I'm a first year nursing student with a teaching assignment to teach self breast exam to a class of 8th grade girls in my area. Any suggestions? (I've contacted the local american cancer society and susan g komen foundation to look for resources.) I want to make this topic interesting for these girls and do my best to engage them. And I want this to be a "fun" learning process for them. Any thoughts? Thanks!!!

There is all kinds of information on this all over the Internet! Explore it for information and ideas. Make sure you make a point of telling them about the statistics on breast cancer and youth and the stress the importance of self exam despite their young age.

Create a model of a breast with a hard lumps in it so the girls can have a hands on model to actually feel what a lump feels like. You can do this with fabric and cotton batting that you buy from a fabric store and use something like a golf ball or small rubber balls (like from a set of "jacks") inbedded in the cotton batting to simulate the lumps. Have the girls palpate the breast and find all the lumps in the model.

• http://www.cancer.org/docroot/CRI/content/CRI_2_6x_How_to_perform_a_breast_self_exam_5.asp - "How to Perform a Breast Self-Exam" from the American Cancer Society
  
• http://www.nationalbreastcancer.org/about-breast-cancer/breast-cancer-symptoms/?hct=googlePPC_About&gclid=CPefvqO1sI8CFQHmhgod6R16JQ - performing a breast exam from the National Breast Cancer Foundation, Inc.
  
• http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/001993.htm
  
• http://www.womenshealth.gov/faq/bsefaq.htm
  
• http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/wyntk/breast/page5 - "What you need to know about breast cancer: Screening"
  
• http://www.healthcentral.com/breast-cancer/hc/BCB-Self-Breast-Exam.html - self breast exam video