Health Information in a Changing World - by W Bernard Luckenbill & Barbara Froling Immroth Paperback

About the Book

This holistic guide explains how school librarians and teachers can successfully integrate relevant health concepts and life skills throughout the curriculum for students K through 12.
In the United States, convenience food and soft drink-based diets, increasingly sedentary lifestyles, and obesity have become common in youth culture. The importance of health education merits integration throughout school curricula; unfortunately, research shows that many teachers do not feel prepared to teach health issues within their subject areas. This book will encourage all librarians and teachers--no matter their specific area of instruction--to include health lessons in their teaching.

Health Information in a Changing World: Practical Approaches for Teachers, Schools, and School Librarians provides a complete action plan for librarians and teachers who want to provide better health information to students and their caregivers. It contains an extensive discussion of teaching health within curriculum areas such as literature, history and biography, art, science and mathematics, industrial technology, and agriculture. Tips on accessing and evaluating health information in print and electronic media are presented, as well as practical suggestions for effective instructional methods, including ideas on conducting demonstrations, field trips, speaker programs, and online distance education. New findings regarding teaching effectiveness assessment are also presented.

• 15 original line drawings illustrating health issues, plus many images drawn from major image collections such as the National Library of Medicine and the Library of Congress
• Extensive bibliographies of material that can be used to teach health issues, including selected listings of major health textbooks used in the United States and Canada
• List of helpful selection aids and sources for online health information sites

Book Synopsis

This holistic guide explains how school librarians and teachers can successfully integrate relevant health concepts and life skills throughout the curriculum for students K through 12.

In the United States, convenience food and soft drink-based diets, increasingly sedentary lifestyles, and obesity have become common in youth culture. The importance of health education merits integration throughout school curricula; unfortunately, research shows that many teachers do not feel prepared to teach health issues within their subject areas. This book will encourage all librarians and teachers--no matter their specific area of instruction--to include health lessons in their teaching.

Health Information in a Changing World: Practical Approaches for Teachers, Schools, and School Librarians provides a complete action plan for librarians and teachers who want to provide better health information to students and their caregivers. It contains an extensive discussion of teaching health within curriculum areas such as literature, history and biography, art, science and mathematics, industrial technology, and agriculture. Tips on accessing and evaluating health information in print and electronic media are presented, as well as practical suggestions for effective instructional methods, including ideas on conducting demonstrations, field trips, speaker programs, and online distance education. New findings regarding teaching effectiveness assessment are also presented.

Review Quotes

"provides a framework for teachers and school librarians who want to integrate health into the curriculum. It includes sources of reliable health information from government and private sectors; tips for evaluating print and electronic resources; plans for integrating health topics into basic subjects such as literature, math, and science; suggestions for outreach, demonstrations, and field trips; and techniques for assessing the effectiveness of teaching methods. A useful resource for teachers and school librarians." --Booklist Online

"In promoting a holistic approach to teaching, Lukenbill and Immroth assert that health information need not be limited to physical-education classes or specific classroom units. Rather, it can be integrated throughout the curriculum, and school librarians are in the unique position to facilitate and advocate for this change. What follows are suggestions for developing health-information literacy throughout the standard subjects, guides for planning health fairs and other outreach activities, and an overview of search strategies for educators to impart to students. Teeming with ideas, the book also includes a comprehensive list of databases, websites, and links to professional organizations that specialize in health issues." --School Library Journal

"For school librarians as well as health educators, school nurses, science teachers, and other educators, this title offers quality information that can be used immediately with students. . . . This is a wonderful tool to use for building a health education collection in school libraries as well as for consultation when teaching health topics to today's young adults. Highly recommended." --Library Media Connection

"Extensive listings of health information from specific Web sites or printed material from organizations and programs make this a handy manual. This is quite an impressive book and a real treasure for any professional involved with health education, whether for the classroom, public health, or personal counseling." --VOYA

About the Author

W. Bernard Lukenbill, PhD, is professor emeritus in the School of Information at the University of Texas, Austin.

Barbara Froling Immroth, PhD, is professor in the School of Information at the University of Texas, Austin.