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Volume 7: Summer 1: Global Education Project: Child Mortality: Caring for Children Admist Chaos	Printer Friendly Version

Caring for Children Amidst Chaos

http://www.ehponline.org/science-ed/2007/children.pdf

This lesson is from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences in the U.S.   The National Institute is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

In this lesson, students read an article about the need for comprehensive clinical guidelines to help save the lives of children in complex emergency situations such as war or natural disasters. Students then analyze two different clinical guidelines in the context of a hypothetical scenario in Afghanistan.

Some of the vocabulary in article assigned for student reading may present challenges.   Teachers may want to consider reading it aloud and pausing for discussion throughout.   There are many links provided that can easily lead to further exploration and lesson development.

This lesson is best suited for students in Social Studies 11, Unit 3:   Environment.

Curriculum Links and Objectives

Social Studies 20, Unit 3:   Environment

• Know that the environment is a complex system of interacting, interdependent, living and non-living parts, with the whole environment being greater than the sum of each part.
• Know that a habitat is the place where plant and animal species naturally live, and that if a habitat changes significantly, the species depending upon that habitat for resources may not survive.
• Know that effective problem solving requires the ability to define and understand problems clearly and accurately.
• Know that the power of technology affects both the natural and social environments and has consequences attached to its use.
• Know that socio-technology is a social process in which knowledge created by science and technology is put at the disposal of people who may not understand these knowledge bases and may use them for narrow personal purposes.

Evaluation Links

Saskatchewan teachers have been provided support resources for student assessment and evaluation from the provincial ministry of education, Saskatchewan Learning. Specifically, teachers have been provided with the document Student Evaluation: a Teacher Handbook, in print format. Chapter 4 on specific student assessment techniques contains a variety of ready-made rubrics, rating scales, checklists, portfolio set-ups and templates that could be adapted to each task developed in your classroom. This resource is available on-line at: http://www.sasked.gov.sk.ca/evergreen/policy/studeval/chap4001.html. The simple templates outlined on this Saskatchewan Learning site, will help you tailor your assessment to match any activity and ensure that your objectives are being met.

Another source of easily adaptable evaluation material is Discovery School located at http://school.discovery.com/schrockguide/assess.html.  The site has both subject specific evaluation tools and evaluation instruments for process oriented tasks.  You will also find rubric builders, portfolio evaluation instruments, graphic organizer evaluation strategies, etc. all at this site.

Another rubric generator can be found at http://www.teach-nology.com/web_tools/rubrics/.  And, for a discussion on the value of using rubrics in the middle grades, teachers may want to go to http://www.middleweb.com/rubricsHG.html.

Produced with the support of the Government of Canada through
the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA).