Understanding the Environmental Health Issues Facing Urban Environments
Obesity and Absence of Physical Activity
Weight is something my students tease each other about on a regular basis, whether they are overweight or underweight, they find endless entertainment in cracking a joke about someone's weight. While on the surface there is a great deal of laughter about the subject, deep down many of my overweight students are very unhappy about their weight. They know that they struggle climbing stairs and find themselves lagging behind in gym class. I see some students feeling left out during school spirit days, when the class T-shirt that fits their friends doesn't fit them. Over the last thirty years, the prevalence of childhood obesity, in terms of body mass index (BMI), has tripled. Of American children ages six to eleven, approximately 30 percent are overweight and 15 percent are obese.
African American children, which make up a majority of my student population, have even higher rates: among African American girls ages six to eleven, approximately 38 percent are overweight and 22 percent are obese. 4
Many of my students carry around the burden of obesity and don't understand what is causing it. There could be numerous factors causing obesity: inactivity, stress, genetics, chemical and hormonal imbalances, and prescription medications could all be contributors. I would like my students understand that there are many factors that cause obesity, and hone their investigation to look at environmental and behavioral habits that the ECCL could play a role in influencing.
Guiding Questions: Obesity and Absence of Physical Activity
What health risks are associated with obesity and absence of physical activity?
Is obesity and absence of physical activity an issue in our community?
How can we address obesity and absence of physical activity in an open, sensitive, and constructive manner?
Learning Activities: Obesity and Absence of Physical Activity
To introduce the issue of obesity and absence of physical activity, students will engage in a meaning making activity (students exchange personal knowledge and experience with the perspectives of others to construct common definitions and knowledge) with the Guiding Questions that have been put forth to the class and are posted in large format in the classroom. Writing on post-it notes, students will generate possible initial thoughts and answers to the Guiding Questions posed to them and put those post-its on and around each of the Guiding Questions. Then students will participate in a gallery walk where they will read each other's responses. Following, we will gather around the Guiding Questions and post-it note responses to discuss current understating and further questions around this issue.
To develop a deeper understanding of the issue of obesity and absence of physical activity, students will read individually and in small groups during one to two class periods from the book Making healthy places designing and building for health, well-being, and sustainability with a focus on chapter two: "Community Design for Physical Activity" and chapter three: "Food Environments". Chapters from this book will be available to students to view in PDF format on a class set of iPads. Students will read and annotate comments, connections, and questions using the app iAnnotate, then send their annotations to me via the app Dropbox. For the next class period students' annotations from readings will be printed in large font and hung around the art studio. This class period will begin with a reminder of the Guiding Questions that focus on obesity and absence of physical activity, then students will participate in a gallery walk where they will have a short amount of time to walk around the room and read each others' annotations. Then students will break into eight groups with their iPads and annotations to discuss the readings further. Students will use the Project Zero thinking routine: I used to think…But now I think… as a framework for this discussion. Following the small group discussions, students will summarize and share out from their group conversation using the Project Zero thinking routine: Headlines. The headlines that students produce will be added our learning wall.
Safety & Personal Security
"They shot up Raven's 5 block yesterday" one student said. "I heard the police found eighty-one shells in the street" added another somberly. "Yeah, but they didn't get anyone" said a third student as if everything was fine because no one was actually hit by a bullet. Their classmate, Raven was home sick with the flu the day before when gunfire erupted on her street. When she had not returned to school the next day or responded to her friends' text messages they were concerned. When she finally did return to class, she assured us that it was "No big deal. When they started shooting and I just hid under the bed. It wasn't as bad as the week before when I was at my auntie's house and they started shooting."
At first I was struck by Raven's lack of concern for her personal safety. She seemed more concerned about convincing everyone else that it was really not "that bad". I quickly realized that to protect herself, she had detached emotionally from what had just happened. Raven had become very good at detaching herself from the violence around her since she had been wounded in the arm by gunfire while attending a Halloween party last fall. Months of painful surgeries and physical therapy had given her back some mobility and left her elbow covered with scars. It wasn't until that afternoon that I recognized Raven's other, more hidden scars.
Raven's story is not unique to the students at my school. About two thirds of my students know one or more people who have died from gun violence and nearly all of them know someone who had been wounded. Instead of doodling the names of classmates they have crushes on or favorite bands, my students write the names those they've lost over and over on their notebooks. They write poetry and draw in their sketchbooks about hearing gunshots at night when they try to sleep. My students are painfully aware each day that their neighborhood is not safe.
Creating safe and secure spaces is something my students desperately need in their lives and the design of the ECCL could be a step toward bringing a sense of safety and security to our community. It will be important for students to look at the multiple uses of the ECCL facilities to understand how use by a range of people over different parts of the day is possible. The more diverse in terms of age, race, and income the users of the ECCL are over a longer period of the day will likely provide additional security. Community spaces that are accessed in the evenings and on weekends in addition to weekday use avoid large spans of time when they are inactive and susceptible to inappropriate use. Students will also examine how to design lighting, landscaping, around buildings could lend an air of openness and visibility to the center. Creating a space that encourages use by more residents is also likely to instill a greater sense of ownership and investment in maintaining the ECCL. Students will examine the factors that create a facility that encourages diverse use.
