Learning Links
Personal Wellness / Consumerism / Government / Medical Facilities / Immunizations / Health Insurance / Medicare/Medicaid / Communicable Diseases / Rehabilitation / Recreation / Welfare / Wellness Programs/ Red Cross
Related Concepts
Health-Care Providers / Governmental Health/Safety Regulations and Standards / Governmental Health and Safety Agencies / Non-Profit Health Agencies / Health Systems
Demonstrators should be read from bottom to top, but need not be demonstrated sequentially.
Elementary Demonstrators
• Recognize governmental health and safety regulations.
• Identify community-sponsored agencies that maintain and promote health and safety.
• Explore non-profit, health-related agencies in the community.
• investigate health providers in the community.
Middle School Demonstrators
• Evaluate available community health systems, services, and resources serving the needs of adolescents.
• Examine governmental health and safety regulations.
• Differentiate among various governmental, health and safety, regulatory agencies.
• Assess services of non-profit and community or state sponsored agencies that promote health and safety.
• Distinguish among various health-care providers; analyze their roles.
High School Demonstrators
• Evaluate and access available community health systems, services, and resources.
• Access governmental health and safety agencies and interpret their regulations and standards.
• Evaluate the role of non-profit and community or state sponsored health-related agencies to the health of the community.
Sample Teaching/Assessment Strategies
Collaborative Process: Brainstorming, Cooperative Learning • Community-Based Instruction: Field Studies, Shadowing, Service Learning • Continuous Progress Assessment: Observation • Problem Solving: Case Studies, Interviews, Role-play, Creative Problem Solving, Future Problem Solving • Whole Language Approach • Writing Process
These sample strategies offer ideas and are not meant to limit teacher resourcefulness. More strategies are found in the resource section.
Ideas for Incorporating Community Resources
• Interview community health specialists to determine their roles in providing health services.
• Tour an industrial facility to survey the preventive measures installed in the past ten years to conform to health and safety regulations.
• Visit community agencies to determine the health services they provide.
Core Concept – Community Health Systems
Sample Elementary Activities
• Interview a restaurant manager about the regulations (e.g., safety, sanitation) that must be followed. Rate the importance of the regulations and make a presentation including your justifications. PE, OE
• Identity a community agency that promotes bicycle safety. Have a representative from the agency assist the class in planning and implementing a school campaign which promotes bicycle safety .PE, OE
• Write a non-profit, health-related agency (e.g., Red Cross, American Heart Association, Hospice) requesting information; prepare a display for the school library .PE, P
• Classify local health-care agencies and providers by types; compile a personal directory which includes telephone numbers. PE, OE
• Create a coloring book that illustrates health providers in the community. PE, P
Applications Across the Curriculum
Language Arts
• Write an invitation to a variety of health-care professionals to participate in a "Health Care Awareness Day" for your school. PE
Science
• Research how water treatment maintains and promotes health in the community. Participate in a field study to the community water treatment plant. Develop an awareness brochure on the role the water-treatment plant plays in health maintenance. PE
Mathematics
• Use the yellow pages to produce a frequency table for the types of physicians available to the community; prepare a graph. PE, OE, P
Social Studies
• Make a map illustrating the locations of health-care providers in your community .PE
Arts and Humanities
• Make a poster that identifies sources of help for illnesses and accidents. PE, OE
Vocational Education
• Prepare a chart of pertinent, personal health information which would help a health professional provide emergency services. PE, OE,P
• Role-play procedures for accessing health-care services in various circumstances. PE, OE
Sample Middle School Activities
• Conduct a survey to determine the health-care needs and concerns of adolescents. Sort and classify your data into similar groups. Create visuals (e.g., posters, brochures, displays) showing health agencies, providers, and/or resources available in the community that address those needs and concerns. PE, OE. P
• Research governmental agencies' health and safety regulations and standards for a school campus. Use information gathered to address your school's compliance with the regulations and standards. Present your findings to the school-based council. PE, OE
• Prepare a video of the various governmental health and safety regulatory agencies and their functions. PE, OE, P
• Gather and disseminate information on community agencies that provide treatment for eating disorders. PE
• Create a skit showing health-care providers in their professional roles. PE
Applications Across the Curriculum
Language Arts
• Visit a local health agency (e.g., rehabilitation center, mental health center, health depar1ment, hospital). Interview health-care professionals to determine the services offered, cost, and eligibility requirements. Design and illustrate a brochure which presents findings. PE, P
Science
• Analyze an environmental health concern in your community. Identify and utilize agencies which can aid in resolving the potential
problems. OE, p
Mathematics
• Use community census data to estimate projected number of nursing homes needed in 20 years. PE, OE
Social Studies
• Create and distribute, via the bookmobile, a video that describes local health-care services available to your community. Include the reasons why such services are provided (e.g., immunizations to prevent epidemics and to lower infant mortality). PE, OE, p
Arts and Humanities
• Establish criteria and evaluate the arts and crafts program in a long-term care facility.
Vocational Education
• Design an advertisement to promote participation in a blood drive. PE, OE, P
Sample High School Activities
• Prepare a guide for an AIDS patient which shows where to obtain physical, mental, and emotional care and support from community health systems and resources. PE, OE, P
• Contact an individual responsible for conducting site inspections for compliance with health and safety regulations and standards. Arrange to shadow this person during an on-site inspection. In advance, examine applicable regulations and standards; prepare an inspection checklist. Present a report of your experience. PE, OE, P
• Develop a multimedia presentation that depicts the value of a non-profit, health-related agency in your community .PE, OE
• Collect and analyze data on local long-term health care facilities; select a facility you would recommend; justify your choice. PE, OE
Applications Across the Curriculum
Variations on a theme: Preventive Health Care
Language Arts
• Identify a health issue pertinent to your locale for which preventive services are inadequate. Write a persuasive letter, to community or state leaders, to request their assistance in fulfilling the need. OE, p
Science
• Invite a panel of community health personnel to class who will discuss behaviors which are detrimental to promoting healthy prenatal conditions. OE, p
Mathematics
• Use actuarial statistics to show why insurance companies might promote preventive health care. Target probable causes of fluctuations in the tables and how this influences the recommendations. OE, p
Social Studies
• Discuss ways in which health concerns influence travel preparations. Identify the countries with the most and least restrictive preventive health measures for travelers; and communicate the information. OE, p
Arts and Humanities
• Videotape, edit, and broadcast the science class panel discussion on the school's closed-circuit TV .PE
Vocational Education
• Identify agencies in the community which will accept teens as volunteers or in service-learning projects. Establish a student group in the school to connect these agencies with student volunteers. PE, OE
Reflections
Students should be able to access facilities and services that promote and maintain healthy living. As well, they must have the ability to evaluate the effectiveness of these services. Students need to appreciate the role of non-profit organizations in the prevention and treatment of diseases, if they are expected to volunteer time and money for the continuation of these organizations which are vital to the community in which they live.
Also, as caring citizens, students must be made aware of the obstacles that confront the handicapped, poor, elderly, and sick as they seek health services.
Students, who recognize "no man is an island unto himself" and know that disease, illness, and accidents can strike anyone unexpectedly will realize that some governmental intervention is necessary to ensure the health and safety of all individuals. In addition, an awareness of the types of governmental interventions will make them more conscious of their personal rights and responsibilities in the community.
This particular academic expectation lends itself to cross-curricular and community projects in which students become immersed in authentic service-learning situations.