# WE ENGAGE via Data & Stories to Improve Community Health & Foster STEM education

> **NIH NIH R25** · CINCINNATI CHILDRENS HOSP MED CTR · 2022 · $242,184

## Abstract

Abstract/Summary
A report following the 2016 Environmental Health Summit recommended engaging citizens in creating their own
knowledge and solutions, thus ensuring that their concerns are adequately addressed and promoting sustainability of
community projects. Indeed, citizen science has the potential to initiate a cascade of events with a positive ripple effect
that includes a more diverse future STEM and biomedical workforce. This SEPA proposal involves the establishment of
WE ENGAGE – an informal, citizen science-based, environmental health experiential learning program designed in
partnership with and for under resourced communities struggling with health and environmental health challenges. Its
purpose is to actively engage and build the citizen science capacity of citizens living in a single cluster of three contiguous
under resourced, minority Cincinnati neighborhoods where generational challenges continue to plague residents despite
the presence of established academic-community partnerships.
Our hypothesis is that community-informed, experiential learning opportunities outside of the classroom that are
structured, multigenerational, and story-based will encourage a) the active asking, discussion about, and answering of
relevant complex health and environmental questions so that individuals and communities can plan action steps to make
better health choices and pursue healthier environments, and b) greater interest and confidence in pursuing formal
biomedical/STEM education and STEM careers. Our program has three specific aims: 1) We will co-create tailored story-
based (graphic novel style) STEM education materials with a community advisory board and offer informal STEM
education and research training to our target communities; 2) we will facilitate the application of scientific inquiry skills
to improve health via community-led health fairs that use an innovative electronic health passport platform to collect data
and through facilitated community discussions of health fair data to generate motivating stories to share; and 3) we will
facilitate the application of scientific inquiry skills to foster community pride and activism in promoting healthier/safer
built environments via walking environmental assessments. As in aim 2, facilitated discussions will be held to spur future
community based participatory research studies and interventions.
Critical to our success is the concept of storytelling. Storytelling is a foundation of the human experience. A key purpose
of storytelling is not just understanding the world, but positively transforming it. It is a common language. Bringing
together STEM concepts in the form of a story increases their appeal and meaning. Later, the very process of community
data collection gives individuals a voice. In a data story, hundreds to millions of voices can be distilled into a single
narrative that can help community members probe important underlying associations and get to the root causes of
complicated...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10458111
- **Project number:** 5R25GM129808-05
- **Recipient organization:** CINCINNATI CHILDRENS HOSP MED CTR
- **Principal Investigator:** Melinda Sue ButschKovacic
- **Activity code:** R25 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $242,184
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2018-09-06 → 2024-07-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10458111

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10458111, WE ENGAGE via Data & Stories to Improve Community Health & Foster STEM education (5R25GM129808-05). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10458111. Licensed CC0.

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