Lesson Plan

Determining Causes of Death

Date: Time: Grade: Teacher:

I. National Health Education Standards

Health Education Standard 1: Students will comprehend concepts related to health promotion and disease prevention to enhance health.

II. National Health Education Standards Performance Indicator

1.5.1 describe the relationship between healthy behaviors and personal health

III. Valued Outcomes

§  Students will identify common diseases.

§  Students will identify common death-causing diseases.

§  Students will compare common causes of death in 2000 and 1900.

IV. Description of Strategy:

1.  Have students identify ten to fifteen diseases that may result in death. Write the causes on the board.

2.  Describe the difference between infectious and degenerative diseases. Ask students to identify which diseases on the list are infectious and which are degenerative.

3.  Show students a list of the most common causes of death in the United States in 2000 (available on the National Center for Health Statistics website). How many of the causes mentioned by students are on this list? Now show students a similar list for the causes of death in the U.S. in 1900 and worldwide in 2000.

4.  Compare causes of death in the U.S. between 1900 and 2000. Are any causes on both lists? Discuss why death causes have changed so much in only 100 years. Ask students if they see a shift in the infectious/degenerative disease ratio. If so, ask students to explain the change. Also ask why the U.S. list differs from the worldwide list in 2000.

V. Materials Needed:

§  board/marker

§  lists of common causes of death from U.S. in 2000 and 1900 and worldwide in 2000

VI. Formative Evaluation

Benchmarks:

§  Level 1: Student was able to list some common causes of death.

§  Level 2: Student was able to list and compare common causes of death in 2000 and 1900.

§  Level 3: Student was able to list and compare common causes of death in 2000 and 1900. Student was able to describe the difference between infectious and degenerative diseases.

§  Level 4: Student was able to list and compare common causes of death in 2000 and 1900. Student was able to describe the difference between infectious and degenerative diseases and explain how causes of death have changed over time.

VII. Points of Emphasis:

1.  Explain some of the risk factors for potentially fatal diseases.

2.  Explain how some of the diseases could be prevented by healthier lifestyles.

3.  Explain how some non-fatal health problems can accumulate to become fatal diseases.

Teacher Evaluation

1. Keep the lesson as taught? ð Yes ð No

2. What I need to improve

3. Next time make sure

4. Strengths of lesson