Guiding Questions: Safety and Personal Security
What are health issues associated with safety and personal security?
Is safety and personal security an issue in our community?
How can we address safety and personal security in an open, sensitive, and constructive manner?
Learning Activities: Safety and Personal Security
To introduce the issue of safety and personal security, students will engage in a meaning making activity with the Guiding Questions that have been put forth to the class and are posted in large format in the classroom. Writing on post-it notes, students will generate possible initial thoughts and answers to the Guiding Questions and put those post-its on and around each of the Guiding Questions. Then students will participate in a gallery walk where they will read each other's responses. Following, we will gather around the Guiding Questions and post-it note responses to discuss understating and further questions around this issue.
To develop a deeper understanding of the issue of safety and personal security, students will read individually and in small groups during one period from the book Making healthy places designing and building for health, well-being, and sustainability with a focus on chapter five: "Injuries and the Built Environment". Students will read and annotate comments, connections, and questions using the app iAnnotate, then send their annotations to me via the app Dropbox. For the next class period students' annotations from readings will be printed in large font and hung around the art studio. This class period will begin with a reminder of the Guiding Questions that focus on safety and personal security, then students will participate in a gallery walk where they will have a short amount of time to walk around the room and read each others' annotations. Then students will break into eight groups with their iPads and annotations to discuss the readings. Students will use the Project Zero thinking routine: I used to think…But now I think… as a framework for this discussion. Following the small group discussions, students come back to whole class discussion. With teacher guidance, students will generate a list of new terms and words that might be helpful to add to our learning wall. A couple of students will chart as student suggest and define these terms/words and lists will be added to the learning wall.
Air pollution and Respiratory Health
My colleagues and I encourage our students to get outside, to be active, and exercise often because we know it is good for their physical health, however there are increased risks to their respiratory health when they inhale polluted air while physically exerting themselves. Groups of boys frequently come to class covered in sweat and struggling to catch their breath because they were outside during lunch playing soccer or basketball. Some of them know that their respiratory distress occurs because of a background of asthma that has been triggered by their increased physical activity on a hot day. What they might not recognize is that prior ozone exposure while playing outside may have contributed to them developing asthma in the first place. 6
When thinking about air pollution, it is easy to only consider the quality of outdoor air. When we see clouds of smoke or haze, we know that the air is not safe to breathe, but what about the air pollution that we cannot see? Knowing how to recognize air contaminants that are not visible will be critical for my students to understand as they begin their design work on the ECCL. For example they will have to consider the impact of outdoor contaminants that are able to enter the indoor environment through ventilation systems and open windows. Students may initially think of open windows near heavily auto trafficked streets, however there may also be materials located on our campus that off gas and directly contribute to air pollution. The design team of the ECCL have discussed replacing our current grass athletic field with one made of recycled synthetic materials. The synthetic material has been presented as better choice because it is perceived require lower maintenance and therefore a lower cost option. However air tests on synthetic fields show the presence of chemical carcinogens, neurotoxins, respiratory toxins and skin and eye irritants. The concentrations vary among fields and among samples by factors of two to ten times. A study released by Environmental and Human Health, INC. found that increasing the period of air sampling from two hours to six hours raised the number of different chemicals identified on the fields. Synthetic fields also retain heat at greater rates than grass fields, during testing summer temperatures consistently reached 90 degrees with fields frequently exceeding temperatures over 135 degrees. Higher temperatures would increase the off gassing of chemicals and cause greater health risks. 7 Students will investigate how different building materials as well as how building structures and landscaping can contribute to air filtering and better respiratory health.
Guiding Questions: Air Pollution and Respiratory Health
What health issues are associated with air pollution and respiratory health?
Is air pollution and respiratory health an issue in our community?
How can we address air pollution and respiratory health in an open, sensitive, and constructive manner?
Learning Activities: Air Pollution and Respiratory Health
To introduce the issue of air pollution and respiratory health, students will engage in a meaning making activity with the Guiding Questions that have been put forth to the class and are posted in large format in the classroom. Writing on post-it notes, students will generate possible initial thoughts and answers to the Guiding Questions and put those post-its on and around each of the Guiding Questions. Then students will participate in a gallery walk where they will read each other's responses. Following, we will gather around the Guiding Questions and post-it note responses to discuss understating and further questions around this issue.
