Public Health and Cities

Module 5 Lesson 1

LESSON 1: PUBLIC HEALTH AND CITIES OVERVIEW: This lesson introduces students to the module about public health by getting them to consider what does it means for a country, city or neighborhood to be healthy, what factors impact the health of people and what unique challenges do cities face in terms of public health. The goal of the lesson is to get students to brainstorm ideas and begin to start thinking about this topic. The concepts in this lesson will be revisited throughout the module. Students analyze public health data from across the world. These data sets are used to introduce the driving question for the module How can I make my neighborhood a healthier place to live? Before looking at their specific neighborhood, this lesson has students consider what it means to be healthy and what factors impact health from an international perspective. SUB-QUESTION: What are the factors that give rise to healthy urban neighborhoods and are they equally distributed throughout the world?

Ways of Knowing Urban Ecology:

Understand Talk Do Act
Students will Understand that advancements in sewage management and medicine greatly enhanced the health of urban neighborhoods. (forces and drivers, human impact) No specific goals connected with talking about urban ecology in this lesson. Analyze and interpret public health data from across the world. No specific goals connected with acting on urban ecology in this lesson.

SAFETY GUIDELINES: No specific safety issues are associated with this lesson PREPARATION: Time: 1 class period Materials: Activity 1.1 For each student: Copies of activity sheet with international health data

Public Health and Cities

Module 5 Lesson 1

INSTRUCTIONAL SEQUENCE Activity 1.1: Analyze Public Health Data from Around the World 1. Introduce the driving question for this module to students - How can I make my neighborhood a healthier place to live? Tell students that throughout the module they will be learning about different factors that impact the public health in their neighborhood. 2. Before focusing on their neighborhood or even their city, first they will take a look at some public health data from across the world. The purpose of looking at this data is to get them to think about how they would define health and to think about what factors they think impact health. 3. Have students work in small groups to analyze the international data set. Pass out the student activity sheet Lesson 1.1 Investigating Public Health Data. 4. After students have completed analyzing the data, discuss the three questions at the end of the activity under Summary Across Data Sets. The first question provides an avenue for discussion across the three graphs that students analyzed. The second and third questions push students to define health and consider what impacts the health of people living in cities (See teacher version of student sheet for possible responses). Concluding the Lesson 1. Have students answer the following reflection question either as a class discussion or in their journals The driving question for this module is - How can I make my neighborhood a healthier place to live? What do you think you will need to learn about your neighborhood in order to address this questions? What information about your neighborhood or the people living there do you need to acquire? Use this question to encourage students to brainstorm some of the topics that you will be investigating in the module. Topics include water quality, air quality, disease, food, green space, social networks, crime, wealth and culture. Culture may be difficult for students to come up with on their own. This is the focus of the next lesson so it will be discussed then if it does not come up here.

Teacher Background Knowledge Until the past 100 years or so, the death rates in European and American cities exceeded the birth rate. Cities maintained their populations through immigration, not internal growth. In some cities one out of every three babies born died before their first birthday. Overall, even the poorest neighborhoods in American cities have improved dramatically over the past 100 years. However, much work remains to be done.

Public Health and Cities

Module 5 Lesson 1

Name: _________________________________

Date: _________

Class/Period:________

Lesson 1.2 Investigating Public Health Data Objective: In this module, you will be investigating the driving question How can I make my neighborhood a healthier place to live? Before looking at your neighborhood, you will first look at some health data from across the world to think about what does it mean for an area to be healthy and what factors impact public health. Directions: You will be looking at data for common health threats in cities around the world. Below are graphs showing data for the incidence of deaths from urban air pollution, child mortality rates and access to basic urban amenities. The data are provided for global regions as a whole and not just for selected cities. 1. Investigate each of the graphs below and answer the questions. 2. Look for recurring trends as you analyze each graph. 3. At the end of the lesson, you will try to summarize your analysis across all of the data.

The data represent the number of people who die each year from urban air pollution for each Questions about residents. Air Pollution Mortality Data million urban the Urban

Public Health and Cities

Module 5 Lesson 1

1. Are the death rates from air pollution equal across the world?

2. What regions of the world had the highest death rate from urban air pollution? Why do you think this might be the case?

3. What regions of the world had the lowest death rate from urban air pollution? Why do you think this might be the case?

Public Health and Cities

Module 5 Lesson 1

These data are the mortality rates of children under the age of five years per 1000 births in urban populations around the world. In addition, data from the wealthiest cities are provided for comparison

Questions about the Child Mortality Data 1. What regions of the world have the highest child mortality rates?

