Rationale
The entire idea of living a healthy and balanced life is a goal of the Public Health Service. Culturally, elders want a healthier generation. So this research will allow young minds to begin thinking about the body and how poor choice of food can change the chemistry and affect the body. I want my students to become curious about the body and health, and also about the cultural teachings of what a healthy body means to our people, the Navajos.
Learning about our past history on social health is an enormous concept that we as elementary teachers cannot even begin to explain and how history’s influences have altered society’s health and well-being. The leaders of the Navajo Nation are highly aware of the nutritional shift over the last several decades on the Navajo Nation Reservation. The Navajo Nation has programs such as Walk Across the Navajo Nation, and Just Move It, which help to bring awareness, reduce and prevent diabetes. Another program called Health Is Life in Balance has been implemented, which is a curriculum that is culturally embedded. Local clinic and hospital personnel have changed their perspective about people with Type 2 diabetes. Studies show that the amount of people with Type 2 diabetes has increased. Several questions came up as I looked at this information. How did our Navajo elders navigate their daily health in the past? If we understood this, could it help us today to delay or avoid Type 2 diabetes?
In this unit students will become knowledgeable about how the body processes sugar. Also, they will learn about our nation’s diabetic epidemic. The diabetes studies are limited or not sorted by seven major communities on Navajos Reservation for student studies. Most data are clustered. There is abundant data on the Pima tribe from the southern region of Arizona. One article indicated that the Pima Tribe has the largest epidemic of diabetes in the world. The Pima tribe has more data about diabetes than the Navajo Tribe.5
In addition this unit will educate my class of young Navajo students about the human body. Our school district has a curriculum guide which includes this huge concept in a 6 week course on the human body. Within this unit, there is a section that covers the endocrine system. It is within this section that I will specifically teach about the functions of the pancreas. Imagine these fourth grade students downloading information from the internet about diabetes. The term diabetes is not foreign to them, but it is puzzling. This hormonal disease has been around our Navajo Nation since the 1950’s. Diabetes has been around, but the emphasis of diabetes awareness has been weak. Recently, Navajo Nation Government and Public Indian Health Service have joined together in their efforts to educate the people about the basic facts of diabetes. It is through this initiative that people asking questions. How does one catch the disease? What part of the body stops working? What can be done prior to the disease’s onset? What will happen if we don’t pay attention to the disease? How can diabetes be conquered? The awareness of this disease is the first step. It’s important to teach the functions of the human body and specifically the pancreas is a must. As I was reading about the pancreas, I began to realize that the people of our Navajo Nation need to start speaking and understanding the medical and scientific terminology of the functions of the pancreas. It is crucial to make our young people understand functions of cells, beta cell, alpha cells, f cells, negative feedback, etc.
The unit will increase the student’s interest, but the initiative will help our local leaders see that more information on diabetes and terminologies are needed. It is a good start on our student’s future of understanding the functions of the pancreas and hormonal disease.
For the most part of my unit, I plan to introduce the topic by going over the human body as a well-oiled working machine. However, as a person ages, the bad choices of not eating healthy foods and lack of exercise creates problems. After introducing a body of a healthy person, my unit will link the ideas and results of good vs bad nutrition to the cell reactions of too much sugar. Our fourth graders need to understand that diabetes does not affect a small section of the human body. It effects every organ system. As an extension, the unit will cover the effects on the liver and kidneys as well.
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