To develop a deeper understanding of the issue of air pollution and respiratory health, students will read individually and in small groups during one to two class periods from the book Making healthy places designing and building for health, well-being, and sustainability with a focus on chapter four: "Community Design and Air Quality" and chapter fourteen: "Healthy Schools". Students will read and annotate comments, connections, and questions using the app iAnnotate, then send their annotations to me via the app Dropbox. For the next class period students' annotations from readings will be printed in large font and hung around the art studio. This class period will begin with a reminder of the Guiding Questions that focus on air pollution and respiratory health, then students will participate in a gallery walk where they will have a short amount of time to walk around the room and read each others' annotations. Then students will break into eight groups with their iPads and annotations to discuss the readings. Students will use the Project Zero thinking routine: I used to think…But now I think… as a framework for this discussion. Following the small group discussions, students come back to whole class discussion. With teacher guidance, students will generate a list of reoccurring themes or similarities between the urban environmental health issues they are learning about to add to our learning wall. A couple of students will chart responses and lists will be added to the learning wall.
Absence of Green/Recreational Space
Emeryville's children, many of which live in multi-unit buildings without balconies, or grassy lawns, spend a great deal of time inside. There are six parks in our city, and they are built mostly from man-made materials such as concrete and steel. Many of our parks are far from my students' homes in the older residential area of Emeryville. Marina Park, the largest in Emeryville is covered in grass and surrounded by large trees. The park has seven and a half acres filled with picnic tables, BBQ grills, trails, and a beach/shoreline not to mention the stunning views of Sausalito, Alcatraz Island, the Golden Gate Bridge, and the San Francisco skyline. However to take advantage of these landmark views you need to travel to the westernmost edge of the city, crossing under the I80 freeway. This remote area is best accessed by car. Two free bus routes provided by the Emeryville business community service this area, one is an express bus that travels to the light rail train Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) station in Oakland and the other travels along the commercial shopping district, neither have stops or intersecting routes that are near the older residential areas of Emeryville. Marina Park could be an ideal location for families to gather on weekends and for schools to have events, however its inaccessibility by public transportation limits those who can take advantage of its resources.
Some of our smaller parks have planter boxes and small areas with grass or shrubs. Three of our parks have basketball courts these parks also have picnic tables and playgrounds, but only one has a bathroom and no park has a space for a soccer game which is a favorite sport among many of my students. These three parks are small and the largest is only an acre and three quarters. Though there is a lot for the small footprint, these parks do not include much space for overlapping activities to take place, which can isolate individuals rather than connect community members. Creating green/recreational spaces that adapt to multiple activities at a time through out the day is a design challenge that my students will investigate, because the ECCL is poised to become an additional recreational space in Emeryville. The issues students identified around creating safe and secure spaces will most likely surface as they explore creating green/recreational spaces that adapt to a variety of activities their challenge will be to find parallel solutions to these design challenges.
Guiding Questions: Absence of Green/Recreational Space
What health issues are associated with an absence of green/recreational space?
Is access to green/recreational space an issue in our community?
How can we address an absence of green/recreational space in an open, sensitive, and constructive manner?
Learning Activities: Absence of Green/Recreational Space
To introduce the issue of absence of green/recreational space, students will engage in a meaning making activity with the Guiding Questions that have been put forth to the class and are posted in large format in the classroom. Writing on post-it notes, students will generate possible initial thoughts and answers to the Guiding Questions and put those post-its on and around each of the Guiding Questions. Then students will participate in a gallery walk where they will read each other's responses. Later, we will gather around the Guiding Questions and post-it note responses to discuss understating and further questions around this issue.
To develop a deeper understanding of the issue of absence of green/recreational space, students will read individually and in small groups during one period from the book Making healthy places designing and building for health, well-being, and sustainability with a focus on chapter fifteen: "Contact with Nature". Students will read and annotate comments, connections, and questions using the app iAnnotate, then send their annotations to me via the app Dropbox. For the next class period students' annotations from readings will be printed in large font and hung around the art studio. This class period will begin with a reminder of the Guiding Questions that focus on absence of green/recreational space, then students will participate in a gallery walk where they will have a short amount of time to walk around the room and read each others' annotations. Then students will break into eight groups with their iPads and annotations to discuss the readings. Students will use the Project Zero thinking routine: I used to think…But now I think… as a framework for this discussion. Following the small group discussions, students come back to whole class discussion. With teacher guidance, students will generate a list of reoccurring themes or similarities between the urban environmental health issues they are learning about to add to our learning wall. A couple of students will chart responses and lists will be added to the learning wall.
Learning Activities: Connecting Four Urban Environmental Health Issues
To help students solidify their understanding of the four urban environmental health issues that we are exploring, students will brainstorm questions that they still have about urban environmental health in small groups and write each question on a post-it note. Then with guidance, students will put their post it notes on one of four different posters. Each poster will have the name of one of the four urban environmental health issues that students have been learning about. Students will have to choose which issue best fits their question, which may prove to be a challenge and help students see that the issues we are exploring are interconnected. Then students will participate in a gallery walk where they will have a short amount of time to walk around the room and read the questions that have been raised. Posters will be moved to a central meeting point and the class will gather around to discuss observations, connections, and possible next steps toward inquiry.
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