Students Create Posters to Educate on Immune System

May 14, 2020

Academics

GNS

Grade 12 Anatomy and Physiology students are using their creative skills to create educational posters for the public on ways to boost our immune systems. When the students were making their Strengthen Immune System Posters, they were asked to look at the big picture of organ systems and the complex interrelationships to maintain homeostasis.

The creativity of the posters shows the students’ efforts in not only researching scientific content, but in designing a poster that’s eye-catching.

Katie Hurst chose to create a poster on ‘Stress Management’ and how using mindfulness and mediation can help. Key points included the different types of mindfulness meditations and highlights on how meditation increases and strengthens immune systems.

“With COVID-19 happening right now, I thought that choosing Stress Management as my topic was appropriate and relevant to our current events,” she said. “The way that we are all currently living with social distancing and staying home from friends and family, it can be very stressful and scary for people. Creating a poster with some mindfulness meditation exercises and information about how it helps our immune system is a good reminder for helping take care of ourselves.”

Ismay Macklin also chose to focus on mediation and the impact it has on the immune system. She specifically looked into how just a few minutes of mindfulness in a day can boost the immune system.

“I chose this topic because I think it’s an important aspect of our health that we often forget about, and I find the links between mental health and general health very interesting,” she said. “I enjoyed this project because I was able to learn more about the immune system, but based on my interests, not just the plan for the unit.”

Being able to use not only their scientific knowledge but their creative skills made it fun for a lot of students, like Polina Vitrouk, who made a poster about the effect of sleep on the immune system.

“I loved the creative aspect of making a poster that is both useful in day-to-day life and also relatable to the curriculum,” she said. “I learned more about the process of sleep and how napping can help get everyone the right amount of hours.”

Polina also included information on how to stay safe during the COVID-19 pandemic, how sleep improves immunity, what the right amount of sleep is, and what steps need to be taken to improve sleep.

“I feel like, in my life, sleep is the thing that I struggle the most to maintain a consistent schedule with,” she said. “I also think as teenagers we all have very weird sleep schedules and don’t realize how much it impacts our health

Other topics students chose to explore for their posters included exercise, water intake, Vitamin D, Vitamin C, and stress on our immune systems.

Good job on your posters, and thank you for sharing your knowledge and creativity! PHOTO GALLERY