UCCI Course Description

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   Create a Code of Ethics: Students form public health teams and analyze the American Nurse’s Association Code of Ethics to determine guidelines and develop their own code of ethics for their professional behavior.  This 2-3 page code of ethics will guide them throughout the unit as they develop an action plan for health interventions. Students will respond to realistic public health scenarios (such as community resistance to interventions, privacy and confidentiality issues, etc.) using their code of ethics to determine how they would respond to potential dilemmas.

2. Analytical Essay/Presentation: Risk Factors for Diseases Affecting Community: Students research health determinants and risk factors for disease in their community and interview local health professionals about diseases prevalent in the community.  Students will write a correctly formatted 3-5 page analytical essay, including works cited, that addresses health risk factors. Students will present their findings in a multi-media format (PowerPoints, prezis, posters, videos, etc.) to provide an overview of health risks in their community as an additional foundation for an intervention program. The presentation must be at least 10 minutes in length and propose a solution for a least one major health risk that is prevalent in the local community.

3. Collaborative Project: Community Based Interventions: Students work in their public health care teams, adhering to their ethical guidelines, to write an action plan, guided by current policies and laws, for a community-based intervention addressing the risk factors relevant to their community. They present their action plans to a panel of professionals from the school and local community. Presentations include both oral and visual components (PowerPoint, prezi, tri-fold, etc.) that 1) explain the community risk factor they chose and why they chose it; 2) summarize the policies and laws that are currently in effect in their community and how they pertain to the risk factor; 3) synthesize this knowledge into a practical, step-by-step intervention action plan. It includes details of what the students can do in their community to improve public health. Through this presentation, students will demonstrate knowledge of their risk factor and of current policies and laws, and will demonstrate their ability to assess a real-life situation in order to apply it to and create an action plan. They will also demonstrate oral and visual presentation skills.  Building on the previous assignment, students demonstrate that they are able to identify critical areas of health care needs in the community and propose viable solutions while presenting them in a logical, coherent manner.

In this unit, students will use their definition of public health from Unit 1 to evaluate public health policies and programs of the past and present to prepare them for developing a community advocacy plan that targets a specific community health need. Students evaluate strategies and methods of epidemiology that have successfully addressed social change through extant public health programs, will compare and contrast past social movements and current methods of public health education and disease surveillance, work which culminates in analytical writing.  To understand the impact of socio-economic, political, demographic and geographic effects on health care outcomes, students will examine health care inequities in the United States and within their own community through close reading of informational text from the Social Work Policy Institute and analysis of mortality and morbidity reports. To apply knowledge of public health policy to their own community, students will act as advocates for change by analyzing community health needs assessments reports and investigating a variety of local public health agencies and then creating and conducting their own priority needs survey on campus  to determine a specific public health problem and the social determinants that contribute to inequity of care. Finally students will write and implement a public health awareness proposal that uses rhetorical strategies and persuasive arguments to argue for needed political change.

1. Informational Essay:  Students will close read excerpts from The Coming Plague, And the Band Played On, and Contagion and record their information in 1) Thesis Table that records a thesis from each passage and 2) Graphic Organizer that compares and contrasts the similar claims. Using these tools, each student will write an essay that cites strong and thorough textual evidence to identify and analyze similar claims, including strategies identified in the excerpts that successfully argues for social change through public health programs and political action. The 2-3 page essay must contain an arguable thesis supported by evidence from the texts. The intended audience is young adults who need accurate information about the spread of disease, including HIV/AIDS.

2. Multi-media presentation:  Students close read excerpts from Inside the Outbreaks: The Elite Medical Detectives of the Epidemic Intelligence Service  to create multimedia presentations on the chronology of the halt of the spread of individual epidemics and how a good public health approach--involving surveillance, prevention, intervention, and planning--affects the economics of disease as well as individual lives. The presentations must demonstrate organization, planning, and effective use of academic language while speaking for at least 7 minutes.

