Service Learning Plan

Title of Project: Injury Prevention/Awareness for the Physically Active

Grade Level:  Collegiate Students

Number of Students Participating: 10-15 students

Contributed by:

            Teacher: Jessica Rhodes, ATC

            School:  Northern Kentucky University            

            District or County: Campbell County

Overview/Description of Project: Students in the health/wellness/athletic training disciplines will develop educational presentations covering topics that affect the physically active population to promote health and safety. Students will then present/demonstrate these topics to the general population to increase awareness of a disease/condition, prevention of injury or provide resources for more learning. Student presentations will take place at meetings of area athletic training students for peer review as well as an outreach project in university rec centers and student unions.

Goals: To teach physically active youth, teens and adults health and wellness related topics and research covered in the courses and coursework of the collegiate health professional to promote health, wellness and safety.

Core Content Areas:

Health, wellness, safety, first aid/CPR

PARC MODEL STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE

STEP 1: PREPARATION

Selection of health related topic

Research and presentation development

Approval of course instructor and peer editing

Demonstrations in class for peer group

STEP 2: ACTION

Present materials to physically active population utilizing university rec centers and student unions.
Students will be encouraged to seek other venues to share their information such as professional conferences and meetings.

STEP 3: REFLECTION  ( Reflection is not sequential; rather it is encouraged throughout the lesson)

Solicit feedback rating helpfulness, indicate if information was applicable, etc. from audience

Have students reflect on each others presentations/demonstrations and provide feedback

STEP 4:  CELEBRATION/DEMONSTRATION

Look into further opportunities to provide educational topics to the physically active population.

Continue learning and growing as healthcare professionals to make a positive impact on society.

Tapping Resources Outside of the Classroom

The resource I posted on the class wiki is an interactive anatomy and physiology resource to help reinforce concepts taught related to anatomy. In a field where anatomy is a primary focus and is the base for all further learning it is important students grasp these concepts rather firmly. Creating this strong foundation will help them to be successful as information becomes more complex. This resource provides interactive models for learning muscular anatomy (such as the origin, insertion and action of a muscle) and provides animation. Each section also has a review and quiz function that will assist in retention. Slides can be printed for further review. I plan to use this resource as a place to refer students for individual review and learning. It is also my belief that being exposed to information in a variety of methods (hands-on, visual, read, written) increases comprehension and retention, therefore I would encourage students to utilize this resource along with several others.

The video I included is from YouTube, a student has given Lady Gaga's Poker Face a 'facelift' and used it to put cranial nerves into song. Using song to memorize cranial nerves along with the mnemonic given may be helpful to a variety of different learners. Recently, as concussion and evaluation have received so much attention in the sports medicine and general sports communities learning these basic concepts will become more and more important to sports medicine professionals. Finding effective ways to teach this information will only help to increase awareness in a growing body of knowledge.
Video:

Engaging Learners

I currently work with students here at NKU in the Athletic Training Education Program as they complete their clinical assignments to our varsity sports. I have included a picture above with one of our students during his clinical rotation with women's softball. This is a unique instructional setting as most of what I do is completely hands-on. To actively engage these students, I have provided three examples. The first example is asking these students to perform clinical skills appropriate to their class level. For example, asking a level one student to perform wound care on an athlete- both appropriate to his or her skill level as well as promoting interaction with the athlete. Following this interaction a discussion is encouraged to evaluate how the skill was performed and critique the interaction. Secondly, in the world of sports medicine there can be a lot of downtime while covering a practice or treatment hours where the attention of both the student and the teacher is not directly focused on an athlete or patient. This time can be utilized to discuss various topics related to sports medicine or athletic training. While it is fun to engage in more lighthearted conversation, not much learning would take place. Therefore, students are often quizzed on recently discussed topics or skills they have learned in their coursework. When a student has difficulty recalling this information they are asked to look up the correct answer later that day and report back to the clinical instructor to be accountable for the information. This activity proves to be beneficial to both the student and the instructor as it provides opportunity for discussion, feedback and critical thinking. Finally, it is not possible to provide each student with hands-on experience for every situation they might encounter in their professional careers. At times the students will be provided with hypothetical situations to process and in some cases perform the clinical skills that would be appropriate in that situation. These interactions are great for targeting the weaknesses of a student as the situation provided to the student is at the discretion of the instructor and can change rapidly as it evolves. Additionally, I often have multiple students of varying levels. To utilize this, the senior student is used as a mentor to the sophomore or junior level student and is a valuable teaching/learning exchange. Finally, the text I have chosen for this course is Cultivating Judgement: A Sourcebook for Teaching Critical Thinking Across the Curriculum written by John Nelson. This book includes a variety of resources to promote critical thinking. It will prove an interesting exercise to adapt these activities for use in the clinical setting I currently operate in as well as the classroom setting in the future.