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Making Health & Science Connections
Integrating health in the middle school science classroom is an effective
strategy. You find overlap in science and health Essential Academic
Learning Requirements (EALRs), and your lessons often reach other content areas
as well. Providing scientific evidence or the "science" behind
the health information that is taught strengthens students' knowledge and
understanding of health and science topics. Curriculum projects such as Science,
Tobacco and You are increasing in popularity because they are based on
science principles. The goal of Science,
Tobacco & You is to encourage students to use science to ask and answer
questions to promote scientific literacy; in this case, the medium used is the
issue of tobacco use and prevention.
HIV and FLASH
Your students are as interested in the "science" of HIV and AIDS as
they are in the "health" of HIV and AIDS. Offering FLASH lessons
in your science class is a useful approach. If you need additional FLASH
resources, consider these links:
FLASH Lesson Plans - http://www.metrokc.gov/health/famplan/flash/index.htm
HIV/AIDS Program - Health Educators Toolbox - http://www.metrokc.gov/health/apu/healthed/index.htm
The Body: An AIDS and Information Resource - http://www.thebody.com/index.shtml
CDC Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention - http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/dhap.htm
Johns Hopkins HIV Life Cycle Animation - http://hopkins-aids.edu/hiv_lifecycle/hivcycle_txt.html
Programs that Meet Multiple EALR Content Areas
Healthy Mothers/Healthy Babies of Washington
created a brief curriculum called, Invisible
Bugs in the Bod. In the Introduction to the curriculum, they offered
the range of health and science EALRs the curriculum content covers.
In three, active lessons, the Invisible Bugs in the Bod
curriculum helps students in Grades 4 – 6 learn more about:
- The shape and structure of cells
- The role and appearance of DNA
- The form of various germs, especially viruses and
bacteria, with a fun experiment
- The common diseases that make kids sick
- A variety of healthy actions kids can take to keep
themselves well, including immunization
Science, Tobacco and You is also an example. This curriculum resource
is linked to the National Science Education Standards.
Links with Life Science and Human Biology
If your class includes Life Science or Human Biology, you will find that
colleagues nationwide have given you some great classroom suggestions
online. Visit Mrs. Vilenski's 7th grade Life Science web site in the
Fairfield Public Schools in Fairfield, CT - http://www.vilenski.org/science/index.html.
Don't miss the link to the Human
Body Adventure or the Human
Biology Links that Mrs. Vilenski offers.
Science Resources that Match Health EALRs
Look for the match between the Science EALRs and the Health EALRs and your
course content. One area of interest to students is genetics. Some
teachers are surprised to learn that genetics is covered in the Health EALRs.
There is a progression across the Health EALR #2:
- Benchmark 1 - Identify hereditary factors that affect growth &
development
- Benchmark 2 - Identify hereditary factors that affect growth, development,
and health
- Benchmark 3 - Develop strategies to manage hereditary factors that affect
growth, development, and health
This may be a good match for a resource like the Eisenhower National
Clearinghouse (ENC) resource on medical genetics - http://www.enc.org/focus/genetics/.
The link offers you three grade levels. If you choose Genetics for Grades
5 - 8, you will be directed to an instructional resource, "Investigating
Genetics with Your Middle School Students."
While you are visiting ENC, you may want to subscribe to the Digital Dozen -
12 math and science web sites shared each month - http://www.enc.org/features/dd/?ls=fe
This page was created by Margo Harris for the Seattle
Public Schools. For comments about this page, contact Margo
at margo@pnwhealth.com
This page was last updated January 15, 2004 .
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