Health and Safety Curriculum Print

Components of the Adventure Scouts USA Learning-by-Doing Health and Safety Program

Classroom portion:

The classroom portion consists of a curriculum for various subjects, such as history, math, and science.  Each curriculum includes important details, such as ideas for group discussions, classroom activities, the estimated educational timeframe, character education, and information on assessment of students.

Visit portion:

During the visit portion, actual professionals from the community, such as nutritionists and fitness experts come into the school and work with the students, enabling them to acquire knowledge through learning by doing. We prefer that each student work one on one with a professional.

Standards Based

We have endeavored to create standards-based curriculums for students to be used in the classroom.  We encourage educators to make necessary modifications to ensure the curriculum meets standards in their district.

Experiential Education

As educators know, experiential education is an educational philosophy centered around learning-by-doing.  Local experts in a particular field come into the school and give learning-by-doing presentations about a subject matter.  Students are enabled to engage actively in hands-on activities. 

Leadership

Leadership is an important part of the program.  Students acquire knowledge while learning to communicate, how to be resourceful, and how to lead.

Structure of the Program

Our curriculum is designed to be implemented either as a stand-alone curriculum or as part of your already existing curriculum. 

The program has three components:

Educator’s note:

Please feel free to alter curriculum if necessary to fulfill district standards.  We provide examples for in-class discussion, assignments, a Character Education section, which is an opportunity to critically think about and discuss how good character relates to the subject.
 
Program Name:

Learning by Doing Health and Safety

Curriculum Overview

Currently, we have a curriculum on four different subjects:  art, health and safety, home and auto improvement, and financial education.  Students develop their creative and critical thinking skills as well as their leadership skills while taking part.
Program Name:

Learning by Doing Health and Safety

Grade Level:
7-12

Sample Classroom Curriculum for the following subjects:
* History
* English
* Science
* Math

Subject: History

Estimated instructional time:

One class period, 15-50 minutes

Class Period 1:

Performance Standards:

* Learns from Models
* Reviews Progress
* Evaluates Performance
* Participation in the Establishment and Operation of Self-directed Work Teams
* Plans and Carries out Strategies for Introducing Students to New Concepts
* Explains the Structure of a System
* Analyzes the Way the System Works
* Develops and Tests Strategies
* Evaluates the Effectiveness of Strategies

Unit/ Focus Objectives:

* By the end of this material, students will be introduced to the history of occupational safety.
Class Discussion:
Educators introduce the topic of occupational safety.  Students discuss the history of safety in the workplace, such as why it took so long to get safety measure enacted to protect workers, what role Unions played in the history of occupational safety, and when child labor laws were passed.

Discussion and Critical Thinking Questions

* Why would an employer refuse to voluntarily adopt occupational safety standards?
* Do you think the cost was an acceptable reason not to adopt occupational safety standards?
* Many early Union organizers were hurt or killed, or their families were hurt or killed when they attempted to organize.  Describe how cultural attitudes at the time favored a business owner over a worker, who may have been an immigrant.

Class Assignment:

Students write an essay on one of the following events:
* Mother Jones leads the March of Mill Children to President Roosevelt's front door in 1903.  Many of the children were victims of industrial accidents.
* In 1911, 146 workers, mostly women, die in a fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company in New York City.  This leads to the creation of the New York Factory Investigating Commission, created to monitor factory safety.
* In 1916, a child labor law is passed but is declared unconstitutional.  What are the reasons people had for wanting to continue child labor?

Activities and Materials Needed:  Local hospitals and pharmacies can donate for the day

Class Format:

* Class discussion
* Individual work

Character Education:

The reasons given in the past by employers for not voluntarily improving occupational safety was that the cost was too high, and they would have to fire employees to pay for it.  Many courts ruled against Union workers trying to protect their safety, ruling that they were interfering with the business owner's right to do business or interfering with free trade.  What do you think of those reasons?  Are they fair in your opinion?  What were some of the cultural ideas at the time which led to the court's reasoning?  Are any of those ideas still prevalent today?

Assessment: 

Test and Quizzes as Appropriate

Grading of essay

Subject: Science

Class Period 1:

Estimated instructional time:

One class period, 15-50 minutes

Performance Standards:

* Learns from Models
* Reviews Progress
* Evaluates Performance
* Participation in the Establishment and Operation of Self-directed Work Teams
* Plans and Carries out Strategies for Introducing Students to New Concepts
* Explains the Structure of a System
* Analyzes the Way the System Works
* Develops and Tests Strategies
* Evaluates the Effectiveness of Strategies

Unit/ Focus Objectives:

* By the end this material, students will know how to measure their BMI (Body Mass Index).

