Archive: SP24: Health DataWell: HS Life Science Instructional Materials, June 4, 2024

Health Datawell provides free lesson plans and storyline units to help high school students understand the varied roles of citizens and health scientists in protecting and promoting the health and wellness of their communities. These instructional materials could be used in a variety of courses including Biology, Environmental Science, Anatomy, and AP Biology.

This session will focus on introducing participants to the Using Data to Understand and Improve Health Outcomes storyline unit. Storylines start with an anchoring phenomenon that introduces a question or problem. Each step in a storyline unit is then driven by students’ questions that arise from the phenomenon. In this case, the anchoring phenomenon is disparities in health outcomes from respiratory diseases. Students analyze data about the Top 10 Causes of Death Globally by Income Group between 2000 and 2019 and note that respiratory diseases are in the top five causes of death across income categories. However, the order and specific type of disease differ by income group and geography. To begin to explain these differences, students decide to look at data on a smaller scale – states and counties in the United States. This data introduces additional disparities in both case numbers and health outcomes. 

The first day of the unit provides opportunities for students to consider what they do and don't know about feedback mechanisms in the body, the respiratory and immune systems, respiratory diseases, air pollution, and public health. In doing so, they will begin to make sense of and apply the following Disciplinary Core Ideas: LS1.A Structure and Function, LS3.B Variation of Traits, and ETS1.C Optimizing the Design Solution. This session will outline how to find state and county data that is relevant to your students and will provide opportunities for participants to practice using data tools.

All individuals receive a certificate of participation and 100 NSTA activity points for attending the live seminar and completing the end-of-program survey. A certificate of participation is not awarded for watching the recorded version of the program. 

We invite you to register for upcoming web seminars - invite your colleagues too!

View the Archive Video

To view the presentation slides from the web seminar and related resources, visit the resource collection. Continue discussing this topic in the community forums.

Below are comments from individuals who attended the seminar:

  • "I enjoyed having an opportunity to see the resource as it might be presented in the classroom and getting a better understanding of why the lessons go in a certain order."
  • "I liked that it was so interactive, and the material was so relevant."
  • "I love the idea of using this technique and allowing student questions to direct instruction."
  • "This is great info that can be used for the next year when teaching the topic."
  • "What I found to be the most interesting was seeing how each section of the storyline builds. I also really like the graphic organizer to record student questions and outcomes."

A certificate of attendance was deposited into participants' account page for completing the evaluation form at the end of the program.

For more information contact: [email protected]

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