Save a Life: Malaria Awareness Project

By: Chelsea Craigie

Teaching Team: Diana Dine-Matos and Vicki McKiernan

School: Alexander Hamilton Academy, Paterson

The Academy will also work with Montgomery UMS, Skillman and John F Kennedy HS< Paterson

Grade Levels: K-8

Academic Focus/

Core Curriculum Standards:

Comprehensive Health and Physical Education (2.1)

Consumer, Family & Life Skills: 9.2 A, B, C, D.

In response to the malaria epidemic in Africa, Alexander Hamilton, working together with Montgomery UMS and John F. Kennedy HS, Paterson, will launch a campaign to halt its spread with grade-specific activities. These activities have a three-fold goal: to advance knowledge, inform the public, and to raise money to purchase needed malaria nets for African communities. Different approaches, activities and assignments will mark each grade level. For example, the younger students will approach the study with a more generalized “good bugs/bad bugs” approach and design simple posters and drawings; older students will explore the mosquito in greater scientific detail as well as the culture, climate and conditions under which malaria thrives. They will produce more sophisticated brochures and organize and execute a campaign to inform the public and collect money for the purchase of mosquito nets. The three schools will unite to make this a communal effort to make a difference.

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

Project Scheduling: The project will take place during scheduled class time; some work done after school.

The teaching material on malaria, posters, markers, paper, and art supplies.

Comprehensive Health and Physical Education (2.1): Younger students will begin to understand the concept of health issues, including the spreading of disease through bad bugs, and the impact on people of disease. Older students will learn the gravity and physical repercussions of malaria and the kinds of health issues it causes.

Science (5.1, 5.5, 5.8, 5.10): Younger students will begin to grapple with ideas of climate and bad bugs. Older students will learn the science behind Malaria, from the climate that the mosquitoes live in to the bugs themselves.

Social Studies (6.1-6.3): Older students can ground their lessons in the history and culture of Africa, where the disease is most dangerously spreading. They will learn about the people that are being affected as they learn about the disease itself.

Language Arts (3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 3.4): Students will develop greater proficiency in these areas through research, discussion and writing.

Consumer, Family & Life Skills (9.2 A, B, C, D). Students will develop critical thinking & problem-solving skills as well as demonstrate character through their participation in this project.

Hurdles Encountered:

Hurdles: The logistics of correlating the work of the homeroom teachers with the curriculum in the classes and coordinating with the other schools to complete the project.

Solution: Teachers work together, and students in teams handle various aspects of the project.

Cooperative Learning: The students will have to work together to create the brochures and posters to raise awareness and raise some money for the nets. They will, as a school, create a coherent and well thought out educational and awareness campaign. They will also be taught by the students at JFK to help in the learning process.

Interdisciplinary Approach: The students, depending on grade level, will be learning about the science, health, and cultural impacts of Malaria. The older students will enhance their social studies understanding of the history and culture of Africa with their knowledge about the science of the disease itself.

The students will gain a better understanding about the real lives of a part of their world and realize that they can make a difference. The students will also have the opportunity to share their learning and efforts with two other schools. The students should realize that responsible citizenship.

Celebration: ITV meeting with students of the other two schools.

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 will be united with the JFK High School in Paterson and Montgomery Upper Middle School in a joint effort to make a difference. 

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 for older students and participation in a group conversation for younger students.