Students Teaching Students about Malaria Awareness

By: Chelsea Craigie

Teaching Team: Nellie Bess

School: John F. Kennedy HS; Montgomery UMS and

Alexander Hamilton Academy will also participate in the project.

Grade Levels: 10^th grade Honors Biology.

Academic Focus/

Core Curriculum Standards:

Language Arts 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 3.4, 3.5

The current malaria epidemic in Africa serves as the focus of an interdisciplinary project in which three schools representing different demographics and grade levels join together to increase knowledge, inform the public and raise funds for malaria nets. Tenth grade honors biology students will learn about the disease itself, the way in which it is spread, the techniques to prevent it, and the treatments for it. In an integrated action plan, John F Kennedy students, using this knowledge, will teach a class of 7^th graders at Montgomery Upper Middle School via ITV to assist their campaign to raise money to purchase mosquito nets to help stop the spread of malaria. JFK students will also teach a class of younger students at Alexander Hamilton Academy to make this a communal effort to make a difference.

Target Audience: The African communities that are vulnerable to the malaria epidemic. 

Teaching material on malaria agreed upon by the schools; Interactive Television.

Comprehensive Health and Physical Education (2.1):  Students will explore the role of the mosquito in spreading malaria, the kinds of health issues it cause, and the ways to diminish its spread through safety precautions.

Science (5.1, 5.5, 5.8, 5.10): Students will learn the science behind malaria, from the climate that the mosquitoes live in to the mosquitoes themselves. They will also look at prevention methods and the medicine developing to treat malaria.

Language Arts (3.1-3.5): Students will demonstrate their reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills as well as handling of technological communication through their preparation for the lesson as well as their performance. They will have to be clear, logical, and interesting.

Hurdles Encountered:

Hurdles: The logistics of correlating the work the classes and getting the multimedia to work.

Solution: Darryl Harris came to the rescue and is the technology guru for the interactive television class.

Cooperative Learning: The students will have to work together as a class to develop the lesson for the 7^th graders. They will decide as a group what is important to teach and how to teach that information to students younger than them.

Interdisciplinary Approach: The students will have to take the knowledge they learn in science and use their language art skills in presentation and communication to teach the class.

Personal Growth Outcomes:

The students will gain a better understanding of malaria and the way it has decimated populations in Africa. The students should develop a greater appreciation for living in America where we do not have to grapple with these problems. They also will learn the value of cooperation and teamwork in executing a plan to teach other and help others. By having to teach a class to others, they will learn about valuable lessons about classroom dynamics and education.

Celebration: The students will get the opportunity to celebrate their fundraising and their new knowledge before sending the nets to Africa and realize how many people they have helped.

Recognition: The local newspaper will cover the story.

Key Findings: Schools from very different areas can come together to raise awareness and money with the common goal of helping people around the world.

The students involve the communities of Montgomery MS and Alexander Hamilton Academy. Secondly, the knowledge they impart will help bolster a campaign that both raises awareness and money for mosquito nets to send to Africa to help curtail the spread of Malaria.

Reflection Activities: The project has not been completed. However, a projected reflection is a televised meeting of the three schools called “Uniting the Heart, the Head and the Hand” in which students from all three schools share what they have learned from this project. 

A rubric evaluating all aspects of the project. A reflective essay.