3. Book Study/Essay: In order to better understand how a single contribution to science can impact the future of healthcare on a global level, students read The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot to gain insights into public health efforts that began with one person and lead to many important advances in medicine. Students maintain an electronic reading log with quote analysis. Students write a mid-length essay (3-5 pages) in which they establish and maintain a formal style and objective tone while attending to the norms and conventions of the discipline in which they are writing.  Students use well-chosen details and a well-structured argument to support a claim about the case of Henrietta Lacks. What determines the parameters of ethical medical research: individual rights or the good of the community?

4. Socratic Seminar: “Who is responsible for personal health?”: Citing textual evidence from an article such as: “Personal Responsibility Versus Responsible Options: Health Care, Community Health Promotion, and the Battle Against Chronic Disease”, students participate in a collaborative discussion wherein they build on others’ ideas and express their own ideas clearly and persuasively.  Following discussion, students summarize key points in a written academic precis, following formal guidelines for summarizing another’s argument. 1 page.

5. Brochure: Students are assigned to investigate a local community health agency and interview health educators and health workers who are an integral part of that agency. Students integrate and and evaluate sources to create a 3 - 5 page tri-fold professional brochure that highlights the agency’s mission, values, target audience, services, and health careers. Students present their brochures in a gallery walk. Brochures will be evaluated on point of view, reasoning, and use of evidence and rhetoric.

6. Advocacy Campaign: To determine inequities in public health care, students:

1. Close read a professional journal  article (5 pps) such as: “Health Disparities Based on Socioeconomic Inequities: Implications for Urban Health Care.” , delineating socioeconomic inequities and health disparities

2. Use logical inferences and cite textual evidence to synthesize the information into a one page precis for each section.  

3. Analyze morbidity and mortality reports from the Centers for Disease Control and local Hospital and health departments. Students cite textual evidence to identify and describe local community health problems. Students use this Community Health Needs Assessment toolkit and other Internet resources to identify and record priority health needs (example: Injury Prevention).  

4. Using this research, students analyze how different health agencies propose plans for improvement and record  objectives and strategies.

5. Students synthesize their findings and evaluate the multiple sources of information to identify which social determinants (poverty, lack of transportation, etc.) add to the community health problems within specific demographic groups. Integrating the information synthesized from the graphic organizer, students propose questions for a survey of school-wide community health needs.  

6. Students record and interpret data to determine the top 3 needs. Students then design and implement a public health awareness proposal that uses at least three rhetorical strategies and targets a specific population and specific public health need.

Students will apply what they have learned about public healthcare in Unit 2 to analyze social determinants that affect healthcare outcomes in the aging population. Students examine the health issues of the elderly, including, physical, social, and psychological variables by reading, analyzing and discussing diverse texts that examine personal and institutional influences in gerontology, including an evaluation of entitlement plans like Medicare and Social Security and research of alternative living situations like assisted living and hospice. Additionally, students trace the depictions of these similar themes across a variety of genres and examine how writers’ choices affect the persuasive power of text. Students will interview staff, residents and family members, use the Internet and library to research these various social, cultural, political and economic issues senior citizens encounter. Ultimately students synthesize this information and use academic vocabulary to produce and maintain websites, blogs and Public Service Announcements (PSAs) in order to inform and share with the school, their families and the community about health and wellness of the aging population. Units 4 and 5 will add additional public health concerns that students will need to synthesize as they begin to plan their final projects.

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   Create a Webpage: Students will create a Public and Community Health Webpage that will examine gerontology and its social implications. Students can use organization based websites provided through their school districts, or websites such as Haiku Learning or Edmodo.  This will be the first assignment of this unit. This webpage is comprised of the following assignments: all interviews, essays, research, and PSAs from Unit 3 and all units to follow. This digital record will allow students to disseminate knowledge and information about gerontology using a lifespan perspective and will focus on older adult’s needs and concerns along life’s continuum in various environments, in order to reach multiple audiences such as other students, teachers, parents, and community members.  This website collective will be the culmination of work that students will be able to publish as a final assessment for this unit.

