Diabetes Awareness & Frederick Banting

November is Diabetes Awareness Month in Canada. Did you know that more than two million Canadians have diabetes? There are three main types of diabetes: Type 1 Diabetes, usually diagnosed in children and adolescents, occurs when the pancreas is unable to produce insulin. Insulin is a hormone that ensures body energy needs are met. Approximately 10 percent of people with diabetes have Type 1 Diabetes.

The remaining 90 percent have type 2 diabetes, which occurs when the pancreas does not produce enough insulin or when the body does not effectively use the insulin that is produced. Type 2 Diabetes usually develops in adulthood, although increasing numbers of children in high-risk populations are being diagnosed.

A third type of diabetes, gestational diabetes, is a temporary condition that occurs during pregnancy. It affects approximately 3.7 percent of all pregnancies (in the non-Aboriginal population) and 8 - 18 percent of all pregnancies (in the Aboriginal population), and involves an increased risk of developing diabetes for both mother and child.

Canada Fact: Did you know that Frederick Banting, a Canadian, discovered insulin? More from cbc.ca (source):

...not long before he made his mark in medical history, Banting was just a young doctor and First World War veteran struggling with a fledgling medical practice in London, Ontario while teaching medical classes at the University of Western Ontario.

But that all changed on Oct. 31, 1920 after a journal article about diabetes research sparked a moment of inspiration. The 28-year-old quickly recorded his thoughts in a notebook -- to try and extract the mysterious hormone associated with the withering disease from the pancreases of dogs.

In his day, diabetics faced shorter lives, blindness and even lost limbs as a result of their body's low levels of insulin, a naturally occurring hormone that converts sugar into energy. At the time researchers knew that diabetics suffered from an imbalance of blood sugar, but they were unable to prescribe anything beyond starvation diets and exercise routines.

(Read the full article here.)

ProQuest has created a BookCart "Diabetes--Prevention, Treatment, and Cure" that helps students to understand more about the prevention, management, and cure of diabetes. This BookCart includes four examples of questions for critical thinking (teachers can create or substitute others) that engage students and require original thought and critical thinking.

BookCart learning activities provide students with the best collection of resources to address important issues and/or solve related problems.

Carts also provide students with directions to use in completing the assignment—all that students need in one place. This saves valuable classroom/library time and ensures reports and presentations are effective as learning activities.

• To copy this BookCart learning activity to your local collection:
• Logon to the eLibrary Canada or Canada CE TEACHER EDITION to access BOOKCART EDITOR.
• Click the BOOKCART ADMIN link at the top of the Teacher Edition.
• Click the PROQUEST CARTS tab.
• Click the CANADIAN BOOKCARTS folder on the left margin.
• Type "Diabetes--Prevention, Treatment, and Cure" in the Search box.
• Click the COPY icon in the ACTIONS column to the right of this title.
• Click RETURN TO MY LOCAL CARTSs.

This BookCart can easily be edited to meet the needs of your students:

• Click the new BookCart Title that has the prefix "COPY OF".
• Delete "Copy of" and then type your first and last name in the AUTHOR boxes.
• Type your email address in the EMAIL box, or your initials as the required filler.
• Option: edit the sample of STUDENT DIRECTIONS in the DESCRIPTION box.
• Option: type call #s for PRINT RESOURCES related to this topic.
• Scroll down and click SAVE.
• Click MY LOCAL CARTS tab to see your edited Cart, ready for student use.

We recommend that you assign the BookCart activity because it will save time, ensure better resource choices, and provide students with specific directions for their reports in ONE PLACE, inside the Cart. But if you opt instead to use a traditional search method, here are the instructions for the assignment.

Students should write a report of at least 150 words (or a presentation of at least seven slides) that cites at least three resources and addresses the essential questions for critical thinking listed below (you can add or substitute others):

• Why is the frequency of diabetes increasing in Canada and other countries?
• How can you help reduce the risk of getting type 2 diabetes?
• How can you control diabetes if you have the disease?
• What are some promising cures for diabetes and where are they being developed?
• Who was Frederick Banting, and how did his discoveries help diabetes sufferers the world over?

Type "Diabetes" in the Search box > Select Sort by Date on the Results

Use our custom ProQuest models for written or PowerPoint reports written and PowerPoint-style reports.

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