Colds, Flu, and Boogie Wipes - Timely Science Lessons

As anyone who has heard me speak this week can attest, I'm getting over a miserable cold. I'm not the only one as this cold has affected my kids and many others in our community. We're going through a lot of boogie wipes in our house. Thankfully, none of us have had the flu. But what's the difference between a cold and the flu? How can you avoid catching either one? Those questions and more are answered in the following videos.

Colds, the Flu, and You is a video from SciShow Kids that is appropriate for elementary school classrooms.




How is a cold or flu passed from person to person and what exactly is it doing to your body? NPR answers those questions in the following animated video.



Did you get your flu shot this year? This TED-Ed lesson explains why you should get one every year.

This TED-Ed Lesson Explains What Causes Heartburn - No, It's Not Your Kids

At one time or another we've all suffered from a bout of heartburn. It usually happens to me if I drink soda pop (sometime the allure of a cold can of Coke on a hot day is too strong to resist). What else can cause heartburn? And what is actually happening in your body when you experience heartburn? Those are the questions that are answered the TED-Ed lesson What Causes Heartburn? The lesson includes excellent drawings that illustrate how stomach acid gets back up into your esophagus. The lesson also covers the lifestyle habits and diets that contribute to heartburn.


Applications for Education
This lesson could be a good fit for a health class in which students are learning about the effects of diet and nutrition. The lesson could also be a good fit in a science class in which students are studying anatomy and physiology.

Kids Health in the Classroom - Guides & Resources for K-12

Kids Health in the Classroom is a great place to find lesson plans, videos, and games for teaching personal health topics to students of all ages. For teachers the biggest feature of Kids Health in the Classroom is the large set of teacher's guides containing lesson plans, activities, and worksheets available as free PDF downloads. The teacher's guides are divided into five grade level categories from pre-K through high school. Above the pre-K level the guides are divided into three categories; human body, health problems, and personal health.

Kids Health in the Classroom hosts games, movies, quizzes, and activities for learning about topics in health. The contents of the games and movies is divided into sections for teenagers and sections for younger students.

Applications for Education
If teaching personal health lessons is a part of your teaching responsibilities, Kids Health in the Classroom could be a great resource for you to bookmark. The Game Closet could provide some individual activities that your students can do to reinforce the ideas that you teach in your classroom.

How Coffee Affects Your Brain

Like millions of people, I start my day by brewing coffee. On those rare days when I discover we're out of coffee at home, it can totally throw my morning out of wack. Heck, I even pick hotel rooms based on whether or not they have in-room coffee makers. In other words, I'm addicted to coffee. What is it about coffee that gives it so much power in our lives? The following short video has that answer.




Enjoy your coffee!

Cold and Flu Season Lessons

As anyone who has been in a webinar with me in the last week can confirm, I've been fighting a cold. Like a lot of people, I seem to get a cold or the flu around this time every year. Fortunately, it's just a cold and not the flu. But what's the difference between the two? How can you avoid catching either one? Those questions and more are answered in the following videos.

Colds, the Flu, and You is a video from SciShow Kids that is appropriate for elementary school classrooms.




How is a cold or flu passed from person to person and what exactly is it doing to your body? NPR answers those questions in the following animated video.




What is ‘flu? - Explania

If you want to use any of these videos in flipped lessons, take a look at the tools featured in my playlist of tutorials on creating flipped lessons.

A Health and Science Lesson - What Is Fat?

Now that we're into the holiday season, many of us may be concerned about our intake of fats through our favorite holiday treats. But, as students can learn in What is Fat? not all fats are the same. What is Fat? is a TED-Ed lesson that explores the differences between the types of fats that we find in food. The video lesson goes on to explain how hydrogenated fats are created, what the term "partially hydrogenated" means when it is on a nutrition label, and how different fats affect our health. Overall, it's a nice little lesson to use as a flipped lesson in a health class.