2. Website Blog: Students will read and analyze  “A Rose for Emily,” and carefully annotate the text.  In their blog, students will write about the setting and theme and evaluate the perceptions of the protagonist. Finally, students will argue or defend how Emily contributes to her community. Students will interview a senior citizen and write and post a blog entry recognizing his/her contributions to their community. These posts will used as building blocks for later assignments.  

3. Argument Essay: In order to understand the demographics of the older population and how they affect various aspects of our society, students read selected scenes from King Lear and watch selected scenes from the film The Trip to Bountiful. Using the genre of drama, students will gain a perspective of the child/parent relationship in respect to aging. Students take extensive notes that examine the aging process as depicted in these two works. Students use these notes and the information gathered from assignment 2 to write a 3-5 page argumentative essay that develops a claim about the issues of aging found in King Lear and The Trip to Bountiful. Students will support claims with valid and relevant evidence from the reading, video, their observations and personal experience. Do these fictional works depict a realistic picture of the aging process? Students will utilize this information as a basis for the PSA in assignment 4 and the multi-media presentation in assignment 6.

4. PSA: To build on the students understanding of the social issues associated with aging, students analyze Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and five to ten private insurance offerings and evaluate the effectiveness of  each program. Students will assess how these policies, regulations and programs impact older adults and their caregivers. Students use this information to create a color brochure analyzing the pros and cons of each program and how these programs differ.  Students should include information that pertains to the disadvantaged populations in the brochure. Cite sources on back cover of brochure. This brochure will also be uploaded to the website and distributed to the local senior center.

5. Research Paper & Blog: Using excerpts from Sick to Death and Not Going to Take it Anymore, by Joanne Lynn, students will identify the major claims the author makes about health reform for end of life care. Working in small groups, students will gather textual evidence, research from the Internet, the suggested readings below, and medical and governmental reports, to support or refute the claims made in Sick to Death and Not Going to Take it Anymore. Students research and evaluate the cogency of their claims using multiple sources and appropriate data.  Students will synthesize their findings in a 3-5 page, properly cited research paper that supports their claim. Additionally, students will post their research findings and reading notes as blog entries on their website. Minimum of 10 entries. The entire research paper will also be posted on the blog and submitted as a hard copy. Students may draw from expository sources including:

   • “The Wanderer” by Samanth Subramanian

   • Marathon’s Oldest Female Finisher Dies.” 

   • “Rethinking Old Age” by Atul Gawande

   • “The Island Where People Forget to Die” by Dan Buettner New York Times Oct 24 2012

   • “Letting Go of My Father” by Jonathan Rauch The Atlantic April 1 2010 (the decline of a parent)

   • “The Bear Came Over the Mountain” by Alice Munro

6. Multi Media Presentation: Students will read selected articles and differentiate between normal changes in functioning adults due to aging and pathological changes leading to disease. Students will examine issues such as depression, suicide, and Alzheimer's. Students will write a rhetorical precis on each text that they read as a formative assessment and to demonstrate understanding of each author’s argument. For one week, students will research issues relevant to aging and pathological changes in adults and blog on their website their findings. Students evaluate the statistics and causes of suicide of adults in the senior stages of life. Activities during this period may include collaborative group work including data collection, investigation of service providers and the role of health services, and advocacy to enhance technology for aging adults. Students will then create a 3-5 minute multimedia presentation in the form of a video, PowerPoint, Prezi or other platform in order to demonstrate a thorough understanding of the quality of life issues faced by the aging population, and also to show mastery of research skills, organization, and presentation ability.

