Introduction
When I was in college, I worked as an evening receptionist for a local company. Each evening that I worked, I would take something with me to read to pass the time in between phone calls. In 2005, I had picked up a copy of National Geographic with a story inside about the keys to living a longer, healthier life. The ideas presented stuck with me, and I began to implement them in my own life and continued to research.
As I went on to become a Social Studies teacher, the information was not only relevant to the social sciences courses (like Psychology) that I was teaching, but was also of particular interest to many of my students. Especially, as it seemed, that life in American society does not necessarily support a healthy lifestyle. The most current research not only highlights our need to access quality, prevention focused healthcare, but also our need to access healthy food, ability to exercise, and our ability to reduce and react to stress.
Noticing that there is a disconnect between what our health needs are and the experiences that many Americans have in daily life, it seems clear that there is a need to request more of our governing institutions in terms of public policy that could support social structures that enable more Americans to practice healthy life styles. This unit plan is intended to focus on that intersection of topics by helping students to investigate the social structure around us, the impact that it has on our physical well-being, and what actions we can take to, in turn, impact the society around us.
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