Nature-Inspired Solutions to Disease Problems

We can change.

We have the ability to change the way we interact with the natural world. The overall health of Earth depends on the choices we make as human beings. Humans, plants, and animals all matter equally. We have to care for one another to stay healthy.

Our individual practices can benefit pollinators, such as: planting a diversity of flowering plants, preserving natural habitats, boosting nest sites for native pollinators, and reducing pesticide use.³¹ Within the city, our individual yard choices impact the health of urban pollinators, which in turn impacts our human health. Further steps to support pollinators includes purposeful planting, such as planting companion flowers on the edges of gardens to attract pollinators, or advocating for public initiatives like Bee Cities, which work through existing city government structures to create pollinator pathways and facilitate mitigation efforts at the city level. In kindergarten, impacting individual choices starts at observation of and caring for our natural world. Observing nature helps us make invisible processes more transparent, brings awareness of our living and nonliving community members, and supports positive mental health. It helps students make concrete connections between the science they are learning in the classroom and the living processes that are happening outside the classroom window. We know that individual practices alone are not enough, as shown in many climate change mitigation efforts; however, the pedagogy shift that happens at the individual level matters. Teaching students through the lens of a One Health Model is one way to help change focus on the health of the individual to focus on the health of the community as a whole.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the One Health Commission defines the One Health model as  “a collaborative, multisectoral, and transdisciplinary approach—working at the local, regional, national, and global levels—with the goal of achieving optimal health outcomes recognizing the interconnection between people, animals, plants, and their shared environment.”³² To put this in simpler terms, One Health is a model that seeks to ensure the well-being of people, animals and the environment through collaborative problem-solving.

Figure 5. This image displays the One Health Model. (credit: Aliyah Hoye)

Within One Health, problem-solving focuses on the consequences, responses, and actions between these three circles of humans, animals, and ecosystems. One Health requires interdisciplinary collaboration, though it has yet to be taught broadly in medical schools, let alone in other areas of colleges or universities. By introducing this kind of thinking in kindergarten, I hope to inspire more students to think about the environment, animals, and humans equally. Just like we want to treat one another equitably in the classroom, we want to treat nature equitably.

Problem-solving within the One Health model sees community as a shared resource, and solutions should benefit all community members. Our school is a model of shared resource for students, families, staff, and the local community, but we have yet to wholly consider nature as a member of that community. We are dependent on the health of nature. We must interact with it in ways that keeps nature healthy in order to maintain our own health. Nature operates in systems and cycles, and we must acknowledge the ways that our lifestyle choices impact these systems and cycles. For those of us in cities where populations continue to rise due to ecological, financial, and socio-political reasons, our shared resources in urban areas are more at risk than ever without responsible management and investment. Cities are becoming more ecologically important as they grow.³³ As a teacher of future leaders of that city, it is critical that I teach students how to problem solve with all these party guests in mind.