Lesson Topic: Bone Health

Grade: 7th Grade

Content: Science
Iowa Common Core:
1. Understand and apply knowledge of the functions and interconnections of the major
human body systems including the breakdown in structure or function that disease causes
NEHS Standards
1. Students will comprehend concepts related to health promotion and disease prevention to
enhance health.
2. Students will demonstrate the ability to use decision-making skills to enhance health.
Materials:

Case studies for each group

Pictures of bone diseases

Objective:
After studying case studies, 7th grade students will be able to write a plan to improve their bone
health and prevent disease that has at least three action items.
Introduction:

Students will walk around the room looking at x-rays of different bone diseases. Some
are genetic, some are a cause of poor bone health. An x-ray of a healthy skeleton will be
placed on the overhead as the students are viewing the other pictures.

Procedure:

What was similar about all the x-rays that we just looked at? There was something
wrong with the bones. Our bones are very important as we have learned because they
hold up our skeleton, protect our organs, and play a role in producing blood. All of the xrays showed something wrong with our skeleton. Some of these were genetic; others
were because the proper measures werent taken to protect bone health.
Today we are going to talk about how we can keep our bones strong and healthy. What
do you think we can do in order to keep our bones strong? Write their answers on the
board.
Im going to pass out two case studies with their results to your table as a team youre
going to do two things.
o 1. Read the case studies and the data and pull out the key points

o 2. Identify the factors that helped increase bone strength

o 3. Individually create an action plan containing at least 3 ways to keep your bones
healthy
What questions do we have about our to do list for the day? Remember if you want to
dive even deeper into this topic there are many resources in our classroom we can use to
learn more about how to increase bone health, our book, the internet, and the posters.
Pass out attached case studies and have students examine the results and complete the
tasks.
Lets share our plans with the class. Select three to four volunteers depending on time.

Assessment:

I will be monitoring the students as they complete this activity, and be available for
questions, and guidance as needed.
Each students action plan will be looked at and graded based on the following checklist:
o _____At least three action items are present __/3
o _____The items presented are correct ways to increase bone health ____/2
Total____/5
Comments:

Resources:
http://science.education.nih.gov/supplements/nih6/bone/guide/lesson5.htm
Google Images Pictures for beginning activity
http://science.education.nih.gov/supplements/nih6/bone/guide/nih_lookinggood_mstr.pdf - Case Studies