Ninth Grade Curriculum Resources

Standard of Learning

9.1The student will apply health knowledge and skills to the development and analysis of personal goals to achieve and maintain long-term health and wellness. Key concepts/skills include

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Understanding the Standard

The student will recognize the need to develop a personal decision-making process for selecting health care products.

Essential Knowledge and Skills

The student will:

describe a health consumer. (person who uses health products or services)
identify several health products. (soap, shampoo, toothpaste, sports drinks, etc.)
determine why having a decision-making process is important for selecting health products. (personal safety)
identify internal and external factors that influence your buying decisions.
recognize common advertising techniques. (rich and famous, bandwagon, testimonials, rewards, etc.)
describe consumer rights. (right to safety, right to be informed, right to be heard, right to have problems corrected, etc.)
define fraud and quackery. (making false claims - quackery is a type of medical fraud that plays on human emotions and fear)
identify who is the most common victim of health-care fraud (the elderly)
describe what quacks promise. (anti-aging and arthritis remedies, cancer cures, etc.)
identify who can help with consumer problems. (the company's management staff, licensing boards, Consumer Product Safety Commission, Food and Drug Administration, Federal Trade Commission, etc.)

Sample Lessons

The Educator’s Reference Desk: Lesson Plans> Health>Consumer Health Lesson Plans>Magazine Ads and You, the Teenager
Advertising is often aimed directly at young people. Not only do they spend $70 billion a year, but they influence their parents' purchases also. Youth are hit by certain appeals - appeals to be like everybody else, sex appeal, even negative appeal. This activity is to increase student awareness of persuasion tactics as seen in magazine advertising.
Sponsor: The lesson was developed by a teacher at Daly Middle School, Lakeview, OR. The site is part of the Gateway to Educational Materials (GEM). GEM is a Consortium effort to provide educators with quick and easy access to thousands of educational resources found on various federal, state, university, non-profit, and commercial Internet sites. GEM is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education.
Contact: http://www.eduref.org/cgi-bin/printlessons.cgi
Free

The Educator’s Reference Desk: Lesson Plans> Health> Consumer Health Lesson Plans >Fostering Critical Thinking Skills for Consumer Health Decisions
This simple classroom activity can be used to develop consumer health skills among secondary school students. Students select sample advertisements for health products from the print and broadcast media. Peers cooperate to identify the health information and evaluate intended messages. Students present their conclusions orally to their peers, including suggestions to change the ads to help consumers to make informed purchase decisions. This lesson should be used as one component of a unit on consumer health education.
Sponsor: The lesson plan was developed by faculty at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. The site is part of the Gateway to Educational Materials (GEM). GEM is a Consortium effort to provide educators with quick and easy access to thousands of educational resources found on various federal, state, university, non-profit, and commercial Internet sites. GEM is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education.
http://www.eduref.org/cgi-bin/printlessons.cgi/Virtual/Lessons
Free

Health: Teen Health Course 3 Internet Activities Activity 6 Safe in the Sun
Do you enjoy spending time outdoors? Perhaps you like to hike or swim in the summer and skate or snowboard in the winter. Outdoor activities can be a great deal of fun and an excellent way to stay physically active. Did you know, however, that you could be putting your health at risk simply by being outdoors? The sun's ultraviolet rays can cause serious health problems anytime you are outside-even in the winter. Overexposure to the sun can cause premature wrinkles, eye damage, and skin cancer. You can stay safe and prevent these health problems by following sun safety guidelines. This activity will show you how to use the Internet to find valuable information about the sun and its harmful effects on health. It will also show you how following sun safety guidelines can allow you to have fun outdoors while still protecting yourself. After exploring these sites and completing the questions, you will be able to identify the risks of sun exposure, provide tips for staying safe from the sun's rays, use your knowledge to create an informative public service announcement. No Grade range given
Sponsor: McGraw Hill Glencoe Online
Contact: http://www.glencoe.com/sec/health/th32003/activities
Free

Lifetime Health and Fitness Project
Grade(s): 9-12
The lesson will need to be done at your school's computer lab. The students are going to be in groups of 4 and are going to explore the internet about diets, physical fitness and effects of being overweight, cooking healthy and life time activities, and effects of drugs/alcohol/tobacco.
http://www.lessonplanspage.com/PECILifetimeHealthAndFitnessProject912.htmFree

Media Literacy Lesson Plan: Recognizing Propaganda—Unreliable Testimony
After completing this lesson, students will be able to: Recognize the importance of personal hygiene and grooming, demonstrate health advocacy skills in an original advertisement and apply the media literacy skill of recognizing unreliable testimony to an ad for a hair care product.
Sponsor: Glencoe & McGraw-Hill
Contact: http://www.glencoe.com/sec/health/teachres/lessonplans/mlshampoo.shtml
Free

The New York Times Daily Lesson Plans. Bigger Than Life, But Not Necessarily Better
Evaluating Images of Health in American Society: A Science Lesson
In this lesson, students examine where one develops his or her views about health and ways in which different products promote specific ideas of what should be seen as healthy. Students then investigate different ways in which people alter their bodies to become more like the "ideal"' picture of health promoted in American society and assess the marketing of dolls, action figures, and nutritional supplements, focusing on the images of health that they present.
Sponsor: The New York Times in partnership with the Bank Street College of Education in NYC.
Contact: http://www.nytimes.com/learning/teachers/lessons
Free

Skating on Thin Ice Examining Eating Disorders and Various Means to Treat Them
Grade(s): 6-12
In this lesson, students research various eating disorders and their treatments. They then create fictional case studies of teenagers suffering from these disorders and synthesize their understanding by writing suggestions for treatment.
http://www.nytimes.com/learning/teachers/lessons/
Free

Additional Instructional Resources

Center for Disease Control – http://www.cdc.gov
Consumer Products Safety Commission –
Consumer Product Safety Commission’s Kidd Safety - http://www.education-world.com/parents/health/safety.shtml
How Quackery Sells – http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/quacksell.html
National Library of Medicine & National Institute of Health - http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/overthecountermedicines.html
National Library of Medicine & National Institute of Health – http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus
Quackwatch – http://www.quackwatch.com

Assessment Ideas

The student will:

write a consumer fraud letter or a letter of complaint about a health product or service.
critique advertisements on television and in magazines that are directed at teens and analyze what methods are used to influence the buyer.
develop and market a product that promotes healthy living.

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