Columbia County Medical Society

Health Care Challenge 2000

Student Handbook:

Grades 1 & 2
Grades 3 & 4
Grades 5 - 12

Application

Program

Participants

Results

Sponsors

CCMS Main Page

Columbia County Health Care Challenge

March 25, 2000

Columbia Greene Community College

Sponsored by the

Columbia County Medical Society
Grades 1 and 2
The Columbia County Medical Society is sponsoring the third annual Columbia County Health Care Challenge (CCHCC) which will be held March 25, 2000 at Columbia Greene Community College.
Any student attending a school in Columbia County, or who is a county resident is eligible to participate. Physicians' children are not eligible. Registration will be held from 8:00-8:30AM, and the event will begin at 9:00AM. Judging will be conducted and awards will be presented of the day of the event.
Students are to either individually or as a group, choose a health related topic to explore. In Grades 1 and 2, there will be two contests that students may participate in.

1) A poster contest in which students are to illustrate ways in which to promote health. Posters can be no larger than standard 22" x 28" poster paper. Suggested topics include good nutrition, exercise, hand washing, etc. Use your imagination and create an original display.
Applications must be postmarked by January 31, 2000. Posters must be received by February 29, 2000 in order to participate in the contest. Please call Brian Daggett, M.D. at 758-6101 to arrange pick up of your poster.

2) A group contest for Grades 1-2, in which students are to research a health related subject, and will be given a 4 min time period during which they will be asked to explain their project to a panel of judges. The groups can be no larger than 6 students.
Possibilities include creating a visual display, a model, or conducting a simple experiment that relates to a healthcare topic. Suggested topics include effects of smoking, an infectious disease that affects children, how the heart works, etc. Use your imagination, learn to work as a group.
Applications must be postmarked by January 31, 2000.

Applications will be distributed to schools in November. They can also be obtained by calling Brian Daggett, MD at 758-6101 or through the Columbia County Medical Society web site, www.ccms.org.
Please mail applications to Brian Daggett, MD, 90 Broad Street, Kinderhook, NY 12106, Att: CCHCC.
Grades 3 and 4
The Columbia County Medical Society is sponsoring the third annual Columbia County Health Care Challenge (CCHCC) which will be held March 25, 2000 at Columbia Greene Community College.
Any student attending a school in Columbia County, or who is a county resident is eligible to participate. Physicians' children are not eligible. Registration will be held from 8:00-8:30AM, and the event will begin at 9:00AM. Judging will be conducted and awards will be presented of the day of the event.
Students are to either individually or as a group no larger than 4 students, choose a health related topic to explore. They are to research a health related topic and will be given a 4 min time period to explain what they have learned to a panel of judges.
Possibilities include creating a visual display, a model, or conducting an experiment that relates to a healthcare topic.

Some tips for getting started:
1) Choose a topic that interests you. Don't make the topic too broad. Examples: good nutrition, effects of smoking, an infectious disease which affects children, how the heart works.
2) Research the topic and organize what you have learned.
3) Create a visual display, model, etc, which helps explain what you have learned. Design and conduct a simple experiment. Analyze your data and form your conclusions.
4) Prepare for the discussion period. Anticipate questions you may be asked. The judges will be asking open ended questions to help you explain what you have learned.

Applications will be distributed to schools in November. They can also be obtained by calling Brian Daggett, MD at 758-6101 or through the Columbia County Medical Society web site, www.ccms.org.
Please mail applications to Brian Daggett, MD, 90 Broad Street, Kinderhook, NY 12106, Att: CCHCC.
Grades 5 through 12
The Columbia County Medical Society is sponsoring the third annual Columbia County Health Care Challenge (CCHCC) which will be held March 25, 2000 at Columbia Greene Community College.
Any student attending a school in Columbia County, or who is a county resident is eligible to participate. Physicians' children are not eligible. Registration will be held from 8:00-8:30AM, and the event will begin at 9:00AM. Judging will be conducted and awards will be presented of the day of the event.
This is a competition in which students, either individually or as a group with a limit of 4 students, research a health related topic and make an oral presentation before a panel of judges. Achievement awards will be presented to students judged to have made the best presentations. Performance awards will be presented to the top finishers in each division on the day of the event. At the 1999 CCHCC, over $10,000 in awards were presented to students and school systems in Columbia County.

Health Research: Picking a Topic
Good researchers use a process to study what they see in the world. By following the stages listed below, you should be able to produce a superior research topic.
1) Be curious, choose a limited subject, identify or define a problem.
2) Review published materials related to your problem or question.
3) Evaluate possible solutions and reach conclusions based on your research.
4) Prepare your report and exhibit. Optional: Using the scientific process, conduct a simple experiment which relates to your topic.

Health Related Topics
1) Research a disease process related to an organ system (diabetes mellitis, cystic fibrosis, AIDS, Lyme disease, etc.)
2) Research normal organ function (pituitary function, circulatory system, etc.)
3) Preventive health (effects of obesity, smoking, teenage pregnancy, immunizations, etc.)
4) Public health (access to health care, effects of managed care, etc.)
5) Ethics (right to die, when patients' cultural or religious beliefs conflict with standard medical practice)
6) Alternative medicine

Getting Started
1) Pick your topic. Get an idea of what you want to research. Ideas come from problems that you see or hear about. Due to limited time and resources, you may want to study only one or two specific issues.
2) Research your topic. Go to the library and/or Internet and learn everything you can on the topic. Talk to professionals in the field, write or e-mail companies for specific information.
3) Organize. Organize everything you have learned about your topic. At this point you should narrow our topic by focusing on a particular idea. A simple experiment which relates to your topic could be conducted. Design the experiment, collect and interpret the data, and form your conclusions.
4) Make a timetable. Use a calender to identify important dates. Leave time to write your research on paper, organize your presentation, and construct a display or model.

Elements of a Successful Project
1) Discussion. The discussion is the essence of your project. The results and conclusions should flow logically and smoothly, based on your research. Allow your listeners to understand your train of thought.
2) Conclusion. Summarize your results. Be specific. Do not generalize. Never introduce anything into the conclusion that has not been previously discussed.
3) Display. Construct a display highlighting the important elements and conclusions of your research.
4) Acknowledgments. You should always credit those who assisted you, including individuals, educational or research institutions. This should be in writing so as to not occupy your discussion time.
5) References. Your reference list should include any documentation that is not your own (books, journal articles, etc.).

Judging
1) Judges evaluate and focus on creativity, scientific knowledge, thoroughness, clarity and teamwork.
2) Judges applaud those students who can speak freely and confidently about their work. They are not interested in memorized speeches, they simply want to listen and understand if you have a good grasp of your project from start to finish.
3) Visual Display. You want to attract and inform. Make it easy for interested spectators and judges to assess your project. Make the most of your space using clear displays. Make headings stand out, and draw graphs and diagrams clearly and label them correctly.
4) Judges will evaluate and focus on what the student presents during the allocated 10 minute judging time. The student will have 8 minutes to present the topic, and 2 minutes will be allotted for the judges to ask questions. The questions will test the research knowledge of the student, but will be within the scope of the presentation. The time period will be strictly enforced.

Application
All students will be required to fill out an application to participate. Applications will be distributed to schools in November. They can also be obtained by calling Brian Daggett,MD at 758-6101, or the Columbia County Medical Society web site, www.ccms.org.
Applications must be postmarked by January 31, 2000. Applications should be mailed to Brian Daggett,MD, 90 Broad Street, Kinderhook, NY 12106, Att: CCHCC.

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