Freshmen+Cross+Curricular+Unit

Freshmen Cross Curricular Unit Jan. 11, 2012 Amy Christensen, Chris King, Stephen Colbert, Kerri Hurley, Donna Clelland

Purpose of the Cross Curricular Unit: As freshmen enter Wake Early College of Health Sciences this unit will serve as introduction to a health science school. The project will include the use of problem based learning, with an emphasis on teaching the thinking skills within the projects for each subject area. The integration of the subject areas is to be where the curriculum standards naturally “fit”. The group is working on a problem based unit project with the culminating activity being presented at the WECHS Symposium.

The group reviewed “Integrated Units: A Planning Guide for Teachers” discussing what the unit to be developed might “look Like”. Amy shared an attempt to integrate in the past that felt like trying to fit square pegs into round holes. The group liked the concept of the integration being centered on a theme. The identification of the theme led to an examination of the “Grand Challenges of Global Health”. As the teachers examined the Grand Challenges they began to make connections to their subject area curriculum. Each Grand Challenge was posted and the teachers recorded subject area connections to each challenge. There were actually 6 of the 7 challenges that created enough topics and conversations that could be used as the theme for the unit. Discussions continued and the group decided the theme for the first unit would be “Nutrition.”


 * THEME-Nutrition**

WH-famine, settlement patterns, development of agriculture, effect of nutrition on immigration, effect of policies through time on nutrition English-diseases research, seminar topics, exercise, food sources (connected to college health class) ES-settlement, environmental factors, soil, weather patterns Math-calculations, calories, linear functions, scenarios
 * Grand Challenge Goal 4-Nutrition**

The Grand Challenge, measuring health status, will be used as the beginning focus for the cross curricular unit as students assess their individual health status and make reach out to assess the health status of the community.

We tackled the concept of the Big Idea and after more discussion and using the Big Idea Rubric for NCNSP the big idea developed by the group was:

The impact of inadequate nutrition on the health of individuals, communities, and societies. The group discussed the problem solving aspect of the big idea and these possible essential questions were developed. How can we make adequate nutrition accessible? How can we make adequate nutrition sustainable? How are food choices (selections) affected by culture and geography? What is adequate nutrition? How has science and technology impacted adequate nutrition? How does nutrition affect health? What are career opportunities in the food service industry? How has public policy impacted access to adequate food supplies?
 * BIG IDEA:**
 * Essential Questions**

Next Steps:
 * 1) The group expressed the need to have a direct connection in this unit to specific thinking skills. So our next step is to determine at the end of this unit what will students understand linked to the five 21st Century Thinking Skills from the Web 2.0 Tools exploration unit.
 * 2) Map out what students will be able to do? Outcomes for the unit
 * 3) The project for the integrated unit is to be determined.
 * 4) After the unit has been developed, each subject area will examine their Common Core/Essential standards to develop projects and activities. Develop performance tasks
 * 5) Reexamine essential questions after thinking time.
 * 6) Develop a “format” for recording the unit plan and lesson plans.
 * 7) Revisit what the unit will look like and put in terms of a timeline and logistics.
 * 8) Revisit the culminating activity, timeline, and logistics.

**Grand Challenges of Global Health**

[] Of the billions spent each year on research into life-saving medicines, only a fraction is focused on discovering and developing new tools to fight the diseases that cause millions of deaths each year in developing countries. The Grand Challenges in Global Health initiative is an effort to address this imbalance. Goals 1 and 2-Create vaccines and Improve Vaccines WH-smallpox, polio Eng. - seminar articles for HPV, vaccines and autism ES-environmental conditions, where in the world was and is smallpox and polio Math-progression of years, graphs, patterns, regression, exponents, scenarios

Goal 3-Control Insect Vectors WH-plagues, colonization of Africa, Panama Canal, cultural responses Eng.-research diseases, diseases as seminar topics, reading insect born plagues ES-environmental factors, vaccine development, geography Math-scenarios, measurement, data, probability, percentages

Goal 5-Limit Drug Resistance Connections not obvious

Goal 6-Cure Infection WH-cholera London issue, impact of infection on Native Americans, flu of 1918 Eng.-ethical disclosure ES-water issues

Goal 7-Measuring Health Status Measure as basis for career in health How to find the population to assess status? Interview technigues Health assessments What does health mean? What is status of health in a community now? What is the hospital status? Food Sources, cost? Individual health assessment to school to community Community connection to Cross Curricular Unit