Students will begins by keeping a daily record of
their health—including physical and emotional health—over the
course of one month. Their observations should be recorded in a wellness
journal.
Wellness Journal
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Record of Wellness Practices
You will also want students to take the Wellness Inventory provided by the
Province of British Columbia's Ministry of Forests and Range at http://www.for.gov.bc.ca/hrb/hw.
Students should click on each of the six aspects of wellness—intellectual,
spiritual, physical, emotional, environmental and social—and then
click on the "Inventory" located under the “Resources”
title on the right. Ask students to record their scores for each aspect
and write a one page summary of the areas in which they need improvement.
Exercise Plan
This activity can be assigned to individual students or as a group project.
If time and technology allow, consider having students create a PowerPoint
presentation as part of the assignment.
Student Instructions:
Invent a fictitious elderly person, then consider the following factors
about this person:
Age
Social/family/living situation
Physical limitations
Injuries
Health conditions such as previous heart attack, high blood pressure,
back pain
Ability to walk (with or without assistance).
Based on this information, select an exercise program that would suit
the needs of your invented client. What would a typical routine or workout
look like for this type of exercise? What are the particular benefits
of this exercise? Research and write a two-page paper describing your
client in detail and the exercise you have recommended and its appropriateness.
You may wish to use the following websites to help with your research.
Balance Training
http://www.mercola.com/2005/apr/9/balance_training.htm
Sit and Be Fit
http://www.sitandbefit.com
(Click Health Tips from the left side bar)
Tai Chi
http://www.umm.edu/altmed/ConsModalities/TaiChicm.html
http://www.spine-health.com/topics/conserv/taichi/taichi01.html
SilverSneakers
http://www.recordonline.com/archive/2006/03/15/features_gohealthy-15hesilvermain-03-15.html
Wheelchair Exercises
http://www.thewheelchairsite.com/exercise
Pilates
http://www.noboundaries.tv/pilates.htm
http://www.spine-health.com/topics/conserv/pilates/pilates01.html
Resistance Training
http://www.nsca-lift.org/HotTopic/download/Strength%20Training%20for%20Seniors.pdf
Nutrition Plan
This activity will be a nutritional assessment of the student now as well
as a prediction of where the student will be as a senior citizen. (Note:
This activity is designed as an individual project; however, this could
become a group activity by using a fictitious student for the current and
predicted portions of the assignment. The project would be presented as
a PowerPoint slide show.)
For the first portion of this activity, students will make an evaluation
of their current nutritional status by recording one day's food intake.
They will then analyze it, use it to predict their nutrition requirements
as a older person and create a one-day menu reflecting this information.
Student Instructions:
- Make a list of what you ate in a 24-hour period. Be careful to include
amounts and types of foods and beverages. For example, the kind of milk;
whole, 2% and the amount ½ cup, 1 cup, 3 ounces. Include incidental
items like sugar and cream in coffee, butter on toast, dressing on salad,
parmesan cheese on spaghetti and the like. Don’t forget snacks. Make
sure that the day you chose is a typical day and the amount and types
of food are what you normally eat and drink. I suggest you record what
you ate yesterday, or the day before, so you will record usual rather
than preferred eating habits.
- Go to http://mypyramid.gov
and fill in the "My Pyramid Plan" area and submit. You will
see the number of servings in each of the Food Groups—Grains,
Vegetables, Fruit, Milk, Meat and Beans—that you should be eating
in a day's time. Compare your actual intake above with these recommendations.
- Now resubmit your data in the "My Pyramid Plan" but use
an age of 65 or older. Predict whether your Physical Activity will stay
the same or change when you reach the age you have chosen. You will
notice that even if you chose the same Physical Activity level, your
calorie intake will have been decreased at age 65 or over. This is because
the body’s metabolism slows by 3% per decade. A twenty-something
now who takes in 2000 calories would have to decrease his or her
intake by 300 calories while maintaining the same activity level in
order not to gain weight by age 70.
- Once you have determined your calorie level and number of servings
from each of the food groups from the new My Pyramid Plan for the “older”
you, go to the Tuft's Food Guide Pyramid for Older Adults at
http://nutrition.tufts.edu/pdf/pyramid.pdf.
Devise a one day menu including breakfast, lunch, dinner and snack
for the "older" you. Make sure to add beverages including
water. Pay attention to whole grains, the color of the fruits and vegetables,
the fat content of milk, and the use of supplements if any. Try to include
as many nutrient dense foods as possible because the challenge in later
life is to get as many nutrients as in previous years but with fewer
calories.
Turn in the following for this project:
- A one-day current food recall.
- A comparison of your food intake with the My Pyramid Plan for your
current age.
- A one-day food menu for the "older" you.
- A one-page summary how your eating plan reflects the needs of an elderly
person and how alike or different it is from your current eating habits.
Article/Pamphlet Summary
Student Instructions:
Go to one of the following web sites and read the designated pamphlet
or search for an article in a subject you prefer. Write a one-page summary
of the purpose of the article/pamphlet and its usefulness.
- The Hospice of the Florida Suncoast, Living will in English at http://www.thehospice.org/LivingWill05.pdf
- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Fact Sheet—Age Healthier,
Breathe Easier at http://www.epa.gov/aging/pdfs/2005_09_aging_fs_lowlitbreath_eng2.pdf
- National
Resource Center
for Safe Aging at http://www.safeaging.org.
Type a search term into the Keyword window (e.g. falls, fractures) and
select one of the articles to read. Be sure to identify the article
title along with the URL.
- Department of Health and Human Services U.
S. Administration on Aging at http://www.aoa.gov.
Type a search term into the Search window (e.g. Alzheimers) and select
one of the articles to read. Be sure to identify the article title along
with the URL.
- U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Medicines and You: A Guide
for Older Adults at http://www.fda.gov/cder/consumerinfo/MedandYouEng.pdf.
- U.S. National Institutes on Health, National Institute on Aging, at
http://www.nia.nih.gov.
Type a search term into the Search window (e.g. exercise) and select
one of the articles to read. Be sure to identify the article title along
with the URL.
Wellness Philosophy
Student Instructions:
Write a two-page personal wellness philosophy statement. Include any or
all of the following prompts:
- What misconceptions did you have about the elderly and how have any
of these misconceptions been corrected?
- What did you know about wellness in general and gerontological wellness
in specific before completing this module? Did you see a need for knowledge
in this area? Has this module met those needs?
- How do you plan to personally change your lifestyle to include general
wellness principles?
In other words, what is your strategy to age successfully both physically
and mentally?
- How do you plan to promote wellness in the lives of older people who
you might encounter in your future careers?