Last updated: 11/4/01
Essay Topics for GST 2010
For each GST 2010 essay, choose one of the topics for your essay. Make sure
that I know which topic you have chosen. Also pay attention to the standards for essays
section in the course syllabus. Your essay should deal with the topic as a whole, making
reference to the textbook and to the discussions, whether online or in class.
Topics for Essay 1 (choose any one of 1 through 5).
- Look over the topics in the textbook and course. Use this to show that personal health
is complex and interdisciplinary. Why do the authors of the texbook say that you will need
help managing your health?
- If you have made a substantial change in your life, related to health or to something
else (such as a decision to attend college as an adult), then
- describe the change and how you made it
- compare the process of your change with the process suggested in Chapter 1.
- Why are our present major health threats called "lifestyle diseases?" Show how
this applies to the health concerns in Chapters 1 through 5.
- Who is in charge of your personal health, according to the textbook? Can this person
carry out their responsiblities for your health, without assistance from others? What
types of assistance might be needed? What role can family and friends play?
- How do popular culture and foods encourage people to behave in healthy and/or unhealthy
ways, or to adopt healthy or unhealthy lifestyles? Be specific. What are your general
conclusions about this aspect of health?
Topics for Essay 2 (choose any one of 6 through 10).
- Based on the course readings so far, and your own experience and knowledge, take a
position (pro, con, or variation) on the statement that, "Becoming healthy is not a
single event, but a continuing process."
- Some areas of health are fairly simple, while other areas can require a complex
balancing act between competing needs. Describe at least one area of each type. (NOTE: you
must still manage to write a single, unified essay, so figure out a way to incorporate
both within a single theme, which could simply be that some areas are simpler while other
areas are more complicated).
- Describe how nutritional needs must be balanced, sometimes working together, but
sometimes working against each other. Why is it important to build a diet around foods
that you like? In terms of becoming healthy, why is it better to enjoy a variety of foods
rather than have just a few foods that you like?
- Describe how diet, exercise and weight control are interrelated.
- Describe how the sequence of topics in the course so far makes sense for someone who
wants to improve his/her health. HINT: As I look at the sequence (feel free to agree or
disagree), it is
- Making personal choices and changes
- Psychological health (I think the authors made a good choice in introducing Maslow's
hierarchy of needs at this early point)
- Sexuality and relationships
- Controlling the harm you can do to your body through the use of substances (drugs,
alcohol and tobacco)
- Doing something good for your body (diet, exercise and weight control)
Topics for Essay 3, for online students only (choose any one).
Suggestion: review the standards for essays in the Syllabus for GST 2010
- Describe what a "risk factor" is. Considering any three or more of (a)
cardiovascular disease, (b) cancer, (c) infectious diseases, and (d) injuries and
accidents, what are the most important risk factors under the individual's control? How
realistic to you think it is for individuals to understand and control these factors
entirely on their own, without support from specialists?
- Considering cardiovascular disease, cancer, and infectious diseases, how important are
the roles played by (a) inheritance, (b) environment, and (c) individual lifestyle?
- Agree or disagree with the following statement, drawing from the at least three
different Chapters of the textbook: "Being healthy is all about sacrifice and doing
without."
- Describe two or more ways, each from a different Chapter, in which people apparently do
not understand what are the real dangers that they face. What do you think can explain
such discrepencies?
Topics for Essay 4 (choose any one).
Suggestion: review the standards for essays in the Syllabus for GST 2010
- You can choose one of the Essay 3 topics that you did not choose
for Essay 3.
- Why are vaccines and antiobiotics often called "miracle drugs?" How can
individual use of vaccines and antiobiotics affect society at large? How big a problem is
this right now? How big a probem do specialists fear it could become? What steps do you
believe society can or should take to protect itself against the actions of individuals
whose use or non-use of vaccines and antibiotics can put society at risk? What actions in
your list can actually have an effect on this situation? To what extent should is society
in general at fault?
- Considering either one of (a) aging, or (b) death and dyring, how important is early
preparation? What advantages can early preparation have before that stage (being old, or
dying)?
- Looking back over this course, what are some of the most important things, from at least
three Chapters, that you have learned or understood in this course about becoming healthy?
- What do you think are some of the most important things that you think people should
know about (a) treating themselves, (b) using the health care system, or (c) uusing
alternative medicines? Support your list with specfics from the textbook.
Changing
Life on Earth, GST 2020, 4 cr
