Health Literacy

Science NetLinks and AAAS have developed a number of resources that will help you teach your students about health, medicine, and healthy living. Health literacy includes the ability to obtain basic health information and services; understand preventative physical and mental health measures; use available information to make appropriate health-related decisions; establish and monitor personal and family health goals; and understand national and international public health and safety issues. Consider using the following resources in your classroom.

Lessons

Germs Can Make You Sick
K-2 | Hands-On
In this lesson, students will learn about some of the health habits that are essential for maintaining good health.
Taking Care of a Baby
K-2
In this lesson, students are introduced to the basics of how a baby grows inside its mother until its birth.
Antibiotic Attack
3-5 | Interactive
This lesson explores how the human body may not work as well, or at all, if harmful germs are able to get inside it and how antibiotics can help.
Germs and the Body
3-5 | Hands-On
This lesson illustrates where germs exist, how they can get into and affect the body, and how the body defends itself against them.
Alcohol’s Effect on the Mind and Body
6-8 | Interactive
This lesson helps students understand the short- and long-term effects that alcohol has on the mind and body as a first step in understanding why teenage drinking is a serious problem.
Alcohol and Its Impact on the Brain
6-8
This lesson helps students understand how alcohol affects different parts of the brain, which in turn affects behavior.
Skin Cells
6-8
In this lesson, students use online resources and perform a lab experiment to learn about the different kinds of cells that make up skin and how the different skin cells relate to one another.
Sanitation and Human Health
6-8
In this lesson, students develop an understanding of the impact of improved sanitation on human health.
Obesity
6-8 | Hands-On
This lesson helps students understand the relationship among the amount of food energy (calories) consumed, weight, and metabolism and how making good decisions about diet and exercise can lay the groundwork for a healthy lifestyle.
The Social Ramifications of Alcohol Abuse
6-8 | Interactive
This lesson helps students understand how alcohol abuse not only affects the individual engaging in the behavior but also has ramifications for other people and society as a whole.
Viruses/Infectious Diseases: What’s Really Bugging You?
6-8 | Hands-On
This lesson helps to introduce the concept of viruses, what type of life forms they are, how they can be transmitted, how they affect humans and interfere with normal body functioning, and what our immune systems are.
Cancer Risks
9-12
In this lesson students examine environmental and hereditary factors that increase the chance of developing cancer.
Mental Health 1: Human Behavior
9-12
This lesson introduces students to the study of human behavior and to develop their ideas about the importance of understanding mental health.
The Placebo Effect
9-12
During this lesson, students will learn more about the placebo effect.
Preserving Health through Biological Diversity
9-12
This lesson advances student understanding of why diversity within and among species is important.
Toxicology 3: Toxicology and Human Health
9-12
Students examine the clinical effects of environmental toxicants on living organisms by collecting and analyzing scientific data and identifying ways of detection and diagnosis.

