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Selecting Curriculum
Classroom instruction is certainly a very
important component of a school sun safety
program. A single intervention, such as a
one-time school assembly, can be impressive but
for maximum effectiveness children should
receive age-appropriate sun safety instruction
at every grade level. Fortunately,
excellent educational materials already exist
which have been designed for use by classroom
teachers in existing school programs.
Preschool through
Kindergarten
The Child Care Sun Safety Education
Package
http://www.dhs.ca.gov/ps/cdic/cpns/skin/skin_resources.htm#5
Order Form (Word Document)
Created and distributed by the Skin Cancer
Prevention Program of the California Department
of Health Services, this package is provided
free to California child care centers. Each
package contains:
- The California Early Childhood Sun
Protection Curriculum
- Hot Shots educational video
- Alex the Alligator poster
- Sun Protection Guidelines for
Outdoor Play
Elementary School
Sunny Days Healthy Ways
http://www.sdhw.info/
The Sunny Days Healthy Ways (SDHW) curriculum
was developed with the help of educators, design
experts, and dermatologists. It's designed for
use by classroom teachers, utilizing traditional
teaching methods including lectures, hands-on
activities, exercises and experiments. Intended
to fulfill national, state and local educational
standards, it can be incorporated into existing
science, health or safety curricula. The
curriculum for each grade level, K-5, is
provided in Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) format on a
single CD-ROM which also includes lesson plans,
storybooks, and camera-ready student activity
masters.
SDHW helps children learn the fundamental
concepts which will both empower and encourage
them to protect themselves from sun damage. We
applaud the SDHW program for presenting sun
safety issues in their proper order of
importance:
- The beneficial and harmful effects of
sunlight
- Sun avoidance techniques
- Sun-protective hats and cover-up
clothing
- Sunscreen use
Also available from SDHW are interactive
computer games for elementary school children
which reinforce the formal curriculum.
Environmental Protection Agency
http://www.epa.gov/sunwise/summary.html
The United States EPA provides the SunWise
program for grades K-8. Schools are
encouraged to apply for registration with the
EPA as a SunWise Partner School and receive the
free Tool Kit containing cross-curricular
classroom lessons for activities to raise
children's awareness of sun safety practices.
Sun Safety for Kids Educational Videos
In collaboration with the California Dept. of
Health Services and with sponsorship from the US
Environmental Protection Agency, Sun Safety for
Kids has produced two new sun protection
educational videos. One is designed for
students in Grades 1-3, and the other will
target Grades 4-6. Learn more
about the videos
here.
Middle School
SDHW.info offers a new curriculum and
student workbook for middle school students. We
have evaluated an advance copy and find it to be
equally excellent in quality compared to their
Sunny Days Healthy Ways (SDHW) curriculum for
elementary grades. Visit the to request an
advance (print version) copy of the curriculum
and student workbook.
Project S.A.F.E.T.Y. (see below), which is ideal
for high school students, recommends their
curriculum for middle school as well. Our
evaluators felt that, due to this program=s
strong emphasis on skin cancer with quite
graphic depictions of real cases, it may be best
suited for grades 8 and above.
High School
Project S.A.F.E.T.Y.
www.mdanderson.org/departments/projectsafety/
The University of Texas, M.D. Anderson Cancer
Center, has produced an excellent program
for high school students which integrates well
with Health or Science curricula.
The Curriculum has been upgraded for 2002 and is
now provided in cutting edge CD format in which
video clips and other special effects are
incorporated with lecture material. This
allows for individual viewing at a computer or
it can be shown to the entire class with the aid
of a computer and multimedia projector.
The emphasis of Project SAFETY is on skin
cancer, its cause and prevention. Graphic
clinical images of skin cancer afflicted
patients were chosen to be intentionally
shocking and to hold the attention of
adolescents. Young melanoma victims
are interviewed and discuss the serious mistake
they made in trying to tan their skin.
Skin biology and pathology are taught
lecture-style with the aid of animation and
special effects. The main goal, to change
students' attitudes about sun tanning, is
effectively met.
The material is divided into three 50-minute
lessons. This relieves the classroom
teacher of the necessity to present formal
lectures. However, the accompanying
Teacher's Guide includes outlines, objectives,
handout masters for easy duplication, a
glossary, and optional activities for further
teacher-moderated instruction.
Learn more
about curriculum development. >>>
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