Award Date

5-15-2026

Degree Type

Doctoral Project

Degree Name

Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT)

Department

Physical Therapy

First Committee Member

Daniel Young

Second Committee Member

Jason Ciccotelli

Third Committee Member

Kai-Yu Ho

Number of Pages

67

Abstract

To enhance health literacy among the underserved youth population in Las Vegas, Nevada, Anatomy Academy (AA) is an eight-week, seven-lesson program that educates students through structured and interactive lesson plans covering basic anatomy, physiology, and nutrition. Our program was implemented in three different Title-I elementary schools between five different classrooms across Las Vegas. These lesson plans highlighted specific body systems including the cardiovascular, musculoskeletal, and gastrointestinal systems. Our primary aim was centered around involvement of more interdisciplinary healthcare professions including occupational therapy, dental medicine, osteopathic medicine, and nutrition to aid in the delivery of the AA program. Our secondary aim was to encourage healthier lifestyle habits and choices through preventative education on anatomy, physiology, and nutrition by instructing the AA curriculum to Las Vegas Title-I elementary school students. The third aim of this service-learning project was to foster personal and professional growth and development among participating undergraduate and graduate student volunteers as future healthcare professionals through self-reflections at the end of each eight-week program. The AA program, overall, allowed for essential personal and professional growth and development among the future healthcare professional students while concurrently intending to mitigate the childhood obesity epidemic.

Keywords

Anatomy Academy; health education program; health literacy; childhood obesity; preventative education; elementary schools

Disciplines

Physical Therapy

File Format

PDF

File Size

1200 KB

Degree Grantor

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Language

English

Rights

IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

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