Content Area: Health and Physical Education

 

Index: 2.1A Grade 12 CPI 4

 

Standard: 2.1 - Wellness

 

Strand: A - Personal Health

 

Cumulative Progress Indicator: 4 -  The student will debate the social and ethical implications of the use of technology and medical advances to support wellness.

 

Grade: 12

 

Sample Activities:

 

·    ETHICS IN HEALTHCARE - The media has drawn attention to a number of ethical issues in healthcare. Share articles from newspapers and magazines or information from Web sites that illustrate some of these issues. Pose a number of questions for student research and debate. After students debate each question, the class votes on the issue based on the information provided. Each student completes the assignment by writing a brief journal entry “What I Learned From Both Sides.”

 

      SAMPLE DEBATE QUESTIONS
·    Should some people not be eligible for organ transplants (e.g., prisoners, individuals with other terminal illnesses)?
·    Should assisted suicide be legal?
·    Should medicinal marijuana use be legal?
·    Should the state provide clean needles to drug users to decrease the incidence of HIV infection?
·    Should mothers who use drugs be permitted to keep their babies?
·    Should bicycle and motorcycle helmets be required by law?
·    Should insurance companies be required to pay for contraceptives?

 

·    WHAT'S NEW - Discuss some of the technological and medical advances of this century (e.g., polio vaccine, antibiotics, organ transplants). Students investigate a cutting-edge therapy or device such as artificial blood, the use of cloning and recombinant DNA, artificial heart valves, or new drugs to treat diseases such as cancer or HIV/AIDS. Students prepare a written report on the subject.

Variation: The class develops a time line mural that illustrates specific events that contributed to world health.

Variation: Students research trends in healthcare over the last 50 years, the last 25 years, the last 10 years and the last 5 years. Have health conditions changed? What has happened to hospitals? What about medical training? nursing? How has technology affected jobs? Based on the information compiled, students make predictions about the healthcare industry in the next century.

Variation: Interview two healthcare professionals—one a recent graduate and one who has been practicing for at least 20 years. Ask the individuals the same questions. Compare their responses.

Variation: Videotape interviews with a variety of healthcare professionals. Ask each professional to discuss a significant issue or concern they have about the future of healthcare. Create a video featuring all of the professionals. Students script the introduction to the interviews and additional material for the video.