Seniors from four of DACC’s health-related labs made the short trip Tuesday afternoon to Shale Meadows Elementary, where they presented to local fourth-grade students about the importance of maintaining a healthy lifestyle.
Student Ambassadors from DACC’s Dental Assisting, Pharmacy Technician, Health Technology and Nursing, and Exercise Science and Sports Medicine programs shared tips on how to maintain proper dental hygiene, functional flexibility, a healthy diet, and an active lifestyle. They led the fourth graders through a series of engaging, hands-on activities, which got their muscles moving and their minds turning.
“We’ve partnered with the fourth-grade teachers at Shale Meadows to collaborate as part of their project-based learning unit on health, and we’ve utilized DACC Student Ambassadors to come and talk about their program areas and how that relates to healthy behaviors for students,” DACC Career Readiness Coordinator Lisa-Marie Reinhart said.
“They’re kind of our experts in the field, and they’re sharing information from their respective program areas at DACC.”
This is the second year in a row DACC has partnered with Shale Meadows on this health-based initiative.
“It’s just to give our local fourth graders a broad understanding of overall health,” Reinhart said. “And we’ve tied our lessons to Olentangy’s curriculum content standards for health and wellness.”
At the end of each lesson on Tuesday, Shale Meadows fourth graders reflected on what they learned and logged future health goals in their journals. They will be creating health-based public service announcements at the end of the year, based on what they’ve learned during the course of the semester.
“This is important for our fourth graders because it will help them be healthier individuals, and learn how to be healthy as they become adults,” said Shale Meadows fourth grade teacher Ramona Thompson, who helped spearhead the project-based curriculum. “It’s setting the foundation for them.”
This partnership between DACC and Shale Meadows was an outgrowth of Make Learning Irresistible, a professional development program the career center hosted this fall.
Reinhart said DACC is proud to serve as an educational resource in the community and to help Shale Meadows’ fourth-grade class kick off its project-based health unit. She hopes the partnership between the two schools will continue in the future.
“It’s amazing,” Thompson said of the partnership. “I think our fourth graders love to learn from the students from the career center.”
