KE6039 - Environmental Public Health

You will learn through lectures, seminars, IT workshops, practicals, independent learning and directed tasks. Lectures and seminars will cover theories and concepts, case study material, key exemplars, and module staff's own research and consultancy. Learner centred approaches are used to allow you to explore topics and issues in greater depth and tackle guided exercises. Beyond timetabled sessions, your independent study will be guided and supported through your engagement with a range of directed resources and/or tasks available online via the module eLP site. Participation in seminars, IT workshops, practicals and local fieldwork will enable you to consolidate the links between theory, practice and application.

Formative feedback opportunities in lectures and seminars will consolidate your learning as well as help improve your performance in module assessments. You will be supported and encouraged to critically reflect and develop your skills through independent research, facilitated discussions, report writing and presentations to develop your communication skills.

Throughout the module you will engage in small group activities during which you will benefit from peer interaction and support from the teaching staff. You are asked to actively engage in the sessions, offering your thoughts and opinions. This reflects how we learn through challenging experiences and beliefs. In addition, academic staff will respond to questions by email and will share common issues with the wider group so all can benefit. Teaching staff operate an ‘open door’ policy for students meaning you can approach them anytime during normal office hours, or via email, to answer questions, receive feedback and support your learning on the module.

All modules at Northumbria include a range of reading materials that students are expected to engage with. The reading list for this module can be found at: http://readinglists.northumbria.ac.uk
(Reading List service online guide for academic staff this containing contact details for the Reading List team – http://library.northumbria.ac.uk/readinglists)

Knowledge & Understanding:
MLO 1: From an holistic perspective, critically analyse, discuss and assess the harm to the environment and public health from environmental and anthropogenic issues.
MLO 2: Evaluate the regulatory and policy systems that exist to prevent and respond to contamination of air, water and/or land to protect the environment and public health.
Intellectual / Professional skills & abilities:
MLO 3: Evaluate legal and technical options for dealing with pollution control and how this could be applied to protect environment and public health.
MLO 4: Evaluate the role of professions, regulatory bodies, and organisations with responsibility for protecting the environment and public health .
Personal Values Attributes (Global / Cultural awareness, Ethics, Curiosity) (PVA):
MLO 5: Appraise the moral and ethical issues around protecting the environment and public health from harm.

With both pieces of assessment, their experiential and enquiry-based nature enables you to integrate theoretical understanding with applied aspects of environmental control with specific regard to impacts on public health. Both assessments test MLOs 1 - 5.

You will produce:
(1) an individual written report of 2,500 words. This represents 50% of the weighting for this module.
(2) an individual interview. This represents 50% of the weighting for this module.

Written feedback, together with the mark awarded, will enable you to feed forward key aspects into assessments in other modules at level 6 and (prospectively) level 7, as well as going forward into working life.

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Natural and anthropogenic environmental conditions will impact both directly and indirectly on public health whether that is from the spread of communicable diseases, or how conditions affect the occurrence of non-communicable disease, alongside the broader construct of human welfare. How this can be controlled is a question of understanding the science behind environmental pollution, how we live in our communities, and what legal and policy interventions can be used to reduce the impacts on both the environment and public health. How the environment affects public health overlaps with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals including SDG3 Good Health and Wellbeing, SDG6 Clean Water and Sanitation, and SDG10 Reduced Inequalities. Lecturers who contribute to this module will deliver both experiential learning that is enriched by their research into environmental pollution, community resilience, and legislative and policy based interventions. Learning on this module builds a critical approach taking your science-based learning and building a translational approach to how you use it to reduce environmental and public health impacts. The experiential approach provides a key element for future professional employment across the private, public and voluntary sectors.