HOME | Analyzing Editorial Cartoons | Building Web Skills | Cover Analysis | Focus Lesson: A Collision Between Money and Medicine | Quick Write | Standards Watch | Teacher Tip | Time Weekly Quiz | Vocabulary in Context | Worksheet: Health, Death and History | Worksheet: Word and Image

PAGE FOUR

HEALTH, DEATH AND HISTORY

CURRICULUM STANDARD: SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY

At the end of the 20th century, Americans are leading longer, healthier lives than they did at its beginning - while spending almost 100 times more on health care than in 1929. Is this a paradox, or is it the logical consequence of longevity? Use the data on this page to draw conclusions on the relationships among disease, health and medical costs.

Comprehension and Analysis

1. In 20th-century America, what has been the leading cause of death?

2. How do the data in the death-rate table help explain the change in life expectancy shown in the line graph?

3. Why, when medicine has made huge advances in this century, is the death rate from cancer so much higher today than it was in 1900?

4. As life expectancy has risen and many diseases have been eradicated, what has happened to health-care costs and spending? Can you postulate a cause and effect behind this correlation? What is it?

5. In total, are there more or fewer accidental deaths now than early in the century? What developments in the last 90 years help account for the difference?

Application and Investigation

Working through the century decade by decade, create a timeline on paper across a wall in the classroom showing breakthroughs and turning points in American medicine and technology, along with major historical events and social changes. Then translate the life expectancy graph on this page to the space above your timeline and look for correlations. What surprises you? Which events had an immediate effect on life expectancy? How long does it take for developments in medical science to produce a long-term effect, such as lengthening life expectancy?

next >>

HOME | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6