Healthy Heart Lessons
Collaborating with Encore
Teachers
MASL 2010
Velda McMorris North Kansas City
Why heart health?
Heart disease is the leading killer of all
people, men and women.
Many risk factors such as eating habits,
weight and exercise can be addressed in
the teen years.
Teens influence their families.
This fits the health curriculum and
follows the nutrition and body systems
units.
Heart statistics
Cardiovascular diseases include heart disease, stroke,
high blood pressure, heart failure and several other
conditions. CVD has been the leading cause of
death in the United States every year since 1900
except during the 1918 flu epidemic.
CVD (the No. 1 overall cause of death) was listed as
the underlying cause of death in 869,724
deaths Coronary heart disease, even when
considered separately from other cardiovascular
diseases, was still by far the nation’s single leading
cause of death (451,326).
Cancer was the second-leading cause of death,
responsible for 553,888 lives lost.
(from AHA website)
Background in Heart Health
I am a WomenHeart Champion.
I have heart disease
I also volunteer with American Heart
Association
I am a lay person who knows her limits!
I do not offer medical advice.
Objectives of this unit
Provide heart health information
Provide nutrition information
Address obesity in teens
Give practice in using online resources
Allow students to compare and contrast
health information from a variety of
sources
Reinforces skills
Students have practice navigating
several web pages.
They are NOT using Google.
They read text, charts and graphs.
They do some application level work and
can choose the healthiest foods.
How can you use this?
Use this lesson with your students.
Change the emphasis to any other health
topic such as autism, cancer, diabetes,
safety, etc.
Use this lesson as a model for any other
issue and possibly change the class.
Collaborate with your encore teacher to
decide what you need to emphasize
Sample discussion Day 1
How many of you know someone affected
by heart disease?
Data and statistics for all heart disease
and specifically for women are given
Discussion of risk factors and prevention
Discussion of nutrition with emphasis on
school lunch choices and fast food
Heart disease and attack symptoms
First aid—911, CPR, AEDs
Day 2 Demo of online resources
We talk about what students may find in
.org, .edu, .gov and .com.
We do a Google search to show the vast
numbers of hits.
Searching known websites is more
manageable in terms of numbers.
Showing examples and using different
sites teaches students to navigate
different web pages.
Day 2 Womenheart.org
Webpage questions
Go to Gale and click on Opposing
Viewpoints. Look for information about
fast food and obesity.
Go to American Heart Association: look
for information about Healthy Lifestyles.
Go to National Heart Blood and Lung
Institute: surgery.
We discuss the different information found
in each webpage.
Day 3 Fast food discussion
Searching web pages gives information
that may not be readily available at a
restaurant.
Taking time to compare menus at home
or school creates an awareness of food
choices.
Choosing healthier foods, not avoiding
fast food is the emphasis.
Sample searches
Go to Sonicdrivein.com and compare the
calorie count for 2 drinks. For example a
medium limeade and a medium slush.
Go to Subway.com and compare
calories, fat and sodium in 2 sandwiches.
Add chips, cookie and a drink (refill the
drink).
Compare hamburgers at 2 restaurants.
McDonalds Bag A Meal
Subway—the health teachers’ fav!
Health teacher
The health teachers talk about how
many calories are needed per day.
One fast food meal can use all daily
calories for a teen.
They tie the fast food discussion to the
consumption of fat and sodium.
They offer meal suggestions for athletes.
Exercise in encouraged.
Encore teachers
They see all students at all levels so be
prepared to modify lessons.
Health teachers can be great partners in
teaching library skills.
My health teachers want brand new
information so online resources are
good.
Encore teachers cont.
Tech teachers like to have someone talk
about intellectual property and online
research.
This is a good chance to share materials
students can use in other classes.
I have moved lessons I used to teach
with CA teachers to tech and speech
because of test requirements in CA.
Think, Pair and Share
Talk to the person next to you about how
you can work with encore teachers.
What are you already doing?
Is there a cause you would like to
address with your students?
How does it fit the curriculum?
What can you do to liven up an old
lesson you teach?
Contact info
Velda McMorris
Antioch Middle School, North KC
vmcmorri@nkcsd.k12.mo.us
816.413.6206
Please email me and I will send the
student Powerpoint and lessons.
For more information, please contact me.
Velda McMorris
vmcmorri@nkcsd.k12.mo.us