmental, safety and health fields will be explored as they relate to government, business and public health perspectives and opportunities. A United States Environmental Protection Agency grant is funding the program to promote environmental career awareness among high school teachers and their students in Ohio, Michigan and Indiana.

Currently, there are numerous well-paying, challenging and rewarding jobs that remain unfilled because there are too few graduates to meet the demand. With the tide of the baby boomers heralding massive retirements and the dramatic growth in need for environmental, safety and health professionals, the environmental gap will only continue to widen. Those close to environmental education are convinced that more science-bound students would pursue environmental careers if they were aware of the many opportunities in this growing field.

To help promote this career awareness, UF is offering interested Ohio, Michigan and Indiana high school teachers one hour of grant-paid graduate credit for participating in a 16-contact hour curriculum development and deployment seminar. An additional two hours of graduate credit can be earned after completion of the 16-hour seminar by the participant’s submission of a complete unit of instruction. Since such units are prepared and submitted online, participants can work at their own pace and time. Further details are available at www.nceempd.org.

The units of instruction are cross curricular and keyed to state proficiency tests. The initial seminars are offered on the UF campus. A portion of each seminar has been reserved for field activities at each of NCEEM’s environmental simulation sites. Enrollment for each of the four initial classes is limited to 25 students.

At the conclusion of the summer seminar offerings, the program will be offered at select locations, based on enrollment, throughout Ohio, Michigan and Indiana. Individual school districts enrolling 20 or more students will be provided with a program tailored to their specific needs.

Interested workshop participants can earn a master of arts in education degree with an emphasis in environmental, safety and health management. This new master’s degree program combines the basic core curriculum of the current education master’s degree with the core curriculum of the master of science in environmental, safety and health management degree.

For more information, contact Denny Coughlan at 419-434-6436 or 1-800-521-1292, ext. 6436