   • The Forgetting, A portrait of Alzheimer's PBS- video on Alzheimer’s

   • In Blacks, Alzheimer’s Study Finds Same Variant Genes as in Whites, By GINA KOLATA Published: April 9, 2013, New York Times

   • The Nun Study, Submitted by ONE Community on July 12, 2013 - 10:23am, NY Times

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   • Burden of illness and suicide in elderly people: case-control study June 8, 2002

In this unit, students evaluate another public health issue, the impact of environmental factors and personal choice regarding food and the American diet. Through close reading and analysis of The Jungle by Upton Sinclair (or another text such as Omnivore’s Dilemma, which also examines the food production industry) and other supplemental articles, students use inferencing and evaluation to focus on the dangers of food contamination, poor living conditions, and the role of government. Students choose a topic based on the issues raised and write an analytical essay. Students will evaluate the health risks discussed in the book A Civil Action by Jonathan Harr, and create a summary and synthesis of scientific issues and post to the website from Unit Three. Students demonstrate the ability to analyze complex themes and claims across multiple texts in both their writing and in discussion. They analyze legislation and regulations regarding these environmental issues through writing a 5-7 page argumentative essay, using their claims and evidence in a culminating mock trial.

1. Analytical Essay: The Jungle by Upton Sinclair: Students read, analyze, and discuss the book The Jungle by Upton Sinclair (or another similar text like Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan)  to introduce them to the topic of food quality and the role of government regulation. They will maintain a double-entry journal analyzing significant quotes to support a 3-5 page analytical essay about the dangers of food contamination, poor living conditions,  and the role of government in regulation.

2. Website Page: Book Study of A Civil Action by Jonathan Harr: Students read, analyze, and discuss the book A Civil Action by Jonathan Harr and add a summary and synthesis to the website they created in Unit Three devoted to this analysis. Included in their analysis is a description of the key scientific issues and a timeline of major events that both preceded and followed the lawsuit. Students focus their analysis on scientific evidence that led to the ethical implications of the case from a public health perspective. Additionally, their reading logs (on web blog) must reflect understanding of rhetorical devices employed by Harr to make his argument.

3. Argumentative Essay: Environmental Hazards that Cause Disease: Students research a court case based on an environmental hazard that has caused disease in a community, providing an argument for either the plaintiff or the defendant. Students write a 5-7 page argumentative essay detailing the data and evidence used in the court case to make their argument. They must correctly cite their sources and include a works cited page.

4. Mock Trial: Environmental Hazards Court Case: Students use the knowledge they have acquired about the environmental public health issue they researched for their argumentative essay to plan and present an argument, culminating in a mock trial.  They deliver a specific claim and create a cohesive and logical sequence of evidence and counterclaims to support the argument presented. See “The Science in the Courtroom: The Woburn Toxic Trial Resources” website for resources to conduct a mock trial.

This unit will focus on holistic concepts of acute and chronic diseases and how individuals and public health institutions can work together to promote wellness and decrease disease.  After examining public health strategies, health care disparities, demographic and environmental issues in previous units, students will synthesize and apply this knowledge in a final culminating project that highlights prevention and intervention strategies for one particular disease. To analyze causes of disease and inequity of health care disparities in America and worldwide, students will closely read specific case studies on tuberculosis and diabetes. By using critical analysis of literature selections (fiction and nonfiction) that illustrate the themes of stigma, discrimination, and long term suffering of diseases, students will further examine the social, emotional, and spiritual aspects of various diseases as well as examine barriers to personal change by evaluating their own personal risk factors. Finally, the culminating project will be an intensive investigation and intervention project in which students identify and research one disease that affects people in their own community, which includes creation of a case study, a research paper and a grant proposal.

