By Julie Thelen
The Zoonotic Disease Educational Toolkits can be used in a variety of settings. Check out the list below for ten tips and tricks for this new resource!
Were you one of the two thousand individuals in Michigan that received a Zoonotic Disease Educational Toolkit? As you are aware, the kit contains three Animal Science Anywhere lessons and the supplies for those lessons to help increase awareness and understanding of zoonotic diseases. This grant-funded resource is designed to help educate youth about concerns in both human and animal health.
Michigan State University Extension suggests utilizing any of these 10 suggestions for making the most out of your new resource:
Teach one lesson each month at a 4-H club meeting.
Take part of each lesson and teach it over two or three meetings helping to reinforce the curriculum for youth.
Engage teen leaders to teach the lesson(s).
Take parts of the lessons and utilize them as resources for events like Project RED.
Teach the activity and then have youth complete the activities with different adults, such as fair board members. (The Diseases That Animals and Humans Share: The Words You Need to Know lesson is especially good for this).
Take a lesson and turn it into an educational fair exhibit.
Make copies of the lesson and have youth teach the lesson to family members. This will help their family continue to make healthy choices for animal projects.
Share your kit with local veterinarians to help improve your Veterinarian/Client/Patient Relationship. (This is a great extension of the Michigan Youth Pork Quality Assurance training).
If you are thinking about starting a veterinary science club, these three lessons are an excellent start to content for meetings.
Attend the Michigan 4-H Beef, Sheep and Swine Teen and Adult Leaders Workshop to learn about other similar resources.
If you didn’t receive a k''it, simply download the Animal Science Anywhere lessons located on the Michigan 4-H webpage and purchase your needed supplies! Teach the lessons as is, or try something different as each lesson features an Adaptations and Extension portion to provide you additional ideas!
For additional information about the Michigan youth zoonotic disease resources, visit the Michigan 4-H Zoonotic Disease page or the MSU Extension website for animal science content. The kits were made possible by a grant received through the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and was completed in cooperation with MSU Extension, the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, the Michigan Department of Community Health, and the MSU College of Veterinary Medicine.
source: msu.edu