Preliminary Testing of a Peer-Teaching Model Using Geospatial Open Source Tools to Address Community Health Issues

Young people's involvement in community-based research is a well-established interventional model, but not nearly as widespread as it should be. Although young people have valuable insights to share, their voices are often missing from the research process. To address this void, Youth Enrichment Services (YES) engages youth from under-resourced contexts and creates authentic learning experiences by connecting them to social issues that impact their lives. YES' most recent project is highlighted in this study, where teenage youth of color examined the social and environmental conditions that contributed to heightened lead exposure in a Pittsburgh Community. Using community-based participation research, students became the study's architects, data gatherers, and analysts thereby centering their critical perspectives in an adult-centric research regime. This study offers insight into how the employed peer-teaching, field-based learning model equipped students to facilitate their own geospatial learning to address toxic lead exposure. The results suggest that by harnessing and then channeling the varied interest and technical skill levels of students, peer-teaching models significantly enhanced technical learning outcomes when implemented in an applied, community-oriented research context. Integrating technical skills education with youth driven CBPR adds the critical dimension of youth experience into the research process and allows students to own their knowledge development.