Classroom Activities
Close Reading
Students are given the following purpose for reading: identify a relationship between causes of death and general sanitary conditions. This purpose guides students through the readings and primes them to receive the information. Prior to coming to class on the first day of the unit, students read the following short publications from the WHO and generate three questions about what they read: “The top 10 causes of death”, “Infectious diseases”, “Noncommunicable diseases”, and “Poor sanitation threatens public health.” In class, students use their questions to establish a K-W-L in order to flesh out common strands from the reading and create a focused set of learning objectives for the unit. Students then receive definitions of GDP, MDC, and LDC, along with Table 1 to assist in making sense of these definitions. They are given a map of GDP and use this information to predict categorical causes of death in select regions of the planet. Students then engage in a T-P-S exercise as an informal assessment of their understanding so far. It is at this point that students are introduced to the term “Wealth-Health” paradigm
Data Analysis
Following the informal assessment, students participate in a Jigsaw activity in which they examine cause of death data for specific countries (those countries listed in Table 1). In their home group, students make predictions about categorical causes of death in their specific country (this should be a continuation of the discussions had during the T-P-S). Then each student is assigned a specific cause of death category: communicable, non-communicable, and injury, mirroring the categories used in Figure 2. Students then move to their specialist groups; all students assigned communicable diseases work together, etc. They then access the WHO database (embedded in our online learning platform for ease of access) and examine data for the years 2000 and 2015. Students return to their home group and share out information regarding which categorical cause of death was most prevalent in their country, noting if their prior predictions agreed or disagreed with the data. Each country will then share out with the entire class.
Students then revisit the “The top 10 causes of death” and “Poor sanitation threatens public health” WHO articles to make connections across different media in a T-I-S summarizing activity. Having already read the chapters on population ecology and human population and completed activities on the shape of survivorship curves for different types of organisms in a previous unit, students use these readings and data to integrate information from the Close Read activity to generate, label, and explain three differently shaped curves for three select countries (different from those in Table 1).
Discussion Boards
Role of Biomedical Engineers
In order to connect the Wealth-Health Paradigm with the information presented in the text, students revisit the section on the demographic transition look more in depth at the causes of the transition and the role of biomedical engineers in this process. After examining Figure 3, students are asked the following questions and engage in Quick-Writes: How exactly does the death rate in industrializing countries fall so dramatically? What does an increase in public healthcare look like? Who is responsible for the development of technologies critical to adequate public healthcare? Ultimately students discuss their responses and come to a common understanding of the answers.
Using the course’s online learning platform, students are then presented with information on the major contributions of biomedical engineers, with specific regard to limiting the spread of communicable diseases in regions of the world with low GDP. This reinforces the idea that death rates can be suppressed in such regions without major investments and increases in GDP, thus altering the Wealth-Health Paradigm. Students then participate in a discussion activity in which they present information on one of the following: vaccination, sanitation, and diagnostic devices. They then ask questions of their peers related to the other two and answer peer-submitted questions regarding their own.
Influence on Global Population
To consider the effect of the demographic transition on global population, students engage in a two-part discussion board activity in the course’s online learning platform. In the first part, students consider that common demographic theory states that as countries industrialize, they go through a period of massive population growth because death rates plummet but birth rates remain relatively high. They then consider the following question: won’t using BME technologies to reduce death rates in areas with high birth rates (for example central Africa) lead to dramatic increases in the already massive global population? After making their initial post, students then watch a short video clip entitled “Will saving poor children lead to overpopulation?”29 by the late Swedish physician and statistician Hans Rosling. Once they have watched the video, students respond to a second prompt: what does Rosling say about the issue of “saving poor children”? Do you agree with his point of view? Defend your position. Finally, students respond to two others’ answers with questions/comments/critiques.
Free Response Practice
Students are given a mock 10-point FRQ that integrates all of the above information, including analysis of data, explanation of the wealth-health paradigm, survivorship curve shifts, the demographic transition, and the role of biomedical engineers. After examining a modified version of the figure from Sepulveda and Murray described above, students will answer the following questions: (1) define communicable and noncommunicable diseases; (2) calculate the percentage of all age-standardized years of lost life due to communicable diseases for children aged 0 to 59 months for the Sub-Saharan Africa and High-Income regions; (3) describe the Wealth-Health Paradigm and identify TWO potential solutions to this problem; and (4) explain how changes in GDP can alter a population’s survivorship curve.
Students have 22 minutes to answer the question. Once the question has been answered, students use a strict FRQ rubric and complete peer-review scoring. For question 1, students are awarded one point each for the correct definitions of the terms. For question 2, students are awarded two points each for the correct approximations of the percentages for each region (any answer within the range of 80-90% is acceptable for Sub-Saharan Africa, and an answer from 45-55% is acceptable for the High-Income region). Students must show work to earn any credit on this problem. For question 3, one point is awarded for a correct explanation of the Wealth-Health Paradigm, and one point each for identification of potential solutions, including specific biomedical engineering advances, raising the income of the region, increasing access to education, supplying clean water, and ensuring access to adequate nutrition. For question 4, students are awarded one point for correctly describing how increasing GDP can shift the survivorship curve up and to the right.
This scoring is a typical activity in an AP class and allows for peer-to-peer teaching, clarification and corrections of commonly-made mistakes, and self-assessment upon receiving their response back. These activities promote a growth-mindset for students and offer a low-stakes environment for assessment for two reasons: first, ten points is comparatively small for an assessment great and 2) rubric scores are scaled for use as an assessment grade (greater than eight = A, between six and seven = B, between four and five = C, three = D, and less than three = F).
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