Creating Eye Health Awareness in Students: Developing a Teaching Curriculum and Educating Elementary School Children

Our eyes play an essential role in helping us perceive the world around us. The eyes are the window to our bodily health and eye exams can reveal various health conditions. Due to the changes in children\u27s lifestyles, eye conditions, such as nearsightedness and eye discomfort are becoming more prevalent. Vision is significantly associated with academic success as children need many vision skills to read and learn effectively. Consequently, it is important for us to start taking care of our eyes at a young age and practice good eye health to optimize the function of our eyes in the long run. This project aims to educate children about eye health by utilizing appealing, informative, and impactful teaching material. The information learned from the critical literature review was condensed into a child friendly presentation and the students were taught the importance of the eyes, structure of the eyes, and good eye health practices. The students were extremely interested asking numerous questions after each slide and were very responsive to the activities. It is evident that there is a need and a want for increased eye health awareness, and we must find more ways to deliver. This project to raise eye health awareness among elementary school students not only encourages them to practice good eye health and increases the chances of implementation as they grow older, but it also helps to increases their health literacy resulting in more competence in health decision making and improved health outcomes in the future