An Experiential-Learning Lesson to Encourage Teamwork and Healthy Practices

Area of Science:

• Health Education
• Cardiovascular Health
• Experiential Learning

Background:

• Teamwork is crucial for careers but challenging for students in academic settings.
• Students often struggle to develop essential collaboration skills.
• Promoting healthy lifestyle choices early is vital for long-term well-being.

Purpose of the Study:

• To implement an experiential learning lesson focused on healthy lifestyle choices for heart disease prevention.
• To enhance students' understanding of cardiovascular physiology and disease prevention strategies.
• To foster teamwork and collaboration skills among students.

Main Methods:

• Students received personalized heart disease risk scores based on hypothetical lifestyle factors.
• Participants engaged in healthy lifestyle activities outside of class to reduce their risk scores.
• Unannounced pretests and posttests assessed learning gains in cardiovascular health knowledge.

Main Results:

• Significant improvements were observed in students' understanding of heart disease physiology and prevention.
• Students reported that collaboration was instrumental in achieving their health goals.
• The lesson fostered creativity and the development of a supportive network for risk reduction.

Conclusions:

• Experiential learning effectively promotes healthy lifestyle choices and teamwork for heart disease prevention.
• Integrating diet, physical activity, and collaboration builds lifelong healthy habits.
• The activity enhanced students' ability to synthesize information and self-evaluate their performance.