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Listed below are the most common topics that DOC presents. However, DOC members are able to work with almost any health-related topic. If you have a topic that is not addressed below, please feel free to request a talk in that area.
TOPIC 1 - Healthy Lifestyles
Starting healthy habits at a young age is crucial to life-long health. DOC presenters address the importance of balanced nutrition and exercise to ensure overall health and well-being. Subtopics can include the food-guide pyramid (mypyramid.gov), weight issues, body image, and stress management.
Lesson Plan : Healthy Lifestyles
Handout : Anatomy of MyPyramid
Handout : Nutrition Facts and Guidelines
TOPIC 2 - Health and Body Image
Young people today are haunted by media images of the “perfect body.” Adolescents, who are in a critical period of physical and emotional growth, may sacrifice their well-being in a vain attempt to achieve these impossible images. This can forever alter their perceptions of nutrition and health. DOC speakers will work to help students understand, define, and maintain beneficial attitudes about nutrition and their bodies. Eating disorders are central to this talk.
Lesson Plan : Eating Disorders
Handout : Eating Disorders
Power Point : Eating Disorders
Lesson Plan : The Media and Eating Disorders
Handout : Core Articles
Handout : Point and Counterpoint
TOPIC 3 - Sexual Responsibility
Because young people absorb much of their information about sexuality from popular music, television, movies, advertising, and peers, it is important that they gain a balance of information from well-informed people with whom they can relate. DOC medical students can present information about reproductive anatomy and physiology, body changes during adolescence, sexual decision making, and pregnancy prevention. On request, they will discuss issues of sexual violence, boundaries, consent, and ways to prevent becoming a victim of sexual violence.
TOPIC 4 - HIV and Other STIs
Intertwined with the topic of sexual responsibility is that of sexually transmitted infections (STIs). If these infections are not fully understood, students may make risky decisions that could significantly affect their health. DOC speakers will explain the facts as well as dispel any myths of HIV and other STIs. DOC speakers can also discuss methods of protection with students in order to allow students to better protect themselves in the future.
Power Point : AIDS and STIs
Power Point : Sexually Transmitted Infections
Handout : STI Worksheet
Handout : STI Worksheet (Answer Key)
TOPIC 5 - Tobacco, Alcohol, and Other Drugs
Today’s young individuals are faced with many decisions, including the pressures of drugs and alcohol. Advertisements target today’s youth to get them to experiment with substances like tobacco and alcohol. This can lead to a lifetime of addiction, sampling of harder drugs, and other poor life choices. DOC speakers will present how these drugs affect our bodies by actually showing the students examples of organs which have been diseased. For example, students will get to see a cirrhotic liver, a diseased heart, and lungs that have suffered a lifetime of smoking. Lastly the DOC speakers will tie everything together by presenting a review of drug classifications, drug effects, symptoms of addiction and abuse, and give information on where to get help.
Lesson Plan : Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse
TOPIC 6 - Body Systems
This is one of our most popular talks. DOC speakers use models and actual human organs to present a review of the body’s respiratory, cardiovascular, digestive, excretory, and nervous systems. Being able to touch the organs is a neat complement to the normal classroom science curriculum. There are also presentations geared to different age levels, so each classroom can get a unique hands-on learning experience.
Lesson Plan : Body Systems (K-5)
Lesson Plan : Body Systems (6-12)
Power Point : Body Systems (7-8)
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