Standards-Aligned Activities @ ProQuest

Our Fall activities address the following Georgia standards:

• ELA10W3 -- The student uses research and technology to support writing. Health: Standard: Describes causes, effects and prevention of communicable diseases. Standard: Describes the consequences associated with the use of alcohol, tobacco products, and other drugs in teen relationships (e.g., physical abuse, date rape, violence, teen pregnancy, and drinking and driving).

SIRS Issues Researcher
Binge Drinking by Students

September is Alcohol and Drug Abuse Awareness Month. It's also the start of school, the first semester of college, and college football tailgating parties. This is a dangerous time for freshman college students who for the first time will not be under the direct supervision of their parents. Recently, binge drinking has extended to secondary schools, almost as a rite of passage to college.

The National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism defines binge drinking as a pattern of drinking that brings a person's blood alcohol concentration (BAC) to 0.08 grams percent or above. This typically happens when men consume 5 or more drinks, and when women consume 4 or more drinks, in about 2 hours. Most people who binge drink are not alcohol dependent.

Despite laws in every State that make it illegal for anyone under the age of 21 to purchase or possess alcohol, young people report that alcohol is easy to obtain and that many high school and college students drink with one goal—to get drunk. Binge drinking, often beginning around age 13, tends to increase during adolescence, peak in young adulthood (ages 18 to 22), then gradually decrease. Liquor stores, bars, and alcoholic beverage companies make drinking seem attractive and fun. It's easy for a high school student to get caught up in a social scene with lots of peer pressure. Inevitably, one of the biggest areas of peer pressure is drinking.

SIRS Leading Issues provides more than 300 real-world issues that engage students. 21st Century skills and literacies focus on the importance of integrating real-world issues into the curriculum as a strategy to teach critical thinking and communication skills.

The Leading Issue, "Underage Drinking" provides a real-world controversy for students to research either Pro or Con.

Click "More Issues" in the Pro vs. Con Section > click "Underage Drinking."

Students should select either a Pro or Con position and then open the resources listed in each position box. Introduce the NEW Note Organizer tool (icon next to the Pro/Con boxes) and encourage students to use this to copy/paste the citations and significant information from the Issues resources to use in synthesizing their final report or presentation.

Leading Issues also provides models that help students address essential questions in a variety of formats. Students can access these models by click the Research Guides icon next to the Note Organizer icon.

• Guide to Writing a Research Paper (student)
• Guide to Writing a Mini-Research Paper (teacher and student versions)
• Guide to Creating a PowerPoint Presentation (student)
• Guide to Creating a Mini-Debate Outline (teacher and student versions)

Assign students to write a report of at least 150 words (or a presentation of at least two minutes and seven slides) on Binge Drinking. Students should cite at least four resources in their reports.

Student should address the following essential questions for critical thinking (you can substitute others) in their reports:

• Why do students binge drink—list and explain at least three reasons?
• What are at least five significant risks for students who binge drink?
• How can the government, colleges, and parents help create strategies that will reduce binge drinking?
• What responsibility do producers of alcoholic drinks have in reducing binge drinking—are they trying to do this successfully?

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

SIRS Discoverer Activity
Swine Flu—School Epidemic?

Swine flu (H1N1) infects mostly younger (infants to age 34) and seniors who are not in good health based on the actual cases data from earlier this year. That means that the odds favor a recurrence of Swine Flu as millions of students go back to school this fall. There are several reasons to think that schools could be hotbeds of infection: (a) large groups of children and your adults, (b) people in close proximity, (c) lax sanitary standards, (d) November is the beginning of flu season, and (e) no requirement for schools to shut down when a certain number students encounter the flu.

At the same time, schools are likely to serve as centers for mass immunizations, which could sharply reduce H1N1's reach, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and state and local authorities. So far, the swine flu does not appear to be more dangerous than the typical seasonal flu. But medical authorities are concerned that it could infect many more people -- thereby increasing the potential number of deaths -- because so few people have immunity against it.

The mass immunization program, likely to be the largest of its kind since the polio vaccine was given to about 100 million Americans in the 1960s, will play out with some differences between states and local jurisdictions. For instance, still waiting to be resolved are questions about who gets the vaccine, whether schools are used as vaccination sites, whether parents are present when children are vaccinated, and whether the vaccine is administered by injection or nasal spray. Additional complications include limited staff in schools to administer the injections and getting parental permission.

Assign students to write a report of at least 100 words (or a presentation of at least five slides and two minutes) about the flu, flu epidemics, and the importance of vaccination. Students should cite at least three resources that address the following essential questions for critical thinking (you can substitute others):

• What is the influenza virus and why is it dangerous?
• What groups of people are most likely to develop symptoms and why?
• How does vaccination prevent the flu?
• Why is the Swine flu especially dangerous?
• What is the responsibility of the school in preventing and treating flu epidemics?

Select the Subject Heading search option > Type "influenza" in the Search box.

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

SIRS Interactive Citizenship: Government Activity
The Battle for Universal Health Care

Town Hall meetings conducted by members of Congress during their August recess have demonstrated the passion of each side in the battle for health care reform. Generally, these meetings have produced more heat than light on the issues because of the use of falsehoods, myths, and exaggerations primarily by opponents of health care reform.

While the debate rages, about 46 million people are relegated to the use of hospital emergency room visits and their primary source of health care—the most expensive and least beneficial type of "health care." Thousands more are losing health care each day as a result of losing their jobs. Thousands more each week are losing their health care as small businesses drop coverage to reduce costs during a recession. Add to this list, thousands of others who have health care coverage that doesn't provide for the cost of treating major diseases and the urgency for health care reform is understandable.

In the interim, the federal government already provides inexpensive public option health insurance for seniors (Medicare), for the poor (Medicaid), and for veterans through the Veterans' Administration health care system. The uninsured can visit hospital emergency wards to get health care even if they can't pay the bill. Taxpayers pick up this most expensive type of health care that is the antithesis to preventive health care enjoyed by those with coverage.

Assign students to write a report of at least 150 words (or a presentation of at least seven slides and two minutes) about the past, present, and future role of government in health care insurance and/or delivery. Students should cite at least three resources that address the following essential questions for critical thinking (you can substitute others):

• How and why did the federal government get involved in health care?
• What role does the government play presently and how effective is it?
• What are the arguments against further government involvement through health care reform?
• What are the arguments for more government involvement in the health care system?
• What is your pro or con position on further government involvement and why?

Click IC Interactive Citizenship > What Citizens Need to Know About Government > Part II--Problems of Government > Chapter 20 Health Care.

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