Updated 10/17/2005

 The  Caduceus Club       

2005 – 2006
 
Curriculum Guide for Teaching Faculty

     The Caduceus Club of the John Locke Society of Greater Kansas City provides volunteer teachers to elementary schools in the Kansas City Metropolitan Area to teach 5th grade students about health and hygiene. These teachers are retired physicians who care about the welfare of children and wish to make a contribution to their education and development.
    The program consists of fourteen sessions held over the course of the school year. These sessions have been developed during use over the past eight years by several physician/teachers. The material in the current curriculum guide was written and edited by Keith Ashcraft, MD.

Copyright © 2004 by Keith Ashcraft,MD. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without prior written permission from the author.
Permission requests to photocopy portions for internal or personal use or to reprint this text in part or in whole for noncommercial uses must be submitted in writing to the author.

Caduceus Club

Table of Contents

Session 1 – Health:   Self Assessment 

Session 2 – Consumer Health 

Session 3 – The Circulatory System 

Session 4 – The Respiratory System

Session 5 – Nutrition and Obesity Prevention 

Session 6 – The Reproductive System 

Session 7 – Social Skills  

Session 8 – Learning to Handle Conflicts, Bullies, and Peer Pressure 

Session 9 – Blood 

Session 10 – Feelings and Communication Skills 

Session 11 – The Digestive System and the Urinary System 

Session 12 – The Nervous System 

Session 13 – The Skeletal System 

Session 14 – The Endocrine System 

SESSION 1
HEALTH, SELF-ASSESSMENT:

This is a time of my life when I must begin to make some decisions about how I will live and how I may eventually die.  It is a time to take a close look at myself and at the other members of my family so that I can make some predictions about what I will become if nothing changes in my life-style.  It is a time to realize that I can take control of some parts of my life that will help me grow in a healthy way and will help me become what I want to be.  It is a time to realize that I am a responsible person.

The first thing I must look at is my body size and shape.   Obesity is a condition where the body is too fat. I must realize that unless something changes, my life will be shortened by approximately 7 years just because of being obese.

Obesity is almost an epidemic in America, especially among children.  The usual causes are too many calories ingested (fat and sugar) and too little exercise.  Obesity increases the workload on my heart, my lungs, my knees and feet—all of which can cause me a lot of pain or shorten my life.  Obesity may be the cause of type II diabetes that can cause me to lose my sight, have skin ulcers and shorten my life.  I don’t want to be obese and I can control it.

My height is _________ inches.    My weight is ________ pounds.

According to the chart, my BMI is _________.