Content Objectives
As Physiology students, my students understand that one goal I have for them is learn to be advocates for their own health. Often, my 16-18 year old students also become health advocates for their families, since some of their parents have only a middle school or 6th grade education. An ongoing challenge for me is to instill reasons why anatomy and physiology matter beyond my classroom door. Typically, the respiratory system is taught in the early spring, second semester. This unit is intended for presentation after students have learned about immunity. Discussing air pollution and its relation to respiratory health will only help my students apply the content to their daily lives.
The challenge of the Next Generation Science Standards is blending content, engineering, and literacy into the science curriculum. 13 In this unit, students will be able to develop their content knowledge, but apply it to real world problems – air pollution’s impact on respiratory health. Through a series of lectures, discussions, classroom debates, student review of current research, and close reading, students in physiology will apply their knowledge to lead an awareness campaign for their peers and community. Through the use of student generated web-pages or blogs, students will highlight issues stemming from air pollution related respiratory disorders. Though this unit is intended for a four week period in Anatomy and Physiology in my classroom, the content and activities can be easily adopted for many Biology or Health Science courses.
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