Standard of Learning

8.1The student will analyze and evaluate the relationship between health-risk behaviors and the onset of health problems that can impact health and wellness during the adolescent years. Key concepts/skills include

1. the pathogenic, genetic, age, cultural, environmental, and behavioral factors that influence the degree of risk for contracting specific diseases;
2. the roles of preventative health measures, immunization, and treatment in disease prevention;
3. the short- and long-term health issues related to alcohol abuse and tobacco use;
4. the impact of failing to recognize issues related to emotional and mental health;
5. the health risks associated with feelings of immortality and invincibility;
6. the consequences of involvement in potentially dangerous situations;
7. the health risks of a sedentary lifestyle;
8. the risk factors associated with communicable and noncommunicable diseases.

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Understanding the Standard

The student will understand the relationship between pathogenic, genetic, age, cultural, environmental, and behavioral factors that influence the degree of risk for contracting certain diseases.

Essential Knowledge and Skills

The student will:

• define pathogen and give examples of pathogenic diseases. (a disease-causing organism – cold, measles, chickenpox, influenza, smallpox, strep throat, tuberculosis, lyme disease, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, typhus, ringworm, athlete’s foot, malaria, dysentery, etc.)
• define genetic disorder and give examples of genetic diseases/disorders. (defect in genes or sections of chromosomes – diabetes, heart disease, hemophilia, cancer, multiple sclerosis, cerebral palsy, sickle-cell anemia, lupus, epilepsy, Down syndrome, etc,)
• list age-related diseases. (arthritis, heart disease, stroke, osteoporosis, diabetes, etc.)
• give examples of diseases common among various cultures. (diabetes, growth hormone deficiency, etc.)
• describe diseases caused by environmental factors. (skin cancer and other cancers, allergies, malnutrition, lung disease from second-hand smoke, etc.)
• give examples of diseases caused by specific behaviors. (lung cancer, heart disease, diabetes, liver disease, etc.)
• list factors that may increase the risk of contracting diseases caused by the above factors.

Sample Lessons

An Ounce of Prevention: Keeps the Germs Away - CDC: National Center for Infectious Diseases
Includes a brief web based video on prevention of communicable diseases, an online article that covers handwashing, cleaning, antibiotics, food, immunizations, pets and wild animals. Includes multiple choice prevention questions and answers.
Sponsor: U.S. Centers for Disease Control
Contact: http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/op/index.htm
Free

Be a Germstopper
Encourages healthy habits to prevent the spread of illness in schools and at home. Provides links and resources for teachers on food safety, hand washing, the flu and nutrition.
Sponsor: CDC
Contact: http://www.cdc.gov/germstopper/index.htm
Free

Common Vaccinations
This lesson plans explains how vaccines work, the immune system and why is important to be vaccinated.
Sponsor: Discovery Channel
Contact: http://school.discovery.com/lessonplans/programs/vaccinations
Free

The Educator’s Reference Desk: Lesson Plans> Health> Chronic Conditions Lesson Plans>Examining Ideas About Body Image
Anorexia and bulimia are eating disorders that affect nearly 1 million American teens. Determinants include poor self-concept, body shape and size, perceptions about physical attraction, and depression. Dieting is associated with cycles of weight loss and re-gain that stress body systems. Dieting to lose weight is practiced most frequently in young women, most of whom are within normal weight. This exercise originated from a request for assistance from a middle school teacher who observed female students purging after lunch.
Sponsor: The lesson plan was developed by faculty at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. The site is part of the Gateway to Educational Materials (GEM). GEM is a Consortium effort to provide educators with quick and easy access to thousands of educational resources found on various federal, state, university, non-profit, and commercial Internet sites. GEM is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education.
Contact: http://www.eduref.org (select lesson plans – health – chronic conditions)
Free

Fizzies Virus
This lesson plan simulates how disease spreads. Using a simple experiment students will describe how disease spreads and trace the disease to the first “infected” person.
Sponsor: Kidzone
Contact: http://www.kidzone.ws/plans/viewprint.asp?i=100
Free

