Activities & Programs

October 2009

• What was in a doctor's bag 200 years ago?
• Face paints, acting, and imagination can recreate symptoms of diseases common in early settlers in Upper Canada - why do few of us get these diseases in Canada today?

Grade 4 - Health Care in Medieval Times

• Can you create herbal remedies and analyze "urine"?
• Can you meet our rat without running away?
• What was life like for a leper in the Middle Ages?

Grade 5- Health Care in Early Civilizations

• How were Romans both lagging behind & ahead of their time in health care?
• Which people beautified their teeth?
• Which civilization did not believe in bloodletting?
• Which early surgeons carried out plastic surgery?
• Where could you lose your hand by law if your patient died?
• How did dreaming help heal ancient Greeks with medical problems?
• How did embalming bodies help Egyptian health care?

Grade 5- Healthy, Active Living

• Are Canadian children really less active now than 140 years ago?
• Do we really eat more than we need to?
• Do I consume too many calories compared to my activity level?

Grade 6- Traditional Health Care in First Nations of Eastern Canada

• How did traditional healing beliefs and practices of First Nations’ peoples differ or coincide with those of other cultures?

Grade 7- New France & British North America – a Healthcare Perspective

• Why did some First Nations’ peoples suffer from diseases brought from Europe more than did the European settlers?
• If a virus were the size of a sesame seed, how big would you be?
• In 1830, could you take two aspirins and call the doctor in the morning?
• If you had lived in Kingston in the 1830s and 1840s, would you and your family have been worried about cholera?
• Who links the 1837 Rebellion in Upper Canada to the first Medical School in Upper Canada?

Grade 7/8- Waterborne Diseases (Parts 1 & 2)

• What effect could global warming have on waterborne diseases in the Kingston area?
• How can you improve the quality of the water you drink when you are out hiking, canoeing, or camping?
• Can water from our sewage system really end up safe enough to drink?

Grade 8- Pre-Confederation to WWI – Huge Changes in Health Care

• As Canada prepared for Confederation, were people’s thoughts about health and health care really still more or less the same as those of the ancient Greeks and Romans?
• How and why had the whole way of thinking about disease changed by 1914?
• How did this new way of thinking change the treatment of disease and the development of medical technology?

Grade 8- Healthy Living and Diabetes

• Why do we need insulin for healthy body functioning?
• Can we do anything to keep from becoming diabetic?
• How did researchers work out which organ and cells produced a substance whose artificial production would radically change the treatment of diabetes?

History & Science Through the Lens of Health Care is an educational initiative designed to support the Ontario curriculum. The programs use artefacts from the museum’s education collection. Through interactive presentations and activity stations, students gain insight into how humans have understood and treated disease from prehistoric times to the 21st century.