What is Fat? - A Health and Science Lesson

What is Fat? is a TED-Ed lesson that explores the differences between the types of fats that we find in food. The video lesson goes on to explain how hydrogenated fats are created, what the term "partially hydrogenated" means when it is on a nutrition label, and how different fats affect our health. Overall, it's a nice little lesson to use as a flipped lesson in a health class.

Interactive Animated Explanation of Body Mass

As I've mentioned in the past, my school district recently received a grant for programs to address the rate of childhood obesity in our schools. Therefore, I always take note of things like Explania's interactive, animated explanation of body mass index. The animation includes two interactive breaks during which viewers can calculate their body mass indexes and their ideal weights. The narrator uses metric units in the explanation, but the interactive elements can be used in metric or imperial units. Try it out as embedded below.


Calculate your Body Mass Index (BMI) - Explania

On a related note, you might also like Explania's explanation of cholesterol.

What is Cholesterol? - Explania

Kids Health in the Classroom

Kids Health in the Classroom is a great place to find lesson plans, videos, and games for teaching personal health topics to students of all ages. For teachers the biggest feature of Kids Health in the Classroom is the large set of teacher's guides containing lesson plans, activities, and worksheets available as free PDF downloads. The teacher's guides are divided into five grade level categories from pre-K through high school. Above the pre-K level the guides are divided into three categories; human body, health problems, and personal health.

Kids Health in the Classroom hosts The Game Closet containing games, movies, quizzes, and activities for learning about topics in health. The contents of The Game Closet has a section for teenagers and a section for younger students.

Applications for Education
If teaching personal health lessons is a part of your teaching responsibilities, Kids Health in the Classroom could be a great resource for you to bookmark. The Game Closet could provide some individual activities that your students can do to reinforce the ideas that you teach in your classroom.

TeachAIDS - Animations and Software for Teaching HIV/ AIDS Prevention

Twenty years ago this week, Magic Johnson shocked the world by announcing his retirement from basketball due to having tested positive for HIV (watch the press conference video here). At the time I was a thirteen year old Celtics fan so the news affected me on a couple of levels. First, I remember talking with my friends and speculating on how someone got HIV (as I recall it, in 1991 HIV / AIDS wasn't a part of my middle school's curriculum). Second, my friends and I were sure the Celtics would have an easier time with the Lakers without Magic on the floor (please don't judge our insensitivity, we were 13 year old boys in New England and Larry Bird bordered on deity status with us).

A lot has changed in the twenty years since Magic Johnson's announcement. HIV/ AIDS prevention is a part of health education programs in public schools everywhere and the general population's understanding of the disease has changed significantly. But there is still a lot of work to do both in the US and globally to educate people about HIV / AIDS prevention. That's where TeachAIDS enters the picture.

TeachAIDS is a non-profit organization backed in part by Stanford University whose goal is to educate people around the world about HIV / AIDS. TeachAIDS works toward that goal by producing and freely disseminating educational videos and software. The videos and software are available in a wide range of languages. To tackle issues that may be "taboo" in some cultures, the videos are customized to address those sensitive topics. In other words, the videos aren't just the same product with a different voice-over. According  to the TeachAIDS website, in the near future you will be able to download copies of their software for free. Watch an overview of TeachAIDS in the two minute video below.

Clorox Offers Free Lesson Plans About Germs

In an effort to help elementary school teachers educate their students about germs and disease prevention (and to sell disinfectant) Clorox has developed a website for teachers. Clorox Classrooms offers ten lesson plans, four "take home" activities, and a couple of interactive whiteboard activities for K-5 classrooms. Each of the ten lesson plans are designed to help students understand what germs are and how to prevent the spread of germs. Most of the lesson plans include an "extension" activities for interactive whiteboards.

Applications for Education

There are K-2 and 3-5 versions of four lesson plans; The Case of Invisible Invaders, Follow Those Germs, The Usual Suspects, and Science Fair Investigation. For 3-5 only there is How Clean is the Scene? And for K-2 only there is Removing the Evidence. The lesson plans are published as PDFs with handouts for students. The lesson plans are designed to get students out of their seats and actively engaged in problem solving.

