December 2013… Students at Healthy NewsWorks schools are reading about good and bad cholesterol, aerobic exercise, and pulse rates.
These healthy-heart topics are among the featured articles in the fall editions of the Healthy NewsWorks school newspapers that reach some 6,000 students in the Philadelphia region. Heart health is a “Special Topic” for the program this school year, allowing the student reporters to develop more in-depth coverage and activities on a timely and relevant subject.
“The student journalists are doing a great job learning important heart-heath information and relaying it to their fellow students in their writing,” Healthy NewsWorks Director Marian Uhlman said. “It’s very exciting to see the newspapers take shape.”
In addition, student journalists have reported about the benefits of adequate sleep, a “jean drive” for need children, and ballroom dance for exercise and enrichment.
During a press conference with a teacher who trains for long-distance running, students in a new program at James Dobson School in Philadelphia asked about her diet (no junk food) and workout routine (cross-training). The Dobson teacher also impressed upon the reporters the mental strength that a marathon requires.
In other interviews, students learned that many of their teachers carve out time in their busy days to work out in the gym and run and bike in their neighborhoods. Many reporters also tried hummus for the first time as an example of a snack without cholesterol.
More than 220 students in 12 schools have worked on newspapers this fall. The network includes two new school programs in the School District of Philadelphia, The James Dobson Fit Fin at Dobson, and an as-yet-unnamed newspaper at AMY Northwest.