HeartPower!
Grades: 6-8
Teaches student about the heart and how to keep it healthy. Science-based. Lessons, handouts.
--How Does the Heart Work?
--What Increases the Risk of CVD?
Sponsor: American Heart Association
Contact: http://www.americanheart.org(select HeartPower!)
Free

Human Genetic Variation
Grades 9-12
Introduces students to genetic variations. Also discusses the relationship between biomedical research (human genome project) and the improvement of personal and public health.
Sponsor: National Institutes of Health, Curriculum Supplement Series
http://science.education.nih.gov

It’s a Snap
A hands-on initiative for middle schools that's designed to help keep students in school and learning by improving overall health through promoting clean hands. Schools can use the SNAP program to increase student and staff hand cleaning and help them stay healthy. SNAP offers a free teachers toolkit to use to integrate hand hygiene into the curriculum and schoolwide activities.
Sponsor: CDC, Department of Health and Human Services and Soap and Detergent Association.
Contact: http://www.itsasnap.org/index.asp
Free

Microbes 1: What’s Bugging You?
To build on existing knowledge of microbes, focusing on the relationship between microorganisms and foodborne illness, as well as the implications that food borne illness has on human health. Microbes 1: What's Bugging Your? demonstrates that some "bad" microorganisms can get into the body through food ingestion. It explores environments that are supportive of food pathogens, as well as how humans can avoid contamination. This lesson is intended to build on a basic understanding of microbes. For example, students should already understand that not all microorganisms are "bad" and not all get into our body through food. Microbes 2: Louis Pasteur–a Microbe Discoverer focuses on Pasteur and his discovery of microorganisms.
Sponsor: American Association for the Advancement of Sciences (AAAS)
Contact: http://www.sciencenetlinks.com/lessons.cfm?DocID=233
Free

New York Times Daily Lesson Plan>Pestilence and Plague: Exploring the Causes and Impacts of Disease Epidemics and Pandemics
In this lesson, students investigate various disease epidemics that have devastated the world population at different points in history and examine the diseases' effects on the countries they impacted.
Sponsor: The New York Times in partnership with the Bank Street College of Education in NYC.
Contact: http://www.nytimes.com/learning/teachers/lessons
Free

New York Times Daily Lesson Plan>Sugar-Coating the Facts: Examining the Food Industry's Influence on Nutritional Habits and Analyzing Nutrition Charts
In this lesson, students explore the food industry's influence on American children's nutritional habits and analyze the nutrition charts found on food packaging. They then synthesize their knowledge by designing "warning labels" to be placed on products that are targeted to children to better represent the contents' nutritional value.
Sponsor: The New York Times in partnership with the Bank Street College of Education in NYC.
Contact: http://www.nytimes.com/learning/teachers/lessons
Free

Polio Web Quest
Grades: 5-8
A WebQuest about polio. The activities are Internet based. In the 1950's one of the most terrifying words to any parent was "polio". As a child of the fifties, I remember my mother being very careful about things like playing with the garden hose, splashing in the rain and stomping in mud puddles. No one knew where polio came from and parents were terrified of their children catching this crippling disease. Do you know who Dr. Salk is? Have you ever seen an iron lung? Come with me on a journey into the past and listen to survivors tell about their experience with this debilitating disease.
Sponsor: Ask Eric
Contact: http://www.eduref.org (select lesson plans – health – health)
Free

Sanitation and Human Health
In this lesson, students learn something about the ways that sanitation technology has helped people. They do this by examining the history of sanitation in the context of disease outbreaks and comparing the quality of life in those times to that of today. Students should recognize that advances in health and human life expectancy have resulted in large part because of technologies that we now take for granted, such as modern waste-disposal, sanitary food handling, and refrigeration.
Sponsor: Science Netlinks, AAAS and Marcopolo
Contact: http://www.sciencenetlinks.com/lessons.cfm?DocID=47
Free

Science Olympiad: Disease Detectives Event (CDC EXCITE)
This site includes information on preparing for state and national level Science Olympiad tournaments with a focus on a Centers for Disease Control sponsored event: Disease Detectives. This event provides students an opportunity to hone their skills as science sleuths by learning the scientific method employed by epidemiologists—or disease detectives. The students will read a summary report from a newspaper, scientific publication, or Internet site. Students will answer questions relating to determining the epidemiology of the problem and potential interventions or prevention activities. Included on this site are past events problems, sample problems and answer keys.
Sponsor: The National Science Olympiad and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control
Contact: http://www.cdc.gov/excite/disease_detectives/index.htm
Free

