Teaching Environmental Health to Primary Students in Uganda
by David Hursh
Associate Professor in the Warner School of Education University of Rochester, Rochester, New York USA Two University of Rochester medical students and I spent a week teaching environmental health to second through sixth graders at the Circle of Peace Primary School in Makindye, Uganda (near the capital city of Kampala). When I visited the school last summer, I taught about principles of energy so that the students would better understand the energy systems that AHEAD Energy has introduced to the school. I also oversaw the installation of a rainwater harvesting system. |
I wanted to return to teach students about the dangers of air and water pollution and how to reduce their risks. Each year, two million people in the Global South die from diseases related to smoke inhalation, largely from cooking over wood and charcoal fires. Further, thousands die daily from diarrheal diseases caused by contaminated water. So when two University of Rochester second-year medical students, Scott Walter and Nick Zinn, asked if they could travel with me to Uganda, I readily agreed, given their medical expertise.
We began with lessons about the circulatory and respiratory systems. Stethoscopes and blood pressure cuffs that we brought with us were used by the students to listen to one another’s lungs and hearts, and take blood pressures. In lessons about the lungs we had students focus on their breathing; how bodies inhale oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide. We diagramed how oxygen is transferred from the lungs to the blood. We then taught about the heart. We had students take their pulse while resting and after doing 25 jumping jacks. Typically, their heart rate increased by 50 to 100 percent.
We then turned to describing how air pollution could damage the lungs. We showed them photos of a healthy lung and one from a long-time smoker. We asked students to brainstorm examples of air and water pollution and then write and draw about them. Specific examples relevant to their experience included:
•Burning trash -- since there is sparse garbage pickup for most of Kampala, almost everyone, including the school, burns their trash.
•Meals cooked on open wood and charcoal fires, which sends much smoke into the air.
•Pollution from vehicular exhaust: cars, trucks, taxi vans and motorcycles
•People and animals urinating and defecating on the ground and near waterways.
•Trash, including food, in the rainwater trenches along the side of the road.
In order to assess how much air pollution these activities create, we placed four Petri dishes around the school grounds: one above the cook stoves, one by the burn pile, one by the road, and one covered and left in the classroom as a control for comparison.
Three days later we examined the dishes. The jelly in the Petri dishes exposed to the elements had turned grey and was covered with small and large particulates. The findings were alarming to the students who became concerned over what this might be doing to their lungs. This naturally led to reflecting on ways to reduce their risks and how to inform others about the risks. On our part, we have been spurred to think deeply about how to improve people’s access to clean water and less polluting forms of energy in developing countries like Uganda.
The students used cameras to make video and photographs of incidences of pollution. One group students made up a song in which they “gave advice” on what people should and should not do. The children will long remember using stethoscopes, and the Petri dishes, and hopefully will continue to grow in their awareness of the dangers of air and water pollution.
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Dr. Hursh has just released a book co-authored with Dr. Camille Martina Teaching Environmental Health to Children: An Interdisciplinary Approach, published by Springer Publications.
We began with lessons about the circulatory and respiratory systems. Stethoscopes and blood pressure cuffs that we brought with us were used by the students to listen to one another’s lungs and hearts, and take blood pressures. In lessons about the lungs we had students focus on their breathing; how bodies inhale oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide. We diagramed how oxygen is transferred from the lungs to the blood. We then taught about the heart. We had students take their pulse while resting and after doing 25 jumping jacks. Typically, their heart rate increased by 50 to 100 percent.
We then turned to describing how air pollution could damage the lungs. We showed them photos of a healthy lung and one from a long-time smoker. We asked students to brainstorm examples of air and water pollution and then write and draw about them. Specific examples relevant to their experience included:
•Burning trash -- since there is sparse garbage pickup for most of Kampala, almost everyone, including the school, burns their trash.
•Meals cooked on open wood and charcoal fires, which sends much smoke into the air.
•Pollution from vehicular exhaust: cars, trucks, taxi vans and motorcycles
•People and animals urinating and defecating on the ground and near waterways.
•Trash, including food, in the rainwater trenches along the side of the road.
In order to assess how much air pollution these activities create, we placed four Petri dishes around the school grounds: one above the cook stoves, one by the burn pile, one by the road, and one covered and left in the classroom as a control for comparison.
Three days later we examined the dishes. The jelly in the Petri dishes exposed to the elements had turned grey and was covered with small and large particulates. The findings were alarming to the students who became concerned over what this might be doing to their lungs. This naturally led to reflecting on ways to reduce their risks and how to inform others about the risks. On our part, we have been spurred to think deeply about how to improve people’s access to clean water and less polluting forms of energy in developing countries like Uganda.
The students used cameras to make video and photographs of incidences of pollution. One group students made up a song in which they “gave advice” on what people should and should not do. The children will long remember using stethoscopes, and the Petri dishes, and hopefully will continue to grow in their awareness of the dangers of air and water pollution.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________
Dr. Hursh has just released a book co-authored with Dr. Camille Martina Teaching Environmental Health to Children: An Interdisciplinary Approach, published by Springer Publications.