Snag Learning Film of the Week - The Family Meal

This week's Snag Learning Film of the Week is The Family Meal. The Family Meal is a twenty minute film about obesity in America, its causes, its effects, and the disappearance of the family meal in American homes. The film focuses on how developing the habit of eating "family meals" at home can reduce the rate of obesity in American children. You can watch the film and view a discussion guide here.

Watch more free documentaries

Applications for Education
The Family Meal could be a good resource for health and fitness teachers to share with their students. After a classroom viewing of the film teachers could challenge students to create healthy "family meal" menus.

Here are some related items that may be of interest to you:
Snag Learning Film of the Week - Emperors of Ice
Snag Learning Film of the Week - Becoming Barack
Fat World - A Video Game About Nutrition

Fat World - A Video Game About Nutrition

Fat World is an educational video game funded in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The game isn't designed to tell students what they should or shouldn't eat rather it is designed to get students thinking about the results of food choices. In the game students explore the socioeconomic, geographic, and cultural factors that influence the nutrition choices people make. Students will also explore the roles of the government and interest groups in the marketing of foods.

Fat World is available as a free download for Windows and Mac users.

Applications for Education

I like games that require students to use some analytical thinking while they are playing and aren't just "drill and kill" activities. Fat World fits that criteria as it asks students to account for many variables as they move through the game. Fat World could obviously be used in a health class, but could also be used in a civics or economics class. 

Here are some related items that may be of interest to you:
Food Play - Resources About Food and Diet
Sugar Stacks - How Much Sugar is in Your Snack?
Cool Food Kidz Teaches Kids About Diet & Fitness

Are You and Your Students Getting Enough Sleep?

We all know that sleep is important and that there is a correlation between the amount of sleep students get and how the perform in the classroom, but what about us? Are we, as teachers, getting enough sleep? National Geographic has a quiz to help us answer that question. The Secrets of Sleep quiz asks ten questions related to your sleeping habits. The quiz uses your responses to tell you if you're getting enough sleep and, if necessary, what you can do to improve your sleeping habits.

Applications for Education
The Secrets of Sleep quiz could be used by teachers themselves and by students. Health teachers could have students take the quiz to see first-hand how much sleep they should be getting and how they can go about improving their sleeping habits.

Here are some related items that may be of interest to you:
Food Play - Resources About Food and Diet
Sugar Stacks - How Much Sugar is in Your Snack?
Cool Food Kidz Teaches Kids About Diet & Fitness

Infographics - Eating Out and Obesity

Earlier this evening someone (I forgot to note who so if it was you, let me know) posted on Twitter a list of forty infographics health and wellness infographics. The list was published by the Health Hut. A few of the infographics in the list grabbed my attention as being useful for health teachers and science teachers.

Eating Out: From Bad to Worse gives a run down of worst items to order at popular chain restaurants including Chili's, Applebee's, McDonald's, and Wendy's.

The CDC has a series of infographics and slides related to trends in obesity and diabetes in the United States. One of the infographics is an animated map showing the increase in obesity by state from 1985 through 2009. The CDC has also published maps illustrating obesity rates by race in the United States. The information used in creating the maps is also available to download as Power Point slides.

The Future of Food is a series of nine infographics produced by Wired. The infographics illustrate the global demand for food, what that demand means for farmers and for the planet, and how that demand could be met in the future.

Applications for Education
After exploring the infographics students could research ways to correct the problems illustrated in the graphics. In the case of the Eating Out infographic you might have students create infographics of their own that illustrate the healthiest menu options at each of the restaurants.

Here are some related items that may be of interest to you:
Food Play - Resources About Food and Diet
Sugar Stacks - How Much Sugar is in Your Snack?
Cool Food Kidz Teaches Kids About Diet & Fitness

Putting Tech in Phys Ed - Google Maps Bike Routes

It's not often that I write about using technology in physical education classes, but today Google announced a new addition to Google Maps that phys ed teachers might be interested in. Google Maps now provides directions for traveling by bicycle in more than 150 US cities. Now when you enter a pair of address you can choose to get directions for traveling by automobile or bicycle. Don't have any particular addresses in mind that you want to ride to? Google Maps offers suggested bicycle riding routes which you can find by selecting "bicycle" in your Google Maps menu.
Watch the video below to learn more about bicycle routes in Google Maps.


