Teaching Sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

10 minutes – Part A: Fresh is best
15 minutes – Part B: Data crunchers and data munchers
60 minutes – Part C: Game invention
30 minutes – Reflection: Game trials

Part A: Fresh is best

Step 1.

As students walk into the classroom, ask them to slow down, keep sound to a minimum before sanitising their hands. Then quietly hand out a piece of fresh fruit or vegetable (alternatively you may like to invite your students to bring in their own favourite fruit or vegetable) and then sit together as a whole class. Ask your students to join you on the floor and play some relaxing music to focus student's attention and ease them into a mindful eating session.

Step 2.

Lead the students through a mindfulness food and eating activity and the importance of knowing what you consume and where it comes from.

Start by asking your class to share some thoughts on the following questions:

What do you know about this fruit or vegetable?
Engaging senses: taste- flavour, touch- texture, smell- aroma, etc
What do you think are the benefits of eating fresh fruit, vegetables and other meals?

Ask your class to close their eyes and read the following passage. You do not have to read the passage directly and we encourage you to add words, phrases, or sentences of encouragement that aim to promote a healthy lifestyle.

Ask students to close their eyes and mindfully listen to the passage:

Mindful eating is about being in the moment and conscious of the food and drinks you consume. I really want you to try and think about your favourite fruit or vegetable or the one you have in your hand. Observe this food and how it makes you feel and the healthy signals your brain sends throughout your organs about taste, satisfaction, and contentedness. When you practice mindful eating, you accept that the food going inside you will provide you with the right amount of energy so that you can be strong and enjoy your day feeling nourished.

Mindful eating is not about being perfect, it is about accepting that you are taking this time to enjoy what you are doing; eating, and noticing the sensations that food can give you and how you feel during and after eating.

Hold or imagine your food going inside you, think about what it tastes like, the texture. Is it crunchy or soft? Do you have to chew it for a while? Do you enjoy chewing your food?

Now that you have chewed and swallowed the food, what do you imagine it is doing inside you? Do you think your cells are absorbing all the vital nutrients and minerals? What do you think your organs are doing whilst they break down this food? I hope they are not working too hard? We want to reserve some energy for playtime and thinking.

Take a moment to imagine your body getting charged with all these healthy superpowers so that you are able to work at your best, smile, run around with friends and think creatively because you are giving your body what it needs to be nourished.

Part B: Data crunchers and data munchers

Step 1. Students explore:

Present the graphs and data included in the Filter Your Future Powerpoint presentation pages 21-24. Ask your class to observe the types of graphs and invite them to tell you what they can see.
Allow students to share their initial observations with you about the data and the information they are able to observe. Ensure students are able to articulate the following:

Is kidney disease preventable?
Which type of diabetes is more likely to lead to dialysis?
How many people does diabetes affect?
Which type of diabetes has increased in prevalence in the last decade? Why do you think that could be?

Step 2.

Start with the basics to form a shared understanding of what diabetes is and how it affects people in Australia.

What is diabetes?

Diabetes is classified into two main types:

Type 1 diabetes is a condition that people are born with and is usually diagnosed early in life.
Type 2 diabetes is usually diagnosed later in life (it can be prevented in some cases)

Both of these diabetes conditions require people to monitor the food they eat, especially sugars, closely; test their blood sugars regularly and give themselves insulin injections or use an insulin pump to help regulate the blood sugars in their bodies. Sugars can go high or low, and both are extremely dangerous to the person.

Refer to the teacher's references for the graphs and ideas to discuss with the data.

Ask the students to create their own ‘I wonder' questions.
What are you wondering about the information in the graphs?
I wonder why the grey line showing type 1 Diabetes remains flat? Look at how this compares to the rapidly increasing type 2 diabetes line on the graph?
I wonder why the line increased?

Take the time to share with the class: We know that those with type 1 diabetes are usually diagnosed early in life, they learn the importance of a healthy lifestyle for their future well-being.

I wonder how we can prevent type 2 diabetes?
What makes you wonder about sugar in our bodies? How is it used? What happens if I eat too much sugar?
Did you know that some people are born with kidneys that don't work properly?
I wonder how people help their bodies to break down the sugars? What medications can help?

Go further and provide more information as a shared learning experience.

There are new words in the next section that you may wish to write on the board with their definitions for reference.

What helps a person with diabetes?

