SUMMER HEALTH INFOGRAPHICS

SUMMER HEALTH INFOGRAPHICS

8 Themes from the Documentary ESCAPE FIRE

https://infogr.am/preventing-disease?src=web

In his Last Lecture, Randy Pausch tells of being floored when he saw the first projects created by the students of his Virtual Worlds Course at Carnegie Mellon.  He approached his mentor and asked, "What do I do? They surpassed all expectations."  His mentor suggested,  "Tell the students, that they did a fine job, but I think you can do better."

This is great advice and I am at that same point with my Summer Health students as they have simply floored me with the Infographics that they created in response to the issues shared in the documentary "Escape Fire".  In a previous blog, "The Value of Information - Infographics in the Classroom" I described the assignment and the process of preparing the students for this project.  Today students shared their Infographics with the class and I was just BLOWN AWAY.  While the Infographics are not perfect, and there could be some tweaks here and there, these son to be Sophomores amazed me with their research, data and the infographics each group created.  WOW!!!

http://piktochart.com

http://infogr.am

http://create.visual.ly

Add a Wellness Thread to Your Anatomy Class

Add a Wellness Thread to Your Anatomy Class

This year my colleague and I added a wellness thread as one of the projects for our anatomy class. 

Over the years we had seen that as students develop a better understanding of the mechanisms of anatomy and physiology that their interest in health, diet and maintaining health recuperation from injury becomes more acute than when they took a health class freshman year. 

We decided to approach this by creating a "Wellness Project" as part of our anatomy curriculum.  
The project included several parts that would not have been possible without the increased time in class provided by "flipping" much of our content. 

First we viewed and discussed two documentaries, Escape Fire and Food Matters.

   

Escape Fire on iTunes  -  http://bit.ly/1wsCNG0   
Escape Fire Viewing Guide  -  http://bit.ly/1py8ppI  
Food Matters on iTunes  -  http://bit.ly/Ts8cKh

These two documentaries provide an outstanding back drop to our health care system and the role of food and vitamins in our daily lives. 

Next we had did a FaceTime remote with a National Health Policy Analyst who shared the need for our health care system to transition from a "disease management" focus to a "wellness" focus.  We are fortunate in my daughter is currently working in Washington DC on health care policy. 

Next we assigned students to complete five TEDitorials to editorialize TED Talks  that deal with transitions in our current health care model. 

(http://flipped4science.blogspot.com/2014/06/15-teds-to-add-health-and-wellness.html)

The last part of the project was for students to complete an analysis of their diet, exercise and lifestyle for four weeks.  Students used a Fitness Tracker at http://www.onlinefitnesslog.com to create a food and exercise log and to analyze nutritional content. 

Students then presented a two week analysis of their diet and exercise in a Weebly.  Analysis include caloric intake and expenditure, macro and micro nutrients in their diet, and an evaluation of their overall lifestyle.  

As students transition from high school to college it is of vital importance that students are aware of their personal health and the choices they make.  Not only in food and exercise but in dealing with their own health care through the systems that are set up for them.