Part+B+Factual+Information+on+the+Topic

//Factual Information //   Prior to planning our Unit on ‘Sunsmart protection’ it was crucial that we researched our topic in great detail in order to have a sound understanding of what we want our students to learn and achieve, and what messages we wanted to get across; which was that it is vital to understand and apply the Cancer Councils Sunsmart concept of the five S’; Slip, Slop, Slap, Seek and Slide into everyday lives. We wanted to stress the importance of preventing excessive exposure of dangerous UV rays; to minimize freckling, wrinkling and ageing of the skin, to minimize the risk of eye damage and sunburn which will ultimately reduce the risk of skin cancer.  The official Sunsmart website, managed by ‘The Cancer Council Victoria’, proved to be a very beneficial resource to use in our research as it promotes the harms and benefits of UV exposure in Victoria. It states that “SunSmart recommends that all Victorian schools have a sun protection policy…Evidence shows that schools with a sun protection policy are more likely to have measures in place to protect students”. This provided us with an excellent direction to base our Unit Development on as we wanted to create Sunsmart awareness with our students, and stress the importance of its implementation within the school policies and values. Through research we realized that this program seeks to influence individual [|sun protection] behaviours, reinforcing the importance of sunsmart awareness within the community, the responsibility for [|protecting others]  and broader environmental change. SunSmart also promotes the importance of a balance between the risks of skin cancer from too much sun exposure and maintaining adequate vitamin D levels. This knowledge provided us with a deeper insight into the issues that we wanted to raise with our students; that it is important to practice being sunsmart, and encourage others to do so. From this idea, we decided that a Family and Friends Sun Awareness school picnic was a brilliant way to enforce this focus.  In order to gain sufficient knowledge we ordered resources from The Cancer Council Victoria, however they have not arrived as of yet. These resources would be extremely beneficial in the classroom as a visual stimulus, and for research purposes. As we have not received them, we explored the information on the website which provided ample information to extend our own prior knowledge and understanding of the topic. We also discussed the topic with peers, researched books and journal articles from the library, and explored the internet which helped to gain background knowledge.

A few of these resources included;

·  World Health Organization (WHO) website: Provides ample credible information about sun exposure, answering frequently asked questions and supplying information resources. Also provides information on the implementation of the INTERSUN programme. <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; msobidifontfamily: Calibrimso-bidi-theme-font;"><span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif;">[]  <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif;"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; msoansilanguage: EN-US; msobidifontfamily: Calibrimso-bidi-theme-font;"> <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; msobidifontfamily: Symbolmsoansilanguage;">· <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; msoansilanguage: EN-US; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msolist: Ignore;"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; msoansilanguage: EN-US; msoansilanguage: EN-US; msobidifontfamily: Calibrimso-bidi-theme-font;">Sun Smart Kids Cool School Program Activity Book: an age-specific sun safety educational program for children aged prep-grade six. It incorporates the resources if the Sun Safe City Program and the Skin Cancer Awareness Foundation, providing education materials to teachers, physicians, school nurses and other professional who volunteer to teach sun safety education in primary schools. Combined with age- appropriate and engaging computer based learning, this activity book reinforces the message of sun safety in a simple and understandable way. This resource proved to be very helpful in incorporating fun and engaging activities within our Unit Development. <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; msobidifontfamily: Calibrimso-bidi-theme-font;">[] <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; msoansilanguage: EN-US; msobidifontfamily: Calibrimso-bidi-theme-font;"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; msobidifontfamily: Calibrimso-bidi-theme-font;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; msoansilanguage: EN-US; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msolist: Ignore;">· SunWise Program: an environmental and health education program that aims to teach children and their caregivers how to protect themselves from overexposure to the sun through use of classroom, school and community-based components. <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; msobidifontfamily: Calibrimso-bidi-theme-font;"><span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif;">[] <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; msoansilanguage: EN-US; msobidifontfamily: Calibrimso-bidi-theme-font;"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; msobidifontfamily: Calibrimso-bidi-theme-font;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; msoansilanguage: EN-US; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msolist: Ignore;">· SUNSMART SCHOOLS; Be Safe in the Summer Sun: This programme is directed at year one and two students and focuses on students learning and behaviours that will keep them from exposing their skin to harmful UVR and getting sunburned. <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; msobidifontfamily: Calibrimso-bidi-theme-font;"><span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif;">[] <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif;"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; msoansilanguage: EN-US; msobidifontfamily: Calibrimso-bidi-theme-font;"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; msobidifontfamily: Calibrimso-bidi-theme-font;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; msoansilanguage: EN-US; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msolist: Ignore;">· Promoting the value of play (PRAV): a non-profit organization aimed at creating awareness about the importance of safe, developmentally appropriate and sunsmart play equipment for children. This gave us an idea of what an ideal play area for children could consist of in a sunsmart focused school. <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; msobidifontfamily: Calibrimso-bidi-theme-font;"><span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif;">[|http://www.prav.asn.au//] <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif;"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; msoansilanguage: EN-US; msobidifontfamily: Calibrimso-bidi-theme-font;"> <span style="font-family: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msolist: Ignore;">· <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; msobidifontfamily: Calibrimso-bidi-theme-font;"> The Melanoma Foundation: <span style="color: #555555; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; msobidifontfamily: Calibri; msobidithemefont: minor-latin;">its programs include raising community awareness of the damaging effects of sunlight, and a major clinical and biological research program. This website was useful to develop our knowledge about cancer. <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; msobidifontfamily: Calibrimso-bidi-theme-font;">[]