Applications for Education
Google Maps can now be used by physical education teachers and or health teachers to have students plan safe routes for bicycle rides. To take the assignment a step farther you could have students plan a route, measure the distance, and calculate how many calories a person could burn on that route. There are numerous calorie calculators on the web that you could use for that second step, here is one to get you started.

Nourish Interactive - Great Site for Health Teachers

Nourish Interactive is a great resource for elementary school health and nutrition teachers. Nourish Interactive offers lesson plans, printable guides and forms, resources for parents, and games for students. In the printables section teachers will find things like fun coloring pages as well as educational pages like "name the food group" and "exercise tracking sheets." The parents' section of Nourish Interactive offers parents tips on teaching healthy eating habits at home. The parents' section also offers tips and recipes for cooking healthy food with kids. The games section of Nourish Interactive contains ten online games for elementary school students. The games are designed to reinforce the lessons learned from parents and teachers using the teaching resources on Nourish Interactive.







Applications for Education
To reach more students and parents most of the resources on Nourish Interactive are available in English and Spanish. The printable resources could be good to send home with students as a homework assignment to do with parents.

Here are some related items that may be of interest to you:
Food Play - Resources About Food and Diet
Sugar Stacks - How Much Sugar is in Your Snack?
Cool Food Kidz Teaches Kids About Diet & Fitness

Ad Decoder - Kids Learn About Advertising Scams

The Ad Decoder is produced by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The game appears on the B.A.M. (body and mind) section of their website. BAM is full of great resources for health and physical education teachers. The Ad Decoder provides students with two virtual magazines which they flip through to see examples and explanations of advertising tactics used to grab the attention of tweens and teens. After flipping through the magazines students can test their new knowledge.

Applications for Education
The Ad Decoder could be a good way to teach students how to recognize deceptions in advertising. The activity is simple, but provides students with useful information about advertising and the hidden meanings in advertising. The Ad Decoder has quizzes students can take regarding advertising. The Ad Decoder also offers an in-depth look at advertising practices which they call Under the Microscope.

Here are some related items that may be of interest to you:

35+ Educational Games

Five Ways to Build Your Own Educational Games

Get the Glass Promotes Healthy Choices

Cool Infographics - Caffeine Consumption

Cool Infographics has a cool (sorry I couldn't resist) new poster about caffeine consumption. The Caffeine Poster graphically demonstrates how much caffeine is the drinks we consume. The poster lists the quantity of caffeine as well as the quantity relative to other drinks. For example, did you know that a 12oz Starbucks coffee has more caffeine than a 16oz Monster energy drink? View and the download the poster here.


Applications for Education
Health and nutrition educators may find this poster to be something they would like to share with their students. The quantities in the poster are based on typical serving sizes so you may want to challenge your students to determine the quantity of caffeine per ounce for each drink.

Tobacco Education Lessons Plans and Game

TIGed (Taking IT Global Education) has a good collection of lesson plans for educating students about the dangers of tobacco use. Teachers will find lesson plans for educating students about the science of tobacco addiction, tobacco laws, and the ways in which tobacco is marketed to young people. There are eleven lesson plans in total which are appropriate for middle school and high school students. After students have completed the lessons there is a nice tobacco matching game that students can use to review and test their knowledge.

Most of the TIGed resources are only available on a fee-based model, but the tobacco resources are free once you go through the registration process.

Applications for Education
TIGed's tobacco use prevention resources are appropriate for middle school and high school students. The lessons are designed not only to impart knowledge but also to make students develop skills to resist tobacco use.

Here are some related items that may be of interest to you:
10 Good Videos About Flu Prevention
Food Play - Resources About Food and Diet
Sugar Stacks - How Much Sugar is in Your Snack?