This article about personal health and wellness from BBC News explains how Indonesia is choosing to roll out their coronavirus vaccines in a much different way than most countries at this time. Rather than giving the vaccine to the elderly who are more at risk, they are choosing to give it to the young people first. Their justification is that the younger people are the ones who are still going about their day, and then in turn bringing the virus home to their elderly family members. They explain that they are focusing on vaccinating those people who can more easily contribute to the spread of the virus, such as police officers, taxi drivers, military personnel. This article would be a really neat way of sparking a debate in my elementary classroom. It is so current and different from what other countries are doing, that I’m sure the students could think of lots of pros and cons for both sides of the argument. 

www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/12/201210074722.htm. 

This article on Mental and Emotional Health from ScienceDaily explains how a link has been found between the use of social media and increasing depression. For a long time, researchers struggled to determine if social media caused depression or if depression cause social media usage. They knew the two were linked, but could not find the answer as to why. With this study, researchers have evidence that after 6 months of increased social media use, users became depressed. Possible causes for depression are comparisons to other people’s lives on social media, and less in-person interaction and socializing in daily life due to constantly being on social media. I think this article is a really cool way to show students how important it is that we don’t let ourselves get caught up in social media. Students today are on their phones so often, and they are constantly comparing themselves to one another and striving to get “likes.” This is definitely a topic that needs to be discussed with them, and can hopefully lead to some attempts to set the phone down and focus on non-social media activities. 

www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-55648422. 

This article about violence and mental health from BBC News explains how a man was arrested and detained 7 years ago due to a public complaint from someone who was concerned about his mental health. Section 136 of the Mental Health Act gave the police officers the right to do this, however they ended up causing his death by the use of a ‘prone restraint.’ It has taken 7 years for his family to be given the cause of death. I believe this article or one similar to it could be used in an elementary classroom to have the tough conversation about unjust deaths caused by law enforcement. It is such a hot topic in society right now, and it affects so many people of color. I feel like this is a difficult subject to discuss with children, but it is incredibly important.

This article about Preventing Tobacco Use and Preventing Drug/Alcohol Use from The National Institute on Drug Abuse discusses how the previous years have seen a big rise in vape and tobacco use. However, they explain that from 2019 to 2020, there was not an increase in use. The article goes on to discuss how certain forms of smoking have seen a decrease, such as the use of JUULs.  Students participants in the survey were asked about the daily vape use and the results showed that there was a decline in daily use from 2019-2020. This article would be a great way to broach the subject of how bad vaping is. Students today are enthralled by vaping because they think it is cool, and unfortunately it has essentially caused the smoking craze to come back. They don't realize how bad vaping is for their bodies. I can imagine showing a bunch of the tiktok and youtube videos kids finding cool ways to discard their vape pens at the beginning of class. We could then discuss why there might be a decline in vaping and how advertising has helped call our attention to its negative side effects.

This article on Intentional Injury and Violence from ScienceDaily explains how flirting is actually real and how it works between two people. The researchers conducted a study on men and if they were able to tell when a woman was flirting with them. The women were instructed to use facial expressions that are typically associated with flirting, and those that were not. In the study, most men were able to identify the women that were flirting with them. I think this article could be a little anticipatory introduction into a larger, more serious conversation about consent and all of the hoops we need to jump through nowadays to make sure we are appropriately interacting with our peers. For instance, this might be a way to discuss appropriate touching in the classroom, as well as appropriate name calling. We know now that many women take offense to being called things like “sweetheart” in the work place, and I think it would be important to start these discussions with children early on to help establish positive communication in their futures. 

This article on Personal Health and Wellness by ScienceDaily explains how there may be a greater link than expected between long-term student health and their positive or negative experiences with their teachers. Much research has been done on the effects of peer relationships in long-term health, but this new study shows that the controlling factor in many participants health may actually be their relationship with their teachers. When students build positive, strong connections with their teachers, they feel like they have a warm and safe place to spend their time in school. This article shows the importance of teachers building these safe spaces for students and how schools need to work on training them to do a better job. I think this article could be an interesting discussion in class with students because they are involved in the process of establishing that relationship. Obviously, the majority of the accountability falls on the adult teacher, however students can take an active part in creating those warm relationships with their teachers. They can be more aware of the effects these relationships have on them, and speak up in scenarios where teachers are negatively impacting them.

www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/12/201211083104.htm. 

This article about Physical Activity and Personal Health and Wellness by ScienceDaily explains how you can test the health of your heart in an easy and inexpensive way. If you are able to climb 4 flights of stairs in under a minute, this indicates that your heart is healthy. However, if it takes you more than a minute and a half to climb these 4 flights, you are more likely to have issues with your heart and a higher mortality rate. Researchers also found that 58% of patients who completed the flights of steps in a minute and a half or more had abnormal heart function, whereas only 32% of those who completed it in under a minute had abnormal heart function. This article would be a quick and easy way to discuss heart health and how to check up on yourself with elementary students. We could even practice this together as a group and monitor our hearts. This article could teach children a new way to stay aware of their bodies and get easy exercise.