OFFICE OF NIH HISTORY
NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH
“70 Acres of Science: The NIH
Moves to Bethesda,” Lesson Plan #1
Focus: Public Health Education
Objectives:
• To learn about the significance of “public health”
• To learn how the U.S. government educated its citizens about public
health concerns in the 1930s
• To research how the U.S. government and others (such as drug companies)
educate citizens about public health concerns today
• To create sample public health education campaigns for current health
issues
• To understand that even though some public health concerns of the 1930s
are not relevant today, many are still important.
Vocabulary:
Public Health - The science and practice of protecting and improving the health
of a community, as by preventive medicine, health education, control of communicable
diseases, application of sanitary measures, and monitoring of environmental
hazards.
What is public health?
Start a discussion with students about public health education. What kinds of
health issues are raised by “public service announcements” on the
radio or television, by “Back to School Special” type programming,
and on billboards and signs at bus stops or on other public transit? Bring up
some examples to get the conversation started such as:
. “Seek Truth” (stop smoking campaign)
. “Just Say No” to drugs/ “this is your brain on drugs,”
etc.
. “Got Milk?”
. “Friends don’t let friends drive drunk”/ “drinking
and driving can kill a friendship”
. “Five a Day” (fresh fruits and vegetables)
. “Back to Sleep” (placing infants on their backs to sleep)
Some topics of discussion might be: what are the health issues in these ad campaigns?
Who sponsored and paid for these ads? What role might government agencies take
in these kinds of education campaigns? Why might we consider smoking, for example,
a public health issue rather than an individual health issue? What is the difference
between an advertisement for a drug (such as ambien, nexium, etc.), and a public
health service announcement? Point out that many public service announcements
focus on other subjects (i.e. “Only you can prevent forest fires”)
but that health issues are some of the most common subjects.
Ask students to discuss the most important public health concerns today. How
did they learn about these issues?
What is the U.S. Government’s role in public health education?
In the United States, the Department of Health and Human Services oversees and
funds public health education through two agencies: the National Institutes
of Health (NIH) and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). Though the NIH is
primarily concerned with health-related scientific research (on issues such
as cancer, diabetes, etc.), the agency also creates and distributes public health
education materials for parents, caregivers, children, and the general public.
(Distribute some examples).
What are some reasons for public health outreach?
Discuss the reasons for public education on health and medical issues. The most
general reason is to teach people how to prevent a particular disease. Other
reasons, all illustrated in A70 Acres of Science,” are listed below. Have
your class think of examples of each from their own experience, and find examples
of each from the website.
To make people aware of treatment options
To calm the public
To warn the public
To give information about what a government agency is doing
To answer a general public concern/interest in a topic
To inform a specific segment of the population about laws, treatments, etc.
To get participants for clinical trials
To encourage careers in science
To reach minority populations with information specific to their circumstances
To raise money for research
To change industrial/production procedures
To teach favorable habits to children
To show medical procedures and explain scientific concepts
To celebrate the achievements of scientists
Worksheet
Once there is a general understanding of what issues are important and why we
as a society, for example, are concerned with peoples’ health in general,
start moving the discussion to how things might have been different in the 1930s
(or any historical period). The web exhibit “70 Acres of Science”
will introduce students to (among other things) public health issues of the
1930s and 1940s. For the purposes of this lesson plan, the students should focus
on the issues raised in the website about public health education. Have the
students go through the exhibit and complete a worksheet that will highlight
areas of interest. Then split into small groups or, as a class, discuss the
different answers to the questions:
What types of public health topics were important in the 1930s? What issues
might have been less important than today? Much of the public health outreach
focused on educating people about vaccinations, general good hygiene, tuberculosis,
and venereal diseases such as syphilis.
What types of public education outreach tools were utilized in the 1930s? Before
TV and the internet, how were people reached? Public health education outreach
in the 1930s included newspaper and magazine articles, government publications,
radio programs, Public Health Bulletins, posters, person-to-person training,
schools, exhibitions, parades, movies, speeches, cartoons, and comic books.
Using specific cases from the web site, give examples of how the public was
educated about certain diseases or conditions. These include all of the newspaper
and magazine articles but especially Lucy Salamanca=s articles; Thompson=s manuscript
for the PHS public brochure; Roosevelt=s speech carried on radio; the milk codes,
mercury level warnings, etc.; the posters for AOnce a Year for a Lifetime@ X-ray
campaign, malaria control, Christmas Seals and tuberculosis, etc.; the health
inventory taken by the Public Health Methods; the classes in dental hygiene
in schools; the small pox exhibit, portable display of privies, shop window
displays of privies, and World=s Fair exhibits and health inventory; movies
on cancer and dental hygiene, etc.
Give specific examples of how the public is educated about health issues today.
Some examples of today=s public health education are television programs, web
sites, public service announcements (PSAs), commercials by pharmaceutical companies
for conditions like high cholesterol or mental disorders, and advertisements.
How do advertisements increase public knowledge of health issues? What might
be the problems in relying on television ads to protect the public’s health?
Go online and find some websites that talk about public health issues. Make
a list of public health advertisements while watching TV at home, while riding
on public transportation, or while listening to the radio. Discuss.
Activity: create your own Public Health Education Campaign:
Have students split into groups to create their own public health education
campaign. Students must research the issue and create a campaign that addresses
the important points in an easy-to-understand way. The goal of the campaign
will be to educate the public about a specific health concern. Either assign
topics or have the students choose within their groups. Students can choose
something from another era but must tailor their project to fit the appropriate
audience (children, elderly, smokers, students, coal miners, etc.) Below are
some ideas to start with:
Posters for busses, subways, etc.
Website
Comic book
Mini-exhibit to display at train stations, airports, etc.
Radio or television spot
Newspaper articles
Examples:
NIH Radio Station Public Service Announcements
http://www.radiospace.com/nihhome.htm
Visit this site to listen to or read various radio PSA’s
NIH Word on Health – Consumer health information
http://www.nih.gov/news/WordonHealth/
Office of National Drug Control Policy – Television spots
http://www.mediacampaign.org/mg/television.html
National Institute on Drug Abuse, NIH – series of PSA’s related
to drug abuse in children and adults
http://www.drugabuse.gov/drugpages/PSAHome.html
Visual Culture and Public Health Posters
National Library of Medicine, NIH – This online exhibit is designed to
introduce you to the history of images used in public health posters in the
twentieth century. It utilizes the world's largest collection of poster art
dealing with questions of health in the United States, housed at the National
Library of Medicine. Many of these images can also be viewed through the Images
from the History of Medicine (IHM) homepage.
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/visualculture/vchome.html
Images from the History of the Public Health Service
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/phs_history/contents.html#about
The photographic exhibit, "Images from the History of the Public Health
Service," consists of 165 photographs depicting people involved in the
work of the Public Health Service (PHS) over much of its long history. For the
most part they are fleeting images frozen in time by the lens of the camera,
but they are symbolic of much more -- the spirit of a Federal agency whose mission
focuses on care and service.