POSTVISIT ACTIVITY
For “Wellness” Pathway
Grade Level: 6-8
COLORADO STANDARDS
Science: 3
NATIONAL HEALTH
STANDARDS
1, 2, 5 & 7
PREPARATION
Estimated Preparation Time:
5 minutes
Estimated Activity Time:
Research time
MATERIALS
Paper
Pencil
Overhead of handouts or copy for
each student
One copy of student sheet per
student
Preventing Disease
Learning Goals/Objectives
Students will
• Study diseases and conditions to learn how lifestyle and modern
medicine can affect the occurrence rates of certain diseases
• Research and report on the causes and prevention strategies of a
specific disease or condition
Advance Preparation
1. Make one copy of student sheet per student in advance of lesson.
2. Make an overhead of each handout or a copy for each student to read.
Procedure
1. Have students read the two handouts on the history of heart disease and
polio.
2. Discuss with students the differences between diseases like heart disease
and polio. Have students come up with a list of diseases like heart disease
that have increased prevalence today. This could be things they hear about on
the news or through personal experience. If not mentioned, bring up diabetes,
asthma and other respiratory problems, sexually transmitted diseases, and
skin cancer. Have students discuss other diseases for which occurrence rates
have dropped significantly in recent history like polio. Students might
mention diseases such as smallpox and rubella.
4. Have students choose one condition to research and report on. Use the
student sheet to record data found about the disease and what the effective
forms of prevention are.
5. Have students share in small groups with the class.
Variations/Extensions
1. Conduct a family interview. Have student interview parents or
grandparents to find out about their own family history.
Handout 1-Heart Disease
Before 1900, very few people died of heart disease. Since then, heart disease has become the number one
killer in the United States. The age of technology has made life easier and made people more prone to
heart disease. Before the Industrial Revolution, most people made their living through some sort of
manual labor. Walking was the major means of transportation. Laundry was scrubbed and wrung by
hand. Stairs were climbed, carpets were beat, and butter was churned.
With the arrival of automation, life became less strenuous. Most manual labor was either replaced or
assisted by machinery. Automobiles, washing machines, elevators, and vacuum cleaners became
commonplace. Modern conveniences made physical activity unnecessary.
Along with the change in lifestyle came a change in diet. Machines were built to homogenize milk,
process cheese, churn butter, and make ice cream. Previously, such high-fat treats had to be made by
hand. Fried foods, like potato chips, hamburgers, and french fries, became staples in many diets. Also,
innovations in food preservation made eating fresh fruits and vegetables optional.
The combination of a sedentary lifestyle and a rich diet led to an increase in clogged blood vessels, heart
attacks, and strokes. Heart disease became commonplace. The rate of heart disease increased so sharply
between the 1940s and 1967 that the World Health Organization called it the world's most serious
epidemic.
Medical science immediately went to work studying the disease and searching out its causes and cures.
In 1948, a 30-year study began in Framingham, Massachusetts. Known as the Framingham Study, the
investigation involved 5,127 people aged 30 to 62 who showed no signs of heart disease. Every two years,
the participants underwent a complete physical examination. The study lasted 30 years and provided
priceless profile information for predicting heart disease.
Today, the causes of heart disease are known. To a certain extent, so are the cures.
"History of the Heart" ( www.fi.edu/learn/heart/history/history.html ) is from "The Human Heart: An
Online Exploration," at The Franklin Institute Resources for Science Learning, copyright 1994-2009.
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Denver Museum of Nature & Science
Handout 2-Polio
Nowadays, people in the United States rarely think of polio, an infectious disease caused by a virus. Just
50 years ago, however, the virus was a real threat to children (mainly under the age of five), causing
thousands to become paralyzed. Many people died from polio. Children with paralyzed legs used
wheelchairs, braces, or crutches to get around. Parents would not allow their children to swim in natural
swimming holes or rock quarries out of fear that the polio virus might lurk there. A real sense of panic set
in every summer, when the number of cases rose sharply in the United States (and Western Europe).
Huge mechanical contraptions called iron lungs were used to assist breathing in those whose paralysis
involved the torso. There is no cure for polio, making prevention the key in beating this highly infectious
virus.
In the mid-1950s, Dr. Jonas Salk developed an injectable polio vaccine (IPV) from the inactivated (killed)
virus. A few years later, Dr. Albert Sabin developed an oral polio vaccine (OPV) from a “live” virus. This
became the vaccine of choice worldwide because it is less expensive, easier to give (no needle or trained
health caregiver needed), and rapidly stops the spread of polio. The only disadvantage is that in rare
cases, perhaps one out of every 2.5 million doses, the vaccine gives the recipient polio.
As a result of this vaccine-induced polio, in 2000 the US government stopped using the “live” virus
vaccine. Since using IVP, the last US case of vaccine-related polio was documented in 1999, according to a
study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
More work worldwide is still needed to stamp out polio completely. The goal of the Global Polio
Eradication Initiative, a joint effort by the World Health Organization, Rotary International, the US
Centers for Disease Control, and UNICEF ensure that no child will ever again know the crippling effects
of polio. Since 1988, when the Initiative started, the number of polio cases worldwide has dropped 99
percent.
As recently as 1988, more than 125 countries on five continents were home to the polio virus, resulting in
more than 1,000 children per day becoming paralyzed. In 1988, there were 350,000 cases worldwide; by
2008, thanks to vaccination efforts, the worldwide count was down to around 1,643 cases.
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/poliov.html
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Student Sheet 1
Name:_______________________________________
Disease/condition:__________________________________________________________
Rate of occurrence in United States today:________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Causes of condition/disease:___________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Prevention strategies:__________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
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Denver Museum of Nature & Science