Tools

All Systems Are Go!
3-8 | Interactive
In this online activity, a fictional character named Arnold is missing a number of body parts. It's your job to complete each body system so Arnold can function.
Changing the Face of Medicine
K-12 | Interactive
This comprehensive, online exhibition from the National Library of Medicine contains a variety of features that can be used to discover the history of women in medicine.
Antibiotic Attack
3-8 | Interactive
This interactive activity helps students look at the pros and cons of using antibiotics to treat illness.
Asthma and Allergies: The Science Inside
6-12 | Website
Part of The Science Inside series which presents science information in an easy-to-read format, this booklet explains the basics of these respiratory conditions, their relationship to each other, prevention, treatments, and more.
Delta SEE Radio
6-12 | Teaching Aid
The Delta SEE Connection radio show features African-Americans in science, engineering, and mathematics and highlights scientific research that is being conducted at private institutions and college campuses, particularly Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU), nationwide.
Diabetes: The Science Inside
6-12 | Website
Part of The Science Inside series which presents science information in an easy-to-read format, this booklet summarizes what health professionals know about type 2 diabetes—what it is, who is at risk for it, how it can be prevented, and how it is treated.
EyeDecide App
6-12 | Interactive
The EyeDecide app teaches you about eye anatomy and conditions.
High Blood Pressure: The Science Inside
6-12 | Website
Part of The Science Inside series which presents science information in an easy-to-read format, this booklet explains what health professionals know about high blood pressure or hypertension, one of the leading causes of heart disease and stroke.
Obesity: The Science Inside
6-12 | Website
Part of The Science Inside series, this easy-to-read booklet discusses the importance of good health habits such as eating right and exercising.
Obesity and Childhood Nutrition Town Hall
6-12 | Video
This site has information about an event on understanding the science behind obesity and childhood nutrition that took place at the 2008 AAAS Annual Meeting.
Quicksilver Web Module
6-8 | Interactive
This is a problem-based exercise that teaches about mercury in the environment using a fictitious town called Quicksilver, a gold mining town in the 1800s.
The Science Inside Alcohol Project E-Book
6-12 | Interactive
This interactive e-book guides you through the effects of alcohol on the body and some of the physical and social consequences of underage drinking.
Two Forks Idaho
6-12 | Interactive
This is an interactive science mystery story in which students assume the role of a medical investigator on vacation in Idaho.
Wake-Up Call
9-12 | Teaching Aid
This case study teaches you about the risk factors and symptoms of a heart attack and the physiological changes that happen once artery blockage occurs.
You and Your Skin
6-12 | Interactive
This interactive provides an introduction to the basic structure of the skin, information about how it protects us, and how to care for the skin.
Your Health: The Science Inside
6-12 | Website
This booklet, from the Science Inside series, explores biomedical research how far health and scientific research has come in the last 150 years.
Healthy Babies: The Science Inside
6-12 | Website
Part of The Science Inside series which presents science information in an easy-to-read format, this booklet summarizes what health professionals know about healthy babies and mothers.
HIV and AIDS: The Science Inside
9-12 | Website
Part of The Science Inside series which presents science information in an easy-to-read format, this booklet helps to explain what doctors and scientists know about the HIV and AIDS epidemic.
Peering Inside the Body
6-12 | Interactive
This site describes the sophisticated tools and techniques used in medical imaging including the PET scan, X ray, angiography, ultrasound, and CT Scan.

Science Updates

Anti-Asthma Bug
6-12 | Audio
Asthma and allergies, especially in children, have steadily increased over the last several decades, and the increase can't be explained just by better reporting and more accurate diagnoses. You'll learn more about this phenomenon in this Science Update.
Artificial Sweeteners
6-12 | Audio
With millions of Americans following low-carb, low-sugar diets, artificial sweeteners are more popular than ever. You will learn in this Science Update, however, about new research that suggests that these sugar substitutes may actually promote overeating in the long term.
Instant Immunity
6-12 | Audio
Hear about a technique that creates all-purpose antibodies that can be activated at a moment's notice.
Farmers & Pesticides
6-12 | Audio
Research suggests that even the routine use of pesticides can pose serious health risks in the long run.
Sensing Calories
6-12 | Audio
In this Science Update, find out if our brains may crave calories, not just the taste of sweetness.
SIDS & Serotonin
6-12 | Audio
In this Science Update, found out about animal experiments that point to a possible cause of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).
Transplant Tolerance
6-12 | Audio
In this Science Update, hear how researchers are studying the eye's unique response to injury or infection to help with future organ transplants.

Videos

Malaria: blood, sweat, and tears
6-12 | Video
Photojournalist Adam Nadel offers insights into his exhibition, "Malaria: blood, sweat, and tears," which was featured in the AAAS Gallery in 2012.

Collections

Exercise and Nutrition
K-12
This collection has resources to help teach your students about various aspects of obesity, healthy eating, and exercise.

Other Resources

National Public Health Week
Grade Band: 6-12
Description: The 2012 theme of this American Public Health Association-sponsored celebration is "A Healthier America Begins Today: Join the Movement!"

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