Workshop Detail - Summer Institute

(4-7): What your Students Need to Know About Diet, Sun Exposure and Tobacco Use
presented by Norine Douglas, M.Ed., (Bastrop ISD)
Curriculum Developed by The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center

This workshop will address the most pressing environmental health issues facing our communities, including healthy diet, sun exposure and smoking. Teachers will become familiar with the Veggie-Mon website and how to incorporate lessons on three major Science and Health topics for grades 4-8 (sun exposure, tobacco education and nutrition). Teachers will receive a series of accompanying lesson plans for teaching each of these three topics.

Obesity contributes significantly to a variety of diseases, including heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure and cancer. Today, one-third of all Americans are overweight and almost 300,000 deaths can be attributed to poor nutrition and a lack of exercise. A main thrust of the Veggie-Mon site is to promote good, balanced nutrition and a healthy cancer prevention diet that may reduce lifetime cancer risk by up to 30%.

Oxidation Experiment - Conduct a simple experiment using lemons and apples to illustrate the effects of antioxidants.

A problem facing residents of the “sun belt” is the increasing incidence of skin cancers, including deadly melanoma. While visiting the

website, students can virtually join CRED scientists on an Antarctic expedition to study UV-induced DNA damage and learn about preventing skin cancer. Another section called “Informative Fish” explains the use of a tropical fish model to study the mechanisms by which UV radiation in sunlight contributes to the development of melanoma.

Understanding Ultraviolet Light - Evaluate UV protection afforded by a variety of protectants including sunglasses and sunscreen lotion.
UV Exposure Prevention Plan - Using a risk assessment framework develop a prevention plan to reduce the risk of skin cancer.

The purpose of this section is to provide exciting and interactive information that assists students in understanding the harmful health effects of tobacco use. Rather than relying upon scare tactics, the site presents scientific information about the effects of tobacco on the body and alerts students to the cultural attitudes and peer pressures that may influence decisions about smoking. Students take a virtual journey along Tobacco Road, where they confront billboards with messages about smoking (Figure 4). Through animation of Igna-Ray-Mouse, a smoker, students learn about the harmful health effects of tobacco products on different organs and organ systems (Figure 5). Other sections of the website include: Oxygen to Live, Genetics, Risk Factors, Cancers Related to Tobacco and Games & Puzzles.

Don't Be an Igna-Ray-Mouse
Analyze tobacco advertisements and describe the marketing techniques used to target youth - Discuss implications of smoking on health and develop an anti-tobacco campaign to share with students in school.

Norine was born and raised in the Austin area. She has a B.A. and a B.S. in Elementary Education and Social Sciences and a M.Ed. in Bilingual Education. She is currently finishing her Ph.D. at Berne University in Educational Administration. Norine has 30 years experience in bilingual elementary education and educational administration in Texas school districts. She has presented workshops on such varied subjects as Early Language and Literacy, Music and Literacy Connections, Learning Styles, and Strategies for At-Risk Learners. She lives at home in Smithville with her husband, David. Their youngest son, Josiah, just graduated from high school and shipped out to the U.S. Army, so she is experiencing extreme empty nest syndrome!

Workshop Detail: Wednesday, July 22, 2009