Kaohsiung Medical University
LOHAS Kaohsiung • Healthy City - Siaogang District environmental education and health promotion sustainable development plan
The Things Which Students Will Teach Us during the COVID-19 Epidemic
Picture/introduction: Kaohsiung Medical University - Siaogang USR planning team
As COVID-19 causes worry and unease across the globe in 2020, Kaohsiung Medical University’s Siaogang USR planning team is attempting to use education to break through limitations and develop creative and innovative projects. The team is integrating professional courses and service-learning planning to take students out of the textbook and campus. The goal is to use the interactivity between college talent cultivation and the local links to apply what the students have learned in the health promotion and education field. This way, the campus will not only be a studying environment, but also a base for promoting field practice.
The “Health Education Creative Teaching Material Design and R&D Workshop” is the first attempt by the Department of Respiratory Therapy (College of Medicine) to develop supplemental material for health education. Students and faculty working together is the focus of the course plan. The idea is to integrate the cross-field knowledge of the College of Medicine and the College of Health Sciences, while using the board game concept to design a practical course. The cross-field design thinking, case study, and practical creation development process triggered a high degree of interest and participation in students. The students also have many expectations regarding their completed work.
During the course, the teachers not only were surprised by the learning feedback and presentation of results, but were also touched by the students’ experience sharing, where students expressed how they optimistically faced difficulties, broke through limitations, and gained a sense of achievement.
Kaohsiung Medical University will continue to promote university social responsibility, including talent cultivation and local implementation. To be continued……
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Text: Chang Chung-Sheng/ Department of Respiratory Therapy, College of Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University (Second-year student)
Originally, I thought the children’s asthma summer camp would be canceled because of COVID-19. Lunch boxes were given during classes in this unexpected course and I had the opportunity to become a health education instructor after the course. This unexpected present became a selling point for the postponed asthma summer camp.
Teacher Chuang I-Chun from the Department of Respiratory Therapy used “board games” as the teaching material design and development proposal, which completely evoked my love for board games. After separate group discussions, we were assigned two themes and divided into the air pollution prevention team and the asthma health education team. Of course, I chose to join the health education’s asthma board game design. As a lover of board games, this is an activity that I have focused on the most since I entered university. I kept thinking about how to integrate respiratory therapy into my interest. Even though the two things significantly differ, I was not willing to give up on the idea.
Because of my poor communication skills, the group discussions in the beginning part of the course did not go smoothly. However, as the game rules were revised over and over, the team gradually developed a tacit understanding. However, summer vacation reduced the opportunity for group discussions. During this time, Teacher I-Ling and I took over the role of directors. I was responsible for game development and testing, while she was responsible for game materialization and content optimization. The team members tested and played the game after school started, as well as discussed revisions with the teachers. With high expectations, the “Battle with Asthma” game will be officially introduced in November.
During the learning and planning implementation period, my deepest impression was when I asked the elementary school for some class time; I was suspected as an unknown person. After passing through numerous challenges, we were finally able to test this game. When we were collecting feedback data, we saw the children went from zero understanding to some understanding, to learning by analogy. Seeing them focusing on the game made me realize that this semi-finished game that is still undergoing optimization can use novelty to stimulate the children’s curiosity towards respiratory therapy and asthma prevention. Seeing the smiles on the children’s faces gave me a sense of achievement that I had never felt before.
Maybe the final product will not be defined as a good product on the market, but being used as supplemental teaching material for health education in communities and schools, balancing gaming and education, and finding the optimal user solution are what we care about the most. I hope that this USR plan can enable the children to learn about air pollution and asthma through fun and down-to-earth experiences. As for me, I look forward to introducing my unexpected board game creation (Battle with Asthma) as a health education instructor in the next stage. I want to lead the children from having asthma to leaving asthma behind.
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Battle with Asthma Battle Strategy Department
Department director: Chuang, I Chun
Team leader: Hsieh, Yi Ling
Battle team: Zhong, Jong sheng、Kuo, Wei Yu、Chu, Yi Ting、Liu, Chung Wei
、Tsai, Yun Chen、Chuang,Yu Hsuan、Wu, Pei Yun、Ou, Xin Ya
Consultation team: Huang,Zi Ming、Wu,Yu Chen