Health Information in a Changing World: Practical Approaches for Teachers, Schools, and School Librarians

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.

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.