The ToxRAP™ curriculum series was developed by the Division of Community Health Education, Department of Environmental and Community Medicine, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. The curriculum was made possible by grant numbers R25 ES06930 and P30 ES05022 from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National Institutes of Health, and the Consortium for Risk Evaluation with Stakeholder Participation, though the U.S. Department of Energy Cooperative Agreement DE-FCO1 95EW55084. The second editions of these modules were developed under the auspices of the Resource Center, an outreach component of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-School of Public Health and the Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute. The middle school supplement was developed through an administrative supplement to the Center for Environmental Health Sciences at EOHSI (NIEHS Center) Grant No. ES05022-15S1. To date, approximately 4,300 classrooms in 23 states, as well as Guam and Puerto Rico, have been introduced to the ToxRAP™ curriculum series.

ToxRAP™ Website

The ToxRAP™ website activities are a component of the project, "Educating Schools and Families with ToxRAP™ over MPEG-4," a collaboration between Creneaux Enterprises LLC and the Center for School and Community Health Education (CSCHE), an outreach component of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-School of Public Health and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) Center of Excellence at the Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute (EOHSI). The ToxRAP™ website is supported by a grant through NIEHS Small Business Technology Transfer program [Grant No. R41 ES013414-01] and the NIEHS Center at the Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute.

New Jersey teachers, their students and family members played critical roles in the development of these activities. CSCHE and Creneaux Enterprises LLC extend thanks to these participants.

Center for School and Community Health Education

The Center for School and Community Health Education (CSCHE) [formerly the Resource Center] has followed a mission to advance environmental health literacy worldwide through educational initiatives for nearly 15 years. CSCHE staff have worked with scientists, researchers and faculty from the fully accredited School of Public Health at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) and the Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute (EOHSI), one of the nation's leading environmental research and education facilities. Through these affiliations, CSCHE has reached approximately 7,000 teachers and 140,000 K-12th grade students in 29 states, the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico and overseas.

Working with UMDNJ-SPH and EOHSI scientists and faculty, classroom teachers and other educational/environmental professionals, CSCHE translates contemporary research into comprehensive lessons that address pressing environmental health issues, such as toxicology, risk assessment, air pollution, ecology and recycling, water pollution and solid waste management. Materials are inquiry-based and foster the development of students' critical thinking, problem solving and decision making skills. Select modules are also available in Spanish-bilingual and all-Spanish versions. Lessons and activities, where applicable, are indexed to state and national education standards.

Teacher professional development initiatives prove to be a powerful component in the success of CSCHEÕs outreach efforts. Training workshops are designed to support the use of CSCHE materials and the integration of environmental health sciences topics into school curricula. Workshops open up the lines of communication between educators and environmental health professionals. CSCHE's hands-on training workshops allow educators to experience the curricular materials as both a student and a teacher. Participants familiarize themselves with the activities, discovering how the lessons are interrelated and build upon one another, ultimately preparing them for their classroom.

UMDNJ-SPH is sponsored by UMDNJ in cooperation with Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey and the New Jersey Institute of Technology and in collaboration with the Public Health Research Institute. EOHSI is jointly sponsored by the UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey.

Creneaux Enterprises, LLC

Creneaux is a New York-based team of award-winning engineers and media creators serving the Life Science industries. This team develops interactive online programming for education and enterprise outreach, and delivery technologies that deliver full-screen DVD quality video with embedded interactivity and effectiveness tracking to each student over the web. Creneaux Enterprises' expertise in the development of innovative e-Learning solutions has been nationally recognized and funded by the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health.