2. What was the highest, and lowest rates of mortality in the dataset?

3. What general trends did you observe?

Public Health and Cities

Module 5 Lesson 1

Thes data from the United Nations track the access to to critical services that promote public health in urban areas. The data are shown geographically for Africa, the AsiaPacific Region and Latin America (LAC). In addition, the data are provided developing cities worldwide that are in transition to becoming fully modern (Transition) and for wealthy cities with relatively high incomes (HIC). Questions about the Access to Services Data 1. What region has the lowest rates of access clean water and sewerage?

Public Health and Cities

Module 5 Lesson 1

2. Which regions have at least 50% access to electricity for their urban dwellers?

Summary Across Data Sets Now that you have had a chance to review and analyze some of the data, please answer a few questions. 1. What trends were you able to uncover? Were the regions of highest risk the same for the three graphs?

2. How would you define a healthy country or city? What would you look for to determine whether your city was healthy?

3. Besides air pollution and access to services (e.g. water, sewage, electricity and telephone) what other characteristics of countries or cities do you think impacts the health of the people living there? Why?

Public Health and Cities

Module 5 Lesson 1

Name: ____Teacher Version________________

Date: _________

Class/Period:_______

Lesson 1.2 Investigating Public Health Data Objective: In this module, you will be investigating the driving question How can I make my neighborhood a healthier place to live? Before looking at your neighborhood, you will first look at some health data from across the world to think about what does it mean for an area to be healthy and what factors impact public health. Directions: You will be looking at data for common health threats in cities around the world. Below are graphs showing data for the incidence of deaths from urban air pollution, child mortality rates and access to basic urban amenities. The data are provided for global regions as a whole and not just for selected cities. 1. Investigate each of the graphs below and answer the questions. 2. Look for recurring trends as you analyze each graph. 3. At the end of the lesson, you will try to summarize your analysis across all of the data.

The data represent the number of people who die each year from urban air pollution for each Questions about residents. Air Pollution Mortality Data million urban the Urban

Public Health and Cities

Module 5 Lesson 1

1. Are the death rates from air pollution equal across the world? No certain parts of the world seem to suffer higher death rates

2. What regions of the world had the highest death rate from urban air pollution? Why do you think this might be the case? Eastern Europe and Asia. Students responses will vary In general, areas that are densely populated, urbanized, and have less strict environmental regulations have more deaths caused by air pollution.

3. What regions of the world had the lowest death rate from urban air pollution? Why do you think this might be the case? Southern Africa. Western Europe is also low. Students responses will vary Southern Africa is not as densely populated or urbanized.

Public Health and Cities

Module 5 Lesson 1

These data are the mortality rates of children under the age of five years per 1000 births in urban populations around the world. In addition, data from the wealthiest cities are provided for comparison

Questions about the Child Mortality Data 1. What regions of the world have the highest child mortality rates? Sub-Saharan Africa had the highest mortality rates.

2. What was the highest, and lowest rates of mortality in the dataset? Approximately 400 deaths per 1000 births; Approximately 3 deaths per 1000 births

3. What general trends did you observe? As populations become more urban and wealthy, the mortality rate drops

Public Health and Cities

Module 5 Lesson 1

Thes data from the United Nations track the access to to critical services that promote public health in urban areas. The data are shown geographically for Africa, the AsiaPacific Region and Latin America (LAC). In addition, the data are provided developing cities worldwide that are in transition to becoming fully modern (Transition) and for wealthy cities with relatively high incomes (HIC). Questions about the Access to Services Data 1. What region has the lowest rates of access clean water and seweage? Africa

Public Health and Cities

Module 5 Lesson 1

2. Which regions have at least 50% access to electricity for their urban dwellers? All of them achieve at least a 50% access rate. Summary Across Data Sets Now that you have had a chance to review and analyze some of the data, please answer a few questions. 1. What trends were you able to uncover? Were the regions of highest risk the same for the three graphs? There was some variation across the graphs in terms of highest risk. Africa had the highest risk for child mortality and was lacking services, but did not have a high risk for urban pollution. The areas with lowest risk seemed to be the same countries that have high incomes, particularly western Europe (The U.S. does not do quite as well for urban air). 2. How would you define a healthy country or city? What would you look for to determine whether your city was healthy? Students answers will vary The point is to get them to brainstorm and access their prior ideas before starting the module. The may come up with ideas such as mortality rates, life span, different diseases or health problems, obesity, violence, happiness, etc.

3. Besides air pollution and access to services (e.g. water, sewage, electricity and telephone) what other characteristics of countries or cities do you think impacts the health of the people living there? Why? Students answers will vary Again, the purpose is to get them to brainstorm before starting the unit. If they have a hard time coming up with ideas, you might suggest that they think about what areas of their city they think are healthier than others. What makes those areas healthier. Possible ideas include air quality, water quality, access to healthy foods, access to green space to exercise, etc.