Activity Title

A Picture of Health: Human Health Continuum

Author

Sarah Morrisseau

Gulf of Maine Research Institute

Vital Signs Program

Questions

What does it mean to be healthy?

How do scientists/ doctors assess human health?

Overview

Use A Picture of Health to prime students to think about what it means to be healthy. Before they tackle ecosystem health, students consider human health – a topic more familiar that they all have personal experience with. Students look at a set of photographs of people that show a range of health. They work together to arrange them along a continuum from healthy to unhealthy. They practice backing up their decisions with reasons and evidence, a skill they will use when assessing ecosystem health.

Once they make a personal connection with the concept of health, they can then begin to apply it to ecosystems in A Picture of Health:Ecosystem Health Continuum:

Science & Technology Standards (MLR)

Learning Objectives

  • Students make a personal connection with the concept of health
  • Students develop an individual and collective understanding of how scientists measure one type of health
  • Students use talk and argument to discuss and debate with peers

Grade Level

7

8

Setting

Classroom

Activity Type

Exploratory

Materials

Human health photos document: vs_humancontinuum_photos_042911.ppt

Activity Procedure

PART 1. PLAY WITH WHAT YOU ALREADY KNOW ABOUT YOUR OWN HEALTH

  1. Together or in small teams, look through the set of “human health photographs” of people that show a range of health (athletes, overweight, broken bones, cold, flu, cancer, age, eating habits, lifestyle choices, etc.)
  1. Organize the slides from what you think appears to be the LEAST HEALTHY person to the MOST HEALTHY person

Ask questions that prompt students to make appropriate observations of people’s health:

  • How do you think this person feels?
  • Is this person doing something you would do when you’re healthy or unhealthy?
  • Does this person look like you do when you’re healthy or unhealthy?
  1. In the notes section under each slide, write the evidence or reasons why you put the person where you did along the health continuum

“We think this person is a 5 because it looks like he has….”

“We think this person is a 5 because she looks like she is….”

PART 2. LEARN FROM YOUR PEERS AND REVISIT YOUR CONTINUUM

Check out another team’s continuum and evidence. How is it the same or different than yours? Talk about what is different and why.

  1. Visit the work done by other teams
  1. Take note of the people that other teams ranked differently, and what evidence was used to support the different ranking
  1. Take time to ask each other questions about rankings and supporting evidence
  1. Revisit you own team’s work and make adjustments to your own rankings and evidence based on what you learned from your friends

PART 3. MINE YOUR EVIDENCE FOR IMPORTANT INDICATORS OF HEALTH

  1. Use evidence from your continuum to create a preliminary list of what you think healthy people look like. This can be done in teams or as a class. Lists generated by middle school students in response to these particular photos typically include:
  • Happy/ smiling
  • Active/ doing things/ exercising
  • Healthy weight
  • Not hurt
  • Not sick
  1. Keep a second list of the health indicators that can’t necessarily be seen, but could be measured another way. Lists generated by middle school students in response to these particular photos typically include:
  • Blood pressure
  • Cholesterol
  • Lung health
  • Heart health
  • BMI
  • Broken bones

The second list shows us that just looking at people does not necessarily give an accurate or complete measure of health. Photos can only tell us so much. We need to make measurements or look more closely to figure out whether people (and ecosystems!) are healthy or not!

Try out a similar, parallel health analysis using a series of photographs of ecosystems. A Picture of Health: Ecosystem Health Continuum!

NOTES FOR EDUCATORS/ FACILITATORS

If computers are not available, print out the photos and write evidence on post-it notes

There are no “right” answers on purpose. Emphasize the importance of having solid, appropriate evidence to back up where a person is placed along the health continuum.

To scaffold the activity for students:

  1. Model for students your own thought process as you make observations and support them with evidence.
  1. Give students sentence stems to help them construct evidence statements:
  • “We think this person is a 5 because we see….”
  • “We think this person is a 5 because he/she has….”
  1. If peer learning is new for your students, try modeling or practicing with them a productive peer-peer conversation. Read the National Research Council’s Ready, Set, Science! Chapter 5 Making Thinking Visible: Talk and Argument to learn more about best instructional practices around scientific conversation and communication.

Reflection or Formative Assessment Ideas

Assess your teams’ Health Continuum.

Did you support each of your decisions with appropriate evidence?

Did you revisit your own choices after you talked with another team?

Assess your own performance as part of a team

Did you listen to others’ ideas with an open mind?

Did you revisit your health continuum based on what you learned from others?

Did you share your ideas carefully and thoughtfully with the group?

Extension Ideas

You might think about collaborating with the health educator in your school to extend the continuum work to include research into different health concerns or conditions. Student teams could research one vital sign or aspect of health, and use that new information to inform their health continuum and evidence.