The Spread of AIDS
As patterns and networks of economic independence change (e.g., increased trade networks), conditions are favorable for the spread of diseases such as AIDS. Students will research the spread of AIDS and report on how this problem has been affected by changes in global transportation and trade.
Sponsor: National Geographic
Contact: http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/lessons/11/g912/trade.html
Free

Virus Encounters
This curriculum offers middle and high school teachers a comprehensive set of multimedia aids and activities for teaching units on infectious disease topics. Through the use video, text and interactive discussions students progress through real-life applications and simulations.
Sponsor: CDC and Turner Broadcasting
Contact: http://turnerlearning.com/fyi/virusencounters
Free

Additional Instructional Resources

• American Academy of Family Physicians - http://familydoctor.org/285.xml
• American Cancer Society – http://www.cancer.org
• American Heart Association – http://www.americanheart.org
• American Lung Association – http://www.lungusa.org
• American Museum of Natural History - http://www.amnh.org/nationalcenter/infection
• American Society for Microbiology - http://www.microbe.org/index.html and http://www.washup.org
• BrainPOP – http://www.brainpop.com/health
• Center for Disease Control and Prevention - http://www.cdc.gov/health/adolescent.htm
• Diabetes Fact Sheet - Diabetes_Fact_Sheet.pdf
• Diabetes Resource Directory - Diabetes_Resources.pdf
• DiscoverySchool.com – http://school.discovery.com/lessonplans/6-8.html
• Diseases – http://www.uen.org/Lessonplan/LPview?core=7
• Epidemics - http://www.pbs.org/fredfriendly/epidemic/lessons/blueprints.pdf
• Food and Drug Administration - http://www.fda.gov/oc/opacom/hottopics
• Genetic Counselor Wonderwise Science Learning Series –http://www.wonderwise.unl.edu
• Genetics Education Center – http://www.kumc.edu/gec
• Genetics Web Lab Directory - http://www2.edc.org/weblabs
• Get Smart Virginia -http://www.vdh.state.va.us/epi/getsmart/index.asp
• Harvard Center for Cancer Prevention - http://www.yourdiseaserisk.harvard.edu
• Health Web – http://healthweb.org
• Human Anatomy – http://www.innerbody.com
• The Human Body – http://yucky.kids.discovery.com/teachercenter/pg000064.htm
• Human Body Systems – http://www.si.edu/nsrc/stcms/access/humanbod.htm
• Illness & Disease – http://www.pbs.org/teachersource(health & fitness 6-8)
• Innerbody – http://www.innerbody.com/htm/body.html
• Internet Detectives – http://www.madison.k12.wi.us/tnl/detectives
• KidsHealth.org – http://kidshealth.org
• March of Dimes - http://www.marchofdimes.com
• MedlinePlus - http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus
• MedlinePlus - http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/teenhealth.html
• National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion - http://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/yrbs
• National Diabetes Education Center – http://www.ndep.nih.gov
• Nemours Foundation - http://kidshealth.org/teen
• PBS Antibiotic Resistance - http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/survival/clock/index.html and http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/library/10/4/l_104_03.html
• Surgeon General –http://www.hhs.gov/familyhistory/
• Teaching the Human Body – http://yucky.kids.discovery.com/teachercenter/pg000064.htm
• University of Kansas Genetics Education Center - http://www.kumc.edu/gec
• Virtual Museum of Bacteria - http://bacteriamuseum.org
• VCU, Secrets of the Sequence –http://www.vcu.edu/lifesci/sosq
• Your Body Systems – http://www.factmonster.com/ipka/A0774536.html

Assessment Ideas

The student will:

• identify appropriate Web sites to research the cause, risk factors, symptoms, and prevention of a selected disease, and formulate a hypothesis to eradicate the disease in the future.
• prepare a poster presentation depicting the diseases common to a specific era in history, comparing them to diseases of today.
• summarize research findings on environmental and behavioral diseases and draw conclusions on the relationship between them, if any.

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