Arlington students slow down on the candy after semester-long unit on diabetes

By Mariah Davis

At Arlington Senior High in St. Paul, students spent first semester studying diabetes. The majority of its student body is of a race at higher risk of developing the condition -- Arlington is 55 percent Asian, 31 percent black, and 9 percent Hispanic. Below, students form the World Diabetes Day symbol.

"We decided to focus on a disease that heavily impacts young people." -- Arlington Bio-SMART coordinator Eric Mjolsness.

Mai Lee Yor used to eat candy almost every day. But that was before she spent first semester at Arlington Senior High learning about diabetes.

According to the American Diabetes Association, or ADA, 23.6 million children and adults in the United States have diabetes. Asian Americans, African Americans and Hispanics are at the highest risk of developing diabetes in their lifetime.

Arlington Senior High, a Bio-SMART school in St. Paul where most of the academics focus on science, math, and technology, has a majority of students in these risk groups with 55 percent being Asian, 31 percent black, and 9 percent Hispanic.

Diabetes is a condition when the body either fails to produce insulin or cells ignore insulin. Insulin is a hormone that helps the body convert food into energy. Diabetes can cause serious problems with your eyes, feet, kidneys and more. Learn more about diabetes in reporter Karen Romero’s essay about coping with the condition.

The ADA predicts that 1.6 million new cases of diabetes are diagnosed each year, so the Arlington staff team decided to lower the chances of those new cases being Arlington students.

Arlington partnered with the American Diabetes Association and created six major events to teach students about diabetes starting with young people with diabetes coming to Arlington to speak about life coping with the disease, which some students found to be a great way for them to relate to the idea of being at risk for diabetes. “It totally changes your way of thinking about diabetes,” Victor Xiong said.

Every year, Arlington has a school-wide project to implement science, math and technology into all of the classrooms. The Bio-SMART management team chose this year to do a unit on diabetes to teach students about how their healthy, or unhealthy, habits can have long-term effects.

“We decided to focus on a disease that heavily impacts young people,” said Bio-SMART coordinator Eric Mjolsness.

Arlington gave students the chance to get in shape with the “Biggest Winner Competition” – a play on NBC’s Biggest Loser TV show – in which students got into teams of three and had to compete in sports for a certain number of hours in pursuit of winning an iPod Touch.

The school also passed out pedometers, which measure how many steps or strides a person takes, and gave rewards to students who took the most steps during the unit.

Students also learned about diabetes in the classroom. All students who were taking an English class were asked to bring a recipe that they use at home to school. They then learned healthy ingredient alternatives and created a wellness cookbook featuring the recipes that students submitted.

Toward the end of the unit a health screening took place in which students were able to check their Body Mass Index — a height and weight measurement that shows whether or not someone is overweight — blood pressure, and glucose levels. Results of the screening could indicate risks of having diabetes.

Although the health staff at Arlington was unable to officially diagnose any students, they were able to make students aware of what to be looking out for in their heath so that they don’t develop problems in the future.

Student Pamala Thao said it made her be more aware of her eating habits. “I learned that it’s important to control what you eat and how easy it is to get diabetes,” she said.

On Nov. 14, World Diabetes Day, students in the school went out onto the campus baseball field and made a human version of its logo to spread awareness to those outside of the school. It was featured on KARE 11 news.

The unit was finished off by the student government raising money to donate to the American Diabetes Association.

Students say the diabetes unit influenced them to make better choices for their health. “I’m eating healthier now and quit eating candy,” Lor said.

“Many students have mentioned that they understand the importance of the choices they make in relation to their future health,” Mjolsness said. “I do think it had an impact on students; we are in the process of collecting data from students as to whether or not we accomplished our goal.”