This paper invites you to research a public health topic that interests you, usi

This paper invites you to research a public health topic that interests you, using public health research to inform yourself about it. There are many different approaches you could take to this paper. The following examples are meant to get you started thinking about your topic. 1. You could investigate a controversy in public health, exploring different sides of an argument and the evidence that each side points to, and perhaps reach your own conclusion. 2. You could research a public health problem, using the “public health approach” or the Ecological Model as a tool to explore what leads to the problem and what can be done about it. 3. You could study a specific public health policy, its impacts, its shortcomings, and what policy changes would improve it. 4. You could explore a specific health inequity and identify the different factors that lead to that health inequity, or that help mitigate it. 5. You could look into the intersections of biology and social determinants of health through the lens of “embodiment” (discussed in Module 2), examining a specific social determinant or a specific disease. 6. You could document some occurrence from public health history (like the Tuskegee experiment, or the polio vaccine, or Virchow’s report on the typhus epidemic, or the early days of the AIDS epidemic) and discuss its relevance today. ________________________________________________________________________________________________ Minimum Requirements for the Paper 1. The topic you pick should have public health importance — meaning that it affects population health and it relates in some way to potential to prevent illness or injury. 2. Your paper should use at least one public health framework that is taught in this class — such as the ecological model, or the 3 levels of prevention, or the communicable disease model, or any of the others. 3. It should rely primarily on research sources, not personal experiences or interviews. 4. It should show critical thinking. I want to see you explore beyond the surface of the subject. You don’t have to use all of these techniques, but to give you an idea of what I mean, here are some examples of critical thinking skills: Synthesis (bringing together different ideas and sources) Analysis (picking apart or explicating the thinking or evidence behind an assertion) Evaluation (weighing the relative importance or trustworthiness of different ideas) Critique (detect inconsistencies, weaknesses or strengths in arguments) Extrapolation (make connections between what you researched and how it may be relevant today) _____________________________________________________________________________________________ Format 1. The paper should be 4-5 pages long (double-spaced, with 1-inch margins). 2. It should include an introduction and conclusion that serve like “bookends” on the main body of your paper. 3. Use at least 8 sources, including at least 4 that are from a public health researcher or public health agency or foundation. 4. The ICPH textbook and other course materials may be among your sources; the majority of your research, however, should come from materials beyond the readings or videos I assigned. 5. Please be sure to CITE YOUR SOURCES (using in-text references for your sources where you use them in the flow of the paper) and INCLUDE A LIST OF REFERENCES at the end. 6. Please use APA format for the citations. 7. To the extent possible, use complete sentences, good grammar, and correct spelling. 8. A similarity score above 25% would indicate a paper that you might want to take a second look at, to make sure that you cited your sources correctly and expressed your ideas in your own words sufficiently.