This is where insulin is helpful: it helps regulate sugars in the bloodstream and keeps them at a safe level. All diabetics have to monitor their blood sugar levels. It is a serious condition with long-term health effects.

Over time diabetes puts pressure on the body's organs like the kidney and can lead to kidney failure.

When the kidneys don’t work, dialysis is needed. Dialysis is the cleaning of (water and toxins from the blood), through a dialysis machine. Some people are born with kidney disease and use dialysis to help them live.

It takes a long time for people to receive treatment. Dialysis can take up to 5 hours and has to be performed a few times a week. The person sits in a chair and their blood is filtered and replaced. It is all dependent on the person and their requirements.

Part C: Creative games for dialysis patients

Step 1. What's the game plan?

Invite the students to invent a new game for dialysis patients to play in their chairs. The game could be open for student choice or undertaken with a directed focus.

Example focus: Now that students have acquired new knowledge about health, sugar and adequate nutrition students may wish to produce a game that reflects their learning in a fun and interactive way.

Provide a copy of the Student Worksheet where students can record their ideas, inspirations, and enthusiasm.
Game ideas may include:

Online ICT- coded scratch game
Mini Board or card game - using existing games as your inspiration (snakes and ladders, go fish)
card game

1. Establish the following:

Who is the target audience? A game for people on dialysis to play over a number of times while on dialysis machines.
Can your game be replayed?
Can the game have alternative endings depending on the choices for the game player to make?
What makes this game unique and fun? Characters, tokens, playing pieces, mystery cars, etc.
Are there characters in the game? Damien Dialysis Dude, Gina the kidney aficionado, Jenny the queen of health, etc.
Can you gain and lose points?
What do you want people to gain from playing the game? People learn about the effects of healthy choices, the effects of sugar on your body or learn about diabetes.
What are the rules? Brainstorm these ideas in small working groups (up to three students) or work in pairs. Students may wish to use existing games as inspiration (e.g. snakes and ladders, go fish) or create a new game and rules.

2. Work out the rules and how it all works - brainstorm these ideas in small working groups (up to 3 students) or work in pairs.

Step 2.

Provide each group a large sheet of A3 paper and encourage the students to make a creative plan for the game. It is time to focus on what the game looks like.

Invite the students to draw, create and design the game and refer to the guiding questions to support the students while they are developing ideas.

Provide the students with time to begin their creative challenge. Let the students know that they have 40-50 minutes to create their game design. The students can draw or use dot points to share their ideas. At the end of the time, the groups will be asked to share their game plan with the whole group in a reflection.

Step 3.

Bring the whole class together at the end of the game planning time. Ask the class to share their game plans. Select one to three groups to talk about their game plans, share ideas and explain how the game works.

Use these guiding questions to help the students:

What is the game about? How is it played?
What do you hope people will learn from the game? Is there a health message included?
What is the most interesting feature of your game?

Part D: Key health messages

Share the Damien Dialysis Dude captions with the class and ask students what they have learned about health and what some key messages might be:

How will your message help others?
What positive solutions are available to people?

Finish the reflection time by undertaking a gallery walk to view each other's creative planning of the game they are creating or the Damien Dialysis Dude captions.

Reflection

Ask students to think about why health is so precious and encourage students to answer the following:

What can you do to improve your health and that of the people around you?
How can you encourage your friends and family to make better decisions?

Differentiated Learning

Extension - Develop a mini-prototype of the game to play.
Provisions for Learning Support -Use the Student Worksheet of Damian the Dialysis Dude and the Healthy kidney Education Project infographic. Invite students to think of a message that they would like Damien to share about dialysis?

Creative ideas include: cutting out images from magazines to create a collage artwork or develop a cartoon caption for Damien to communicate.

What is the health message that you would like Damien to share:

a message of healthy eating, water drinking, and low sugar eating
a message of what dialysis is and how it affects the body
a message of what diabetes is or what the difference between type 1 and type 2 diabetes is.

Encourage the students to be positive in their approach. Positive language and informative messages go further than a negative ‘don’t list’. Use the interesting facts from the Filter Your Future Powerpoint presentation graphs (pages 21-24) to help students develop their final messages. Invite students to write their messages into speech bubbles on the Damien Dialysis Dude Student Worksheet.

Teacher Reflection

Take this opportunity to reflect on your own teaching:

What did you learn about your teaching practice today?
What worked well?
What didn't work so well?
What would you share?
Where to next?
How are you going to get there?

SugarByHalf - Data Crunchers And Data Munchers

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