Eighth Grade Curriculum Resources
Standard of Learning
8.4 The student will interpret and evaluate how health information, products, services, and agencies are targeted to impact adolescents. Key concepts/skills include:
- a personal system for reviewing appropriateness of print, audiovisual, and electronic media images;
- the influence of multiple media resources on personal choices;
- consumer rights related to health products and services.
Understanding the Standard
The student will evaluate consumer rights issues related to products and services targeted at adolescent consumers.
Essential Knowledge and Skills
The student will:
- define consumer rights.
- list examples of health quackery.
- list examples of consumer problems that may occur with health products or services.
- identify solutions to health product or service problems.
- define consumer advocate.
Sample Lessons
The Educator’s Reference Desk: Lesson Plans> Health>Consumer Health Lesson Plans>Magazine Ads and You, the Teenager
Advertising is often aimed directly at young people. Not only do they spend $70 billion a year, but they influence their parents' purchases also. Youth are hit by certain appeals - appeals to be like everybody else, sex appeal, even negative appeal. This activity is to increase student awareness of persuasion tactics as seen in magazine advertising.
Sponsor: The lesson was developed by a teacher at Daly Middle School, Lakeview, OR. 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/cgi-bin/printlessons.cgi
Free
The Educator’s Reference Desk Lesson Plans>Health>Process Skills Lesson Plans> It’s In The News
Students analyze information from articles in current newspapers to find reliable information concerning health. The objectives are to ensure that students will be able to define health and wellness; identify components of health living; and analyze in formation from articles in a current newspaper to find reliable information concerning health.
Sponsor: The lesson was developed by a teacher at Clear Creek High School, TX. 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.
http://www.eduref.org/cgi-bin/printlessons.cgi/Virtual/Lessons
Free
The Educator’s Reference Desk: Lesson Plans> Health> Consumer Health Lesson Plans >Fostering Critical Thinking Skills for Consumer Health Decisions
This simple classroom activity can be used to develop consumer health skills among secondary school students. Students select sample advertisements for health products from the print and broadcast media. Peers cooperate to identify the health information and evaluate intended messages. Students present their conclusions orally to their peers, including suggestions to change the ads to help consumers to make informed purchase decisions. This lesson should be used as one component of a unit on consumer health education.
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.
http://www.eduref.org/cgi-bin/printlessons.cgi/Virtual/Lessons
Free
Kellogg Special K Ads
This lesson helps students understand the relationship between body image and marketing by exploring the Kellogg’s Special K “look good on your own terms” advertising campaign. Students begin by reading about this award-winning, controversial campaign which uses humor to skewer traditional advertising stereotypes about thinness. Students will deconstruct a series of Special K ads and discuss how marketers target “ideal beauty” messages to both men and women. Students will also look at the differences between the different marketing campaigns for Special K that have been used with Canadian and American women.
Sponsor: Media Awareness Network
Contact: http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/resources
Free
Macmillan McGraw Hill Lesson Plans and Activity Sheets Cybersmarts Identifying High Quality Sites
Students learn that, because anyone can publish on the Web, they must carefully evaluate the sites they use for research. They review evaluation criteria and use a checklist to "grade" informational sites. Students will learn how the ease of publishing on the World Wide Web may affect the usefulness of some sites' content. Students will interpret the criteria on a site evaluation checklist and apply the checklist to a site, evaluating its usefulness. The activity sheet may be downloaded in PDF format.
Grades 6-8
Contact: http://www.cybersmartcurriculum.org
Free
Magazine Ads and You, the Teenager
Grades: 6-8
Advertising is often aimed directly at young people. Not only do they spend $70 billion a year, but they influence their parents' purchases also. Youth are hit by certain appeals - appeals to be like everybody else, sex appeal, even negative appeal. This activity is to increase student awareness of persuasion tactics as seen in magazine advertising.
Sponsor: Ask Eric
Contact: http://www.eduref.org (select lesson plans – health – consumer health)
Free
MedlinePlus: Evaluating Health Information
Filled with tips on how to evaluate health information. This well organized website links the reader to reliable resource, for instance the NLM and NIH Guide to Healthy Web Surfing, the Federal Trade Commission Health Claims on the Internet: Buyer Beware and American Psychological Association Watch for Commercial Influences.
Sponsor: National Library of Medicine & National Institute of Health
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/evaluatinghealthinformation.html
Free
New York Times Daily Lesson Plan>Diagnosing Delusions: Debunking Common Medical Myths Through Education
In this lesson, after reading a background article from the New York Times, students learn how widespread medical myths can be potentially dangerous. They then synthesize their knowledge by creating pamphlets that help patients learn the facts behind some commonly believed medical myths.
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>Organic Feud: Assessing Reasons to Buy or Abstain from the Organic Foods Market
In this lesson, students examine possible pesticide exposure in their fruit and vegetable consumption. They then compile fact sheets exploring various organic food issues and interview their parents about the food choices they make for their children.
Sponsor: The New York Times in partnership with the Bank Street College of Education in NYC
http://www.nytimes.com/learning/teachers/lessons
Free
New York Times Daily Lesson Plan>'Got Milk?' or 'Not Milk!'? - That Is the Question! Critically Analyzing Information about Dairy Products on the Internet
In this lesson, students critically analyze Web sites that present different sides of the controversial milk debate (good for you/not good for you).
Sponsor: The New York Times in partnership with the Bank Street College of Education in NYC
http://www.nytimes.com/learning/teachers/lessons
Free
New York Times Daily Lesson Plan>Herbs: Healthy Alternatives or Bad Medicine? Comparing Herbal and Pharmaceutical Remedies for Common Ailments
In this lesson, students compare herbal and pharmaceutical remedies for common ailments. Students will investigate the reported effects and warnings about specific herbal and pharmaceutical remedies used to treat common ailments and develop comparison/ contrast charts exploring the researched herbal and pharmaceutical remedies.
Sponsor: The New York Times in partnership with the Bank Street College of Education in NYC
http://www.nytimes.com/learning/teachers/lessons
Free
The New York Times Daily Lesson Plans. Bigger Than Life, But Not Necessarily Better
Evaluating Images of Health in American Society: A Science Lesson
In this lesson, students examine where one develops his or her views about health and ways in which different products promote specific ideas of what should be seen as healthy. Students then investigate different ways in which people alter their bodies to become more like the "ideal"' picture of health promoted in American society and assess the marketing of dolls, action figures, and nutritional supplements, focusing on the images of health that they present.
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
Additional Instructional Resources
- Coalition For Consumer Rights – http://www.coalitionforconsumerrights.org
- Consumer Product Safety Commission’s Kidd Safety - http://www.education-world.com/parents/health/safety.shtml
- Consumer Protection – http://www.ftc.gov/ftc/consumer.htm
- Digital Consumer Rights – http://www.ftc.gov/ftc/consumer.htm
- ERIC Digest - http://www.ericdigests.org/1998-2/health.htm
- Foundation for Consumer Rights – http://www.consumerwatchdog.org
- Health Teacher – http://healthteacher.com/lessonguides
- Medical Library Association - http://www.mlanet.org/resources/userguide.html
- U.S. Department of Energy Biological and Environmental Research - http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome
- U.S. General Services Administration, Federal Citizen Information Center, Office of Citizen Services and Communications -http://www.consumer.gov
Assessment Ideas
The student will:
- write a two-page research paper on the history of consumer demands for product safety, reliable health services, etc.
- relate the historical research to modern-day consumer issues.
- explain the difference between solutions to service problems and solutions to product problems.
