We developed a hands-on activity using the game Jenga to demonstrate the links between health behaviors, chronic and infectious diseases, and community well-being and resilience. For the activity, K-12 students worked together in small teams (4-8 students) and were given two Jenga towers (tower A and tower B), each representing a community of individuals. The goal was to keep both towers standing. Teams were presented with strips of paper labeled with either a "health behavior" (e.g., nutrition, body weight maintenance, physical activity) or a "disease" (e.g., heart disease, diabetes, COVID-19) and instructions on whether to add or remove blocks from each tower. When presented with a health behavior, students added blocks to tower A for positive health behaviors (e.g., not smoking) and removed blocks from tower B for negative health behaviors (e.g., smoking). When a disease was presented students removed blocks from both towers, but fewer blocks were removed from tower A compared with tower B, demonstrating lower disease rates or severity in that community. As the activity progressed, tower A retained more blocks than tower B. For the finale, students observed that the greater strength and stability of tower A allowed it to withstand a simulated natural disaster such as an earthquake better than tower B. This activity was delivered to 15 science classes and 225 students ranging from 6th to 12th grade. Students were able to describe the connections between positive health behaviors and lower rates of disease and how, taken together, these impact community health, well-being, and resilience.NEW & NOTEWORTHY We describe how K-12 students played Jenga to learn about the connections between health living habits, disease, and community well-being and resilience.
Keywords: K-12 outreach; chronic disease; health promotion; lifestyle medicine; pandemic.