1. Essay: Students gather evidence from a variety of sources to synthesize information into a chart that lists and details the chronic and acute diseases prevalent in the US today. Students write a 3-5 page properly cited cause and effect essay that identifies specific social determinants that affect these diseases and proposes a solution to overcoming barriers to health.
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2. Case Study Analysis: Students examine real-life cases of infectious diseases by closely reading and annotating case studies on tuberculosis and diabetes provided through the Centers for Disease Control or the World Health Organization. Students will use a graphic organizer to compare and contrast risk factors that affect an infectious and a chronic disease. Students will further identify different social determinants between patients highlighted in the case studies. Students will use the gathered information from the case studies to cite evidence of identified risk factors, diagnosis, prognosis and prescription for prevention and change, both individual and institutional. Students use their notes to present an oral summary of their case study analysis to the class with treatment recommendations. 5-7 minutes.
3. Journal Project: Students will read excerpts from sections of fiction and create a dialectical journal for each section to illustrate the themes of stigma, discrimination, and long term suffering of diseases. Students will extend their understanding of the themes by keeping a journal recording and assessing behaviors that may contribute to acquiring diseases. By reading Sanatorium by W. Somserset Maugham about the lives and deaths of tuberculosis sufferers  or The Air We Breathe by Andrea Barrett about sanatoriums in New York City, students will examine how authors use historically social diseases to show how characters deal with the stigma of disease and long term suffering.   
4. Personal Health Journal/Reflection/ and Goal Setting:  Continuing the journal writing begun in the last assignment, students will identify one personal health goal and record daily reflections for two weeks on their behavioral change. Additionally, they will state how their personal health goal relates (if possible) to the community health concerns they identified in Unit 1. They will write a specific goal, a justification for why that goal is health-related, and a plan to reach that goal.  Students will choose at least three of the daily journal entries to take through the entire writing process and publish on their blog as 2-3 page process papers.
5. Final Culminating Project: Mock Grant Proposal, Disease Investigation and Intervention: After investigating class examples of diseases that affect varied populations worldwide, individual students will choose a disease common in their own community and create a communications and public relations plan for their community through a Mock Grant Proposal.

The Grant Proposal Will have Three Phases:

1. Phase One: Background Research: Scientific Research Paper. Students will write a 5-7 page Research Paper based on a disease of choice that affects their own community. The paper must be written in APA style, include evidence from the Centers for Disease Control regarding descriptions, identified risk factors, diagnosis, and prognosis, and must analyze effective solutions to eliminate or treat the disease. Identified solutions must include both individual and institutional changes.
2. Phase Two: Patient Case Study: Students will present scientific information in the form of a case study. They will apply their understanding of chronic or infectious disease by creating a case study about a hypothetical individual affected by the disease or disorder that they chose in Phase One. Using research, they will synthesize this information into a written case study that highlights how the disease affects a patient holistically (physically, spiritually, socially, and emotionally). The work of this case study must be directly reflected in the final proposal. The research must reflect the use of at least 7-10 sources (e.g., academic journals, published case studies, online materials, books).
3. Phase Three: Analysis of Grant Proposals.Students will read examples of grant proposals that target community solutions to public health problems. Students will work in groups to identify persuasive vocabulary and arguments, goals and objectives, and financial criteria used in these grants. Each group will present key findings to the class and the class will vote on the most effective and persuasive techniques. These real-life examples should serve as mentor texts when students write their own final proposals.   
4. Final Grant Proposal: Students will create a communications and public relations plan for their community based on the epidemiology of their chosen disease. Students will design a 2-5 page grant proposal following a real-world model in order to create a proposal similar to those used in state and federal grants. Students will compete for (mock) $100,000 dollars. Each grant proposal will focus on an intervention program that targets 4 levels addressed in this course:
   
   1. Improving the physical environment (such as working conditions, pollution levels, food and water sanitation, and adequate housing)
   2. Addressing the social determinants that affect outcomes of disease (poverty, discrimination, agism, stress, social gradient, etc.)
   3. Improving access to care
   4. Reducing barriers to adopting healthy lifestyles for individual.  Students will present their final proposals to a panel of community public health educators, practicing primary care clinicians, epidemiologists, and a grant funder.  

The final presentation must include the 2-5 page written proposal that sums up points 1-4 and a verbal presentation of 10 minutes. Both products should demonstrate correct use of professional vocabulary, medical terminology, and organizational skills.