Group Discussion:

Educators explain what the Body Mass Index is and how it works.  They also discuss the Disease Risk Chart based on individual BMI.

Discussion and Critical Thinking Questions

* What are some of the ways you stay in shape?
* If your BMI is too high or too low, what are some to things you can do to change it?

Class Assignment:

Students figure out their own individual BMI and what the projected affect on their health will be.

Activities and Materials Needed:

* A chart to determine BMI based on height and weight.
* A chart showing potential health risks based on individual BMI.

Class Format:

* Class discussion
* Individual work

Character Education:

Many people who are overweight have experienced discrimination.  Have you seen someone in you school made fun of or discriminated against for their size?  What do you think can be done about discrimination against those who are overweight?

Assessment: 

Test and Quizzes as Appropriate

Grading of student's ability to find their BMI

Subject: Math

Class Period 1:

Estimated instructional time:

One class period, 5-50 minutes

Performance Standards:

* Learns from Models
* Reviews Progress
* Evaluates Performance
* Participation in the Establishment and Operation of Self-directed Work Teams
* Plans and Carries out Strategies for Introducing Students to New Concepts
* Explains the Structure of a System
* Analyzes the Way the System Works
* Develops and Tests Strategies
* Evaluates the Effectiveness of Strategies

Unit/ Focus Objectives:

* By the end of this material, students will understand how many calories they consume from sugar in the average day.
Group Discussion:
Educators explain the affect of sugar in the body.  Students discuss their eating habits and what kinds of foods they eat. Educators describe how to use a nutritional label to determine the amount of sugar in a food.  Sugar generally has 20 calories were teaspoon and 400 calories per 100 grams.
 
Discussion and Critical Thinking Questions

* Why is it important to eliminate excess sugar consumption?
* What effect does too much sugar have on the body?

Class Assignment:

Students collect packages of food in their homes which they regularly eat.  They check the nutritional labels, and using the formula that every 100 grams of sugar equals 400 calories, they determine approximately how many calories from sugar they consume in a day.

Activities/ Materials:

* A nutritional label

Class Format:

* Class discussion
* Individual work

Character Education:

Many foods marketed to young people contain more sugar than those marketed to adults.  These products often feature cartoon characters on the label, promises of free toys inside the box, and youth-oriented TV commercials.  Did you realize that many unhealthy foods are being marketed directly to you?  Do you think it is ethically acceptable to market unhealthy foods to youth?

Assessment: 

Test and Quizzes as Appropriate

Grading of accuracy determining how many calories from sugar a student consumes in a day

Subject: English

Class Period 1:

Estimated instructional time:

One class period, 15-50 minutes

Performance Standards:
* Learns from Models
* Reviews Progress
* Evaluates Performance
* Participation in the Establishment and Operation of Self-directed Work Teams
* Plans and Carries out Strategies for Introducing Students to New Concepts
* Explains the Structure of a System
* Analyzes the Way the System Works
* Develops and Tests Strategies
* Evaluates the Effectiveness of Strategies

Unit/ Focus Objectives:

* By the end this material, students will have created a safety plan for their school.

Group Discussion:

Educators pass out safety material from the school.  Students discuss which rules they agree with, which they disagree with, and why.  Students discuss what rules they would add to the safety material.
 
Discussion and Critical Thinking Questions

* What are the basic safety rules of your school?
* Why do you think your school has provided you with safety rules?
* In your opinion, are the safety effective?

Class Assignment:

Students create their own safety materials.  They decide which rules are needed to keep the students safe (they can be anything from not running in the halls, to metal detectors).  If they decide current safety rules are not effective, what types of rules or equipment would they add to make them more effective?

Activities and Materials Needed:

* School safety material

Class Format:
* Class discussion
* Individual work

Character Education:

Sometimes students do not follow safety rules because they do not want to, or do no understand why they are needed.  Did creating your own safety materials help you understand why safety rules are needed in your school?  Did you gain an appreciation of how difficult it can be to plan for various potential accidents?

Assessment: 

Test and Quizzes as Appropriate
Grading of safety materials

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

Last Updated ( Wednesday, 09 January 2008 03:02 )