`California State University, Chico                           Summer 2009

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND COMMUNITY SERVICES

HCSV 363 - CHILD HEALTH ONLINE

Instructor: Dr. Mary Rushka

EMAIL: Please send all email to me through VISTA; only VISTA email will be acknowledged.

OFFICE: BUTTE 606.  Office hours by appointment only.  Email through our course to set up an appointment.

PHONE:  (530) 898-4620; (530)  519-2128 (cell)

HCSV DEPT. OFFICE Butte 607 (530) 898-6661

DESCRIPTION OF COURSE:

This course is part of the Upper Division Theme: The Child. For this course to count towards the theme, you must have already completed 45 semester units.

Child Health is an examination of the status, needs and trends in the health of America 's children, including selected racial/ethnic groups. This course will present an overview of physical growth and development from prenatal period to early adolescence and include discussion of common health problems, causes, symptoms, treatment and prevention. The course will also address selected health issues such as diet, physical activity, stress, violence, drugs, sexuality, and environmental risks faced by today's children. An overview of historical, current and potential health services and prevention programs for children will be given.

COURSE READING MATERIALS:

All required readings are contained within the VISTA course pages. Each lesson includes a Power Point presentation and several links to required readings. Please complete all readings before writing your discussion question postings.

CHILD THEME OBJECTIVES:

This course, Child Health, includes principles and current knowledge from the Natural Sciences and Behavioral and Social Sciences. The theme objectives will be met by using at least five of the six unifying concepts (the six Es).

1. Epistemology: Students will explore alternative explanations of how children come to know or comprehend the nature of the physical universe and social world in which they live.

2. Evolution: Students will investigate whether or not childhood and notions of childhood have actually evolved, and if they have, in what manner. They also will delve into one the great controversies of the past three centuries: the contributions of heredity and environment to the development of thought, behavior, and personality. Finally, students will consider whether childhood is a true developmental stage in the ontogeny of an adult or merely a social construction of wealthy cultures.

3. Economics: Students will consider the distribution of both wealth and power in a society and its implications for children and the nature of the impact of economic factors upon children and their development (especially the extremes of poverty and bounty).

4. Ethnicity: Students will focus on questions such as the pros and cons of raising children to maintain their ethnic identities in pluralistic societies, and whether or not homogeneous societies are preferable to heterogeneous ones.

5. Experience: Students will explore the significance of early experience and the extent to which early experiences set a child on a more or less irrevocable path, and the influence of numerous socializing agents in society (e.g., parents, teachers, peers), and experience in general.

6. Epidemiology: Students will study the factors that determine the origin, frequency, and distribution of diseases in children. They will also learn ways to alter these factors to prevent or delay negative health outcomes.

COURSE OBJECTIVES:

The student will be able to:

1. List the types of research utilized in the study of the health of the child and distinguish the scientific method from hearsay in interpreting material written about the health of children.

2. Discuss the status and trends in the health of America 's children with special attention to selected national studies.

3. Distinguish the differences in health status and need among ethnic and racial subgroups and explore the variables affecting health status and need, giving special attention to the effects of poverty.

4. Describe the stages that influence the physical development of the child from conception to early adolescence, including genetic and environmental influences.

5. Analyze the genetic and cultural influences upon the development of sexuality of the child from conception to adolescence, including issues such as homosexuality, sex education and child sexual abuse.

6. List and discuss the common diseases and disorders occurring from conception to early adolescence: description, cause, prevalence, risk factors, symptoms, treatment, prevention and measures.

7. Analyze the major factors influencing the health of the child (early experience, diet, physical activity, accidents, stress, violence, drug use and sexuality) and be able to list ways that parents, teachers, community workers and policy makers can enhance health promotion behaviors.

8. Analyze the risks the physical environment places upon the health of the child and be able to discuss several advocacy efforts to counteract their negative influence.

9. Address social influences and public policy regarding the quality and availability of health services for children, including past, current, and future directions, with special attention to the impoverished.

10. Discuss the role of the parent, the school, the community and government programs and policies in enhancing the health of the child.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS:

This section of Child Health will meet exclusively on VISTA. VISTA is an online environment that requires each student to log on  and complete all activities/assignments within the time parameters specified on the course schedule in order to be successful. The course is divided into four units or MODULES, one for each week of the semester. Within each MODULE there are three or four LESSONS.  A new module begins on Monday of each week. All discussion postings, quizzes and other assignments will be due on Sundays by 11:45 pm unless otherwise specified. (This all makes more sense if you are looking at our Course Schedule while reading this….PRINT IT OUT!).  It is your responsibility to read each module’s course material, participate in the Discussion (with postings), and complete and submit all assignments as described below:

Discussion Board:  Students are expected to participate by making relevant, thoughtful, constructive and respectful posts on the Discussion Board for every lesson.   Students must respond to the question, respond to other students' posts, and post questions or topics of their own.  However, students are encouraged to make more than two posts per module, and it is acceptable to make more than one post each day.

* Use complete sentences, correct grammar, and correct spelling.

* Be clear about whether you are using personal opinions or knowledge.

* You may be asked to use citations from the readings to document your postings.

* Discussion postings are due by midnight on the last day (Sunday) of each module.  See the Class Schedule for module dates.

* Your discussion posts will initially be assigned a qualitative letter score (O = Outstanding, P = Pass, P- = Improvement Needed, NC = No Credit.  At the end of semester I will assign each students points (out of 300), based on overall semester performance.

