Marilyn M. Gardner, PhD, Department of Public Health, Western Kentucky University, 1 Big Red Way, STH 410E, Bowling Green, KY 42101, 270.745.5864, marilyn.gardner@wku.edu

As instructors, we are challenged to create meaningful learning experiences for our students. As instructors of health education, we are challenged to ensure these experiences develop the core competencies of health educators and prepare graduates with the requisite skills necessary to succeed. Although class projects, practicums, service learning, and internships provide students with opportunities to apply some of the core competencies, each is limited in its ability to provide students with a comprehensive hands-on learning experience.

A two-course senior capstone series was designed to provide health education students with an applied sequential and integrated culminating experience that mimics the "real world." The class was structured and functioned as a multi-site health organization with the instructor serving as the director; an independent work team consisting of a "hired" project manager and employees staffed each "site".

The missive of the course series was to design a comprehensive health promotion program to reduce risk factors associated with an assigned health problem. First semester: teams performed tasks associated with program planning including a literature review, needs assessment, survey design, and program and curricular design. Second semester: teams implemented respective health education interventions, collected and analyzed pre- and post-test data, and evaluated the intervention on its own merits and vis a vis results from competing teams.

This presentation will describe the process of implementing this course series, the challenges and benefits from the instructor and students' perspectives, and the potential impact of this form of applied learning.

Learning Objectives: