I introduced the students to the website and concept of: One World One Health;
http://www.onehealthinitiative.com/
The concept of linking: human, animal and environmental health. We looked at the website and discussed how animal and human health is connected and discussed disease spread. We also discussed how the environment impacts health. These topics fit well with Grade 6 Earth Science, Grade 7 Body System and Grade 8 Disease Spread and Ecology Units. It is good for the student to look at the interconnection of things.
http://www.qmed.com/mpmn/article/10-nanotech-breakthroughs-you-should-know-about-updated
We read the article above. We looked at what was done at NCSU ASSIST Center: http://charge.ece.ncsu.edu/2015/05/wearable-sensors-to-monitor-triggers-for-asthma-and-more/#sthash.NkZLMSlT.dpbs
and what is the Assist Center:
We then talked about chickens. We recently incubated and hatched chicks for student to take home and raise. We discuss daily how the chicks develop and we dissected last year, chick embryos at various stages of development. I asked the students to come up with wearable devices for chickens. Some of their thoughts were:
1. One that detected diseases like avian flu virus (we had discussed).
2. One that monitors it’s temperature/weight
3. One that could detect fat content, weight gain to monitoring feeding amounts
We also discussed wastes such as feathers and nanotechnology: http://www.nanowerk.com/news/newsid=11324.php
http://phys.org/news/2011-04-chicken-feathers-biodegradable-plastic.html
We did discuss packaging with nanotechnology too that might used in the future and scanned with a smart phone to tell shelf life, nutrition, recipes too. We will go to Blue Jay Point Park for our last field trip and students will brainstorm more ideas for wearable devices.