IMPORTANT:  IN A COURSE OF SUCH SHORT LENGTH, IT IS IMPERATIVE THAT YOU COMPLETE ALL DISCUSSION POSTINGS BY THE CLOSING DATE OF EACH MODULE.  DISCUSSION BOARDS WILL NOT BE AVAILABLE ONCE THE MODULE IS OVER AND THERE WILL NOT BE TIME TO MAKE UP MISSING WORK.

Quizzes

  • Quizzes are composed of approximately five objective questions based on information in the course readings and Power Point presentations.
  • There are 10 quizzes.  This means that there is NOT a quiz for every unit. Check schedule for dates.
  • You can take each quiz only once. Each quiz is timed.  Once you begin to take a quiz, you may not stop. QUIZZES ARE ALWAYS LOCATED AT BOTTOM OF HOMEPAGE, ACCESSIBLE FROM AN ICON LABELED “QUIZ.”
  • You have fifteen minutes to answer all the questions.
  • A quiz may be taken during the time we are studying the related module.  Quizzes open at 12:15 am on the first day (Monday) and close at 11:45 pm on the last day (Sunday) of each module.  See the class schedule for module dates.

Examinations: There will be two non-cumulative examinations; each will be accessible from the course Homepage (click on “Exam” icon). Exams will consist of multiple choice, matching and true/false questions and will be completed entirely in VISTA. More specific directions for taking the exams will be available from the “Exam” icon during exam weeks. You may also want to familiarize yourself with this VISTA tool on the tutorial. Consult Course Schedule for due dates.

Written Assignments

In order to provide you with an opportunity to gain more complete knowledge in the areas of unintentional injury and media influence on children's health, the two following assignments are required.

Playground Observation: Visit a local playground in the community or at a school  (a favorite playground in your hometown may be fun) and observe the following:

1) physical development of the children;

2) layout and safety of the play equipment;

3) physical activity and interaction among children AND between children and adults;

4) gender differences demonstrated during play.

5) Conclude your paper by making some suggestions for improvement of this play environment.. * Make certain to obtain permission from school office if you choose to observe an elementary school while in session.

Write your perceptions and summary (including suggestions for positive change) in a 2-page, double-spaced typed paper, using 12-pt font, written according to APA style guidelines.  Please use Microsoft Word and BE SURE TO COMPLETE THE PLAYGROUND SAFETY CHECKLIST AVAILABLE HERE. SIMPLY INCORPORATE ITS RESULTS INTO YOUR PAPER. ALL PAPERS SHOULD BE SENT AS EMAIL ATTACHMENTS TO INSTRUCTOR. USE THIS COURSE EMAIL ONLY.  NO NEED TO SEND THE CHECKLIST VIA EMAIL ATTACHMENT - JUST THE PAPER.  Scoring is as follows:

All of the above (5) observations described adequately: 25 points

Meaningful use and incorporation of safety checklist: 25 points

Overall quality of paper’s content: 25 points

Presentation (grammar, punctuation, spelling) quality:  25 points

TOTAL 100 points

MEDIA CRITIQUE

This is an assignment that students will POST on the Week 11 Discussion Board. You will be given a choice of writing prompts regarding the media's influence on kids' health. Each student will receive a list of the writing prompts later in the semester. The resultant assignment is a short essay paper that you post for everyone to read.

SCORING RUBRIC FOR MEDIA CRITIQUE:

Thoroughness: 50 points possible

Content: 25 points possible

Presentation/style: 25 points possible

A note on academic honesty; I support the University’s zero tolerance for plagiarism of any kind on papers. Consequences for not citing sources or using someone else’s work are receiving zero credit on paper, failing the class and being called before Student Judicial Affairs, with the possibility of dismissal from the University.

CLASS POLICIES

MISSED EXAMS OR ASSIGNMENTS

  • Because you know all the due dates far in advance and because you may take the quizzes any time during the periods they are available, late work is not accepted.
  • If you have a computer that crashes or there are electrical storms in your area, take all quizzes early so you will have time to fix any problems or find another computer on which to take the quizzes or test.  This applies to assignments, chat sessions and discussion postings, too.
  • Power outages and computer crashes are no excuse for late work.
  • Adding the class late is not a valid excuse for late work.
  • It is your responsibility to know how to access web sites and use Web-CT/VISTA.  

EVALUATION AND GRADING:

COURSE POINTS POSSIBLE

1. Discussion Board Participation   300

2. Exam One   50

3. Exam Two  50

4. Playground Observation 100

5. Media Paper 100

6. Quizzes 100__________________

TOTAL 700

LIFE HAPPENS POINTS

  • Unexpected events occur in all our lives.  Sometimes our schedules are interrupted with rather insignificant events such as a last-minute work schedule change, a power outage, or a vehicle malfunction.  Other times the unforeseen event is serious; a close friend dies, a loved one is diagnosed with a serious illness, or you might be in an accident.  Events such as these might result in you missing a module's work.  Life does happen. 
  • Therefore, since life happens, at the end of the semester, I will add ten points to everyone's grade.  If you complete all the module quizzes, these added points will be extra credit points.

ASSIGNMENT OF COURSE POINTS

A = 658 - 700     A- = 630 - 657

B+ = 588 - 629     B = 582 - 587

B- = 560 - 581     C+ = 525 - 559

C = 519 - 524     C- = 490 - 518

D+ = 469 - 489    D = 420 – 468