Unleash the Creativity
Who says the classroom has to be all about papers and exams? Not Dr. Wanda Martin’s NURS 430 class.
Launched in 2016 as a fun experiment, Dr. Wanda Martin challenged her students in NURS 430 to think outside the box and do a creative art project, instead of writing a paper. About half the class took part in completing the project and based on the feedback from students, Martin decided to bring the art project idea back for a second time in 2017.
“The focus of NURS 430 is health promotion, as it is a community nursing class,” said Assistant Professor Martin. “We cover topics such as community program development, social marketing and community assessment and look at issues that are unique to Saskatchewan’s Indigenous, rural and remote populations.” If the students choose to complete the art project, they are asked to identify an issue that a community health nurse might encounter and to plan an alternative, creative, approach to talk about the issue.
“When I received the proposals for the art projects this year, I was thrilled with the topics the students wanted to work on,” said Martin. “I find this to be a really great opportunity for students to step back from the ‘norm’ and use their creative part of the brain.” Some of the projects completed this year included posters on stopping the stigma surrounding mental health, childhood immunization, a series of short stories on improving quality of life through community centres and a teaching cartoon about life threatening allergic reactions, just to name a few.
Below you will find links to some of the video projects that were submitted.
Cole, Julia & the Happy Brain Train by Alyssa Fehr and Nicole Campbell; an eBook to help parents and teachers introduce mental health issues to children.
Tdap Vaccine Policy Change by Abby Simpson and Sierra Kilcollins.
Crime, Health and Awareness: A Saskatoon Public Health Nurse Initiative by Andriy Guravskyy.