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Resources/Materials Needed:
Local Health Report
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Target Age Group: 13-14
years
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Curriculum Areas: PSHE,
Science, Geography, ICT, Art
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Method Used: Role Playing,
Investigation/Research, Report Writing
Health and the environment are closely
linked. As pollution levels rise and spread more widely across our world, we see
the effects on the health of not just Mother Earth but ourselves as well.
In the 3.
Measuring Air and Water Pollution we already mentioned water and air
pollution as main cause of child mortality. Other examples of health problems
are skin cancer from exposure to ultraviolet light, impaired child development
from lead in the atmosphere, more cases of asthma in young people, and more
typhoid and cholera after floods. All these are on the rise. This activity
encourages students to investigate the environmental problems that could lead to
health concerns in their community. Learn more at the section Weather, climate and human health
of Cawedu.net.
Imagine you (the teacher) are an
Environmental Health Consultant who has been awarded a contract to assess the
health of the community. A final report will have to be submitted by a deadline
to the Local Health Authority. Their costs have been increasing as more and more
people in the local community are
suffering ill health. The Health Authority has an idea that it is connected to
the obvious deterioration in the local environment. They want to identify causes
and receive suggestions for action to improve the state of the community
environment, thus reducing illness and therefore costs.
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Prepare a questionnaire based on a local health report.
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Introduce yourself to the class as an Environmental Health
Consultant. Inform the class they have been selected to help the Local Health
Authority determine the sources of health problems in their community.
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Split the group up into separate groups, or “Agency Teams”, of
5-6 students, each producing a separate report.
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Ask the students to answer the questions in the next week: some of
the questions can be answered by the students themselves while other answers
will come from questioning their peers, families and the general public.
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Explain to the students that the questionnaire aims at researching
what the local environmental problems are, where they occur, at what times of
year, and what, if any, is their direct link to health issues.
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Collect all the questionnaires and sum up the outcomes on the
black board.
► Discuss what kind of environmental problems occur in the
local environment. This can be
done through the results of the questionnaire, but can also be done by seeing
what issues come up from the students’ discussion in the classroom.
► Ask each group to analyze the results of their own
investigation and make a report of their findings for the “Local Health
Authority” (teacher).
This Activity allows students to
investigate their surroundings and to determine the origin of environmental and
health problems that may plague their community. It
provides them with a sense of empowerment, to be able to identify the problems
and make a report of their findings.
A well designed investigation and report.
(This science project suggestion has
been adapted from Pachamama Teacher's Guide, UNEP, ISBN: 92-807-2147-X)
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