does this sound like a good student teaching project?

[stargirl018]

Hi everyone, I am in a bsn program and I have a student teaching project due at the end of the semester. I have an idea in mind, but my population are school age children on the topic of asthma. The teaching project would include the following: learning the signs and symptoms of an asthma attack and the proper use of an inhaler. Implementation includes having my audience breathe through two different straws (a regular straw and a coffee straw) to identify the difference of breathing difficulty and then having an oversized cardboard inhaler to demonstrate the proper use. These are all just ideas, any other suggestions?

[Shagce1]

Was the topic assigned to you and you have to do asthma? Will you actually be teaching to school age children or is it a hypothetical teaching project and you will be teaching to your fellow student nurses. It sounds like a good project if you ​have a fair number of asthmatics you will be teaching. If you are actually teaching to school age children, and none or few of them have asthma, they might not be interested or bored. I don't know what would be a better topic, maybe you can tie the asthma/lung disease in somehow, but do something on the importance of staying away from smoking or secondhand smoke. You could then still do the straw demonstration. Just a thought. But I do honestly think it sounds like a good thorough asthma teaching project. I am a respiratory therapist going back to school for my RN, so this is sorta my area of interest. Good luck.

[stargirl018]

Thanks for the insight! Yes, it is just a hypothetical teaching project towards my fellow peers. I definitely want to incorporate the straws somehow because of how everyone basically gets to know how it feels to be out of breath. But you do have a point that I did not consider! It's true, not everyone will have asthma, but I could emphasize the prevention of smoking, which is something I will definitely ask my instructor. With that being said, I could also incorporate making a jello mold of a healthy red lung and a black colored lung haha. Thank you for the insight, this really helped!

[kidnurse07]

do you mind posting the directions/criteria?

[nurseprnRN, BSN, RN]

I think smoking avoidance is bigger than asthma, unless you are teaching only asthmatic kids. And by the time asthmatic kids are in school, they're usually already VERY familiar with the concept of trying to breathe through tight airways and how to use an inhaler. If you catch a schoolkid's interest before s/he gets to be the age of being tempted to smoke and you prevent it, you've done a wonderful thing.

There are lots of awesome pictures of healthy and smoker's lungs online. They make an impression.

Another thing is if you know anyone who smokes, give them a large glass jar, like a big peanut butter jar, and ask them to put their butts in it without stubbing them out, just let them burn out in there. Or you can just buy a few packs of cigarettes and do it yourself. Dump out the butts and ashes now and then, and observe the brown tarry crap varnish the inside of the glass. I did this for a week in 8th grade and it made my dad stop smoking.

There are also lots of videos online from people who didn't quit and suffered mightily. Depending on your target audience, they might be a little too graphic. You want to hit that sweet spot between little kid who will believe you and cynical early adolescent who thinks you're just shooting bull and it will never happen to him anyway. There's your growth and development aspect for rationales for your teaching strategies.