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Health/ PEMalaria and other tropical diseasesHuman Development…Physical Activity and Community… Health of Individuals and Populations… Human Relations…Ellis Rowan contracted malaria in New Guinea in April 1917. Ask students to research malaria. Discover to what the origin of malaria was first attributed, and how it got its name. Students should discuss how countries and bodies such as the World Health Organization are dealing with malaria. Students may like to consider the following questions. What is malaria? How do you catch it? What is the current treatment? How did they treat malaria in Ellis Rowans day? How was malaria introduced to other societies? What effect would malaria have had on Ellis Rowans work? How might it have affected her future travels? Malaria is a life-threatening parasitic disease transmitted through the bite of a female Anopheles mosquito. The disease exerts its heaviest toll in Africa, where around 90% of the more than one million deaths from malaria worldwide occur each year. This constitutes 10% of the continent's overall disease burden. Malaria causes at least 300 million cases of acute illness each year, and is the leading cause of deaths in young children. Pregnant women are the main adult risk group in areas where malaria is prevalent. Malaria is one of the major public health challenges preventing development in the poorest countries in the world. World Health Organization statistics show that malaria costs Africa more than US$ 12 billion annually.
How fit would you have to be to travel?Human Development…Physical Activity and Community… Health of Individuals and Populations… Human Relations… Ellis Rowan travelled extensively, at times in difficult terrain. Small of stature and dressed in the conservative and constricting attire of the day, Rowan had to have a fair level of fitness to survive her adventures. In A Flower Hunter in Queensland and New Zealand (Sydney: Angus and Robertson, 1898), she outlines some of the challenges she faced during her travels. In this extract (pp. 106108), Ellis Rowan is stranded by the incoming tide. Some trees falling across the water had made a partial bridge, and on these I tried my luck. By climbing on to the big root, and with the aid of an overhanging tree, I balanced myself on the log and found the first few yards easy walking, but in midstream there was a big fork in the tree to get round, and thus I lost my hold of the branches overhead and had to go very gingerly down on my hands and knees. It was horribly slippery and the river looked very black below me; I turned myself round and slipped so quickly down the other side that I only saved taking a header into the river by catching at a small twig, which however broke away in my hand; but I managed to balance myself sufficiently to get on the next log. After going a short distance I discovered to my horror that the tide was fast coming in, not going out as I had thought, and between me and the bank, the water, instead of being wadeable, was high enough to be over my head and the sloping banks were of soft mud. It was not a pleasant lookout and I began to wonder how long a time I would take in drowning in this position. It was impossible to turn, so I commenced a backwards movement, but my skirt got in the way and jammed me; I was never, I think, in such a fix before. The branch behind me sloped upwards, and there was that fork of the tree to pass again; there was no creeping backwards up that. The water now had reached the top of the log. If I dropped my feet I knew that the current would suck me under, and in desperation I drew myself up and threw my body backwards against the log and twisted round on my face. I could never have performed this acrobatic feat at any other time, but life at that moment seemed very sweet! When once I had my arms round the fork I pulled myself up on to the main branch. Between the root of the tree and bank there was now a great gap where the tide was rushing through with tremendous force, and close alongside of me there rose something that, for the moment, I thought was another half-sunken tree. Then it fell, a grey, loathsome creature that almost paralysed me with fear as I marked the long line of its greedy-looking jaws. I knew that the river teemed with alligators, but somehow or other, I had never given them a thought. Its horny back was not more than a foot below me, and I hardly dared to breathe, much less to move. It slid along under the log and I felt the vibration of its body rubbing as it came up on the other side, then it turned with its head up stream again, its snout just above the water as if it smelt game. Uncertain as to its movements, it sluggishly played round and round. My eyes were riveted on it, and in the horror of the moment I forgot the river, tide and everything else, as with the rising water it came so close again that my feet almost touched it as it stirred the slimy ooze and mud from the bank with its tail. For a few seconds the voracious monster lay apparently insensible to everything, but with its ears open to the slightest sound; I hardly dared to draw breath. Now, as if waiting for the supreme moment, its opportunity to spring, it rose the full length of its body and menacingly clashed its jaws, then with snout downstream, it went under, leaving nothing in its wake but a long ripple on the surface of the water. Have students describe an extreme adventure in a developing country. Have them break down the activities that will be included in this adventure. How would they train for this trip? What equipment would they need to train effectively? Have students design exercises that specifically target the activities they will have to complete on their trip. If possible, allow students to demonstrate some of these activities, and then lead the class in completing them. Science The Arts SOSE Health/PE English
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