Learning outcomes
Students will examine changes in technology, medicine, and health that took place in North Carolina between 1870 and 1930 and construct products and ideas which demonstrate understanding of how these changes impacted people living in North Carolina at that time.
To achieve these goals, students will employ the eight intelligences of Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences Theory and:
Study the artifacts from the Country Doctor Museum in Bailey, NC and develop multimedia presentations that compare and contrast the technologies available to doctors at that time with those of today.
Use games and simulation to recreate the role of a country doctor in the early 1900s.
Reflect upon the lives of different men and women who made important contributions to the field of medicine during this time period and write journal or diary entries emulating their thoughts and aspirations.
Graph and evaluate the relationship of deaths due to influenza with the age, gender, and race of the deceased during the epidemic of 1918–1919.
Research and compare the “Humoral Theory” of disease with the “Germ Theory” of disease and how it affected the way doctors practiced medicine.
Sketch a typical country doctor’s office of 1900, applying what they have learned about medical technologies and practices of the time in order to determine what should be included and excluded.
Create an advertisement to promote a “sure-fire” remedy that has been concocted.
Build a homeopathic medicine kit with some of the herbs they feel would be most beneficial from the Country Doctor Museum’s Medicinal Herb Garden.
Compose a song depicting the characteristics and consequences of a serious medical phenomenon such as the influenza epidemic of 1918.
Collect several “tried and true” home remedies or cures from older citizens of the community and share these with the class. Create a medical folklore database and share this with the community.
Teacher planning
Time required for lesson
2 weeks
Materials/resources
Materials
Colored pencils
Graph paper
A folder/portfolio for each student
