Scurvy at Sea: Researching and Writing About Vitamin C Deficiency

Class Time: 5 - 6 x 45 minute classes
Subject Areas: science, language arts
Grade Level: 5 to 6

Rationale: Learners will gather information about vitamin C deficiency, and will understand how scurvy was prevented in sea-going ventures during The Age of Sail. Using graphs, charts and pictorial representations, learners will communicate what they have learned about scurvy and its effects on the body. Students will create a “Scurvy Log” that will allow them to connect what they have learned about scurvy and its effects on the body (as vitamin C deficiency), and how ship provisioners, captains, and crew could work to prevent scurvy at sea.

Classroom setup:

Any classroom setting is appropriate for this lesson
Students sit in groups to share supplies and resources
Books related to scurvy/Vitamin C deficiency, and on nutrition in general (at Grade 5/6 level, including encyclopedia or CD Rom resources. The books and CD Rom resources will be organized as a resource center in a room corner

Materials:

Coloured pictures and medical charts of effects of scurvy/vitamin C deficiency on the human body. (Shows, for example, the contrast between healthy gums, and gums affected by Vitamin C deficiency).
Paper and plotting materials for charts and graphs to document effects of vitamin C deficiency.
Construction paper and chalk for drawings of sailors with and without scurvy.
Sheets of lined paper bound in brown construction paper (simulating leather) for the “Scurvy Log” creative writing project.

Suggested Resources:

Several pictures of sailing vessels around the classroom.
Image of deck under construction
Lemons and limes in the classroom to taste (or lemonade)
Pictures of below deck to show how provisions were stored and the idea of economy of space on shipboard. The diagrams of how ship decks were organized and arranged will help learners to understand limited storage space for long voyages and also how food stores were organized.

Objectives: As a result of this lesson, learners will:

Report in graphs and charts the effects and prevention of scurvy.
Understand healthy, balanced food choices.
Demonstrate an understanding of how society's values and behaviours related to nutrition, fitness, and lifestyle have changed over time.
Demonstrate an understanding of the factors that determine nutrient and energy needs.

Introduction:
In the Age of Sail, sailors may have been away from land resources for lengthy periods of time (the sea voyage). An important aspect of preparation for the successful sea voyage was knowledge of provisioning. Efforts were made to prevent deficiencies in diet when away from usual land food sources. The shipboard storage of food was limited, and so successful provisioning needed to utilize economy of space below deck. Vitamin C was not always provided by the citrus fruits that modern consumers are used to having access to; nor were vitamin supplements available. Citrus fruits from the tropics were costly/expensive and not easily stored. In the northern hemisphere, commonly available garden foods that contain vitamin C are potatoes and cabbage. Ships at sea would often help each other by trading or giving potatoes and fresh water if they were able.
Students will conduct scientific research, decide how this scientific information could be represented, and write up imaginative, but factually based, Scurvy Logs. Students will data from research as observations to form ideas about natural processes and outcomes, such as effect of vitamin C deficiency in a fictional self at sea.

Performance/Activity:
Learners will be asked, individually or in small groups of 3 or 4, to go to the resource center and research aspects of vitamin C deficiency and its effects (scurvy). The following questions will be directed at the researchers:

Does scurvy exist today?
Can scurvy be healed?
How long does it take to contract scurvy?
How long does it take to heal scurvy?
Why were British soldiers called ‘limys’? (Because they ate limes and lime juice to avoid scurvy).
How could sailors get vitamin C in the Age of Sail?

Have students brainstorm sources of vitamin C other then citrus fruits or vitamin C supplement capsules.
The learners will be asked to record or document their findings on
vitamin C deficiency via a bar graph (number of days without vitamin C vs. deterioration of gums) or a chart (same coordinates); and learners might also be required to chart results when vitamin C is re-introduced into the diet to get rid of scurvy. Students may work individually, in pairs (recommended, as in team science) or could be broken into groups of 3 or 4 for different reporting tasks.
The teacher will read the story of a fleet of navy ships lost for several months in the South Pacific, and their ordeal with scurvy (Sobel, Dava and William Andrews.The Illustrated Longitude. New York: Walker and Company, 1998). This account should stimulate thoughts of what it would be like to contract scurvy, and how a sailor could survive this disease. This story should spur the imaginations of the students so that they can couple their scientific knowledge of scurvy with an imagined situation of “If I were on board ship for a lengthy period, how could I resist scurvy?”
Learners will be asked to begin and maintain a log of an imagined case of scurvy. They may wish to adopt the persona of a sailor, cabin boy or girl, or family member of a sailor, or the ship’s doctor could document a case. Once the student has adopted a persona, they should focus on documenting the stages they infer, from their research and the resources presented to them, of what it is like to have scurvy, what it does to their body, and how is it cured upon introduction of adequate dietary resources (see Appendix of Resources, documenting Home Remedies known at the turn of the 20th century. These recipes could conceivably been known throughout the 1800s and early 1900s, and were feasible for shipboard provisioning).

Sample logbook entries, could be posted by the teacher as a model.

From the Book of Billy Hasbrook, cabin boy:
Day 20 of voyage: “This day I noted bleeding gums, and now must take the cure. The ship’s doktor has told Cookie that Im to have some lemon juice mixed with fresh water in the am; and at night to have a ration of a bowl of pickled cabbage. “

Day 4 of treatment, Day 25 of Voyage: “Bleeding gums are staunched, now must continue treatment of Good Foods.

Day 30 of voyage: Forgot treatment for two days, back to slight bleeding in gums and foul breathe. Doctor threatens an entire cupful of pure lemon juice must be taken in the morning and the evening, and deducted from my end wages, if I do not resort to the nightly bowl of cabbage and the 2 T. of lemon juice mixed with fresh water in the am faithfully, as due to all crew.

Day 35 of Voyage: Cookie has served potatoes each day of voyage. Old sailing hand Mr. Magee has told me potatoes each day prevent the Scurvy. I have been eating potatoes each day, but still have gotten it. Could it be that we younger ones need more of the substance that prevents scurvy?

These entries model creative writing, imaginative inference of symptoms, and also show an understanding of cause and effect, and demonstrate use of observation and inference (do younger sailors require more nutrients on a voyage?)
Note: The diary entries will need to be discussed and monitored and encouraged by the teacher for students to understand the association between diet and disease or health on the imaginary voyage.

Closure: Students will share excerpts from their Scurvy Logs. They could read in groups and act out scenes that derive from the logbooks. Have some limes, lemon or lemonade for the students to consume.

Extension of ideas:

Learners may also be required to report the results of scurvy/vitamin C deficiency from actual data on an historical sailor population or in a contemporary medically documented circumstance, such as starvation (continent of Africa), negligent, imprisonment or confinement. The teacher can provide the data, or require the students to research it. The students could be asked to document an actual case(s) of vitamin C deficiency, and for varied cases in population such as male/female, age groups, etc.
As a lesson across the curriculum, to go with social studies, the students could be required to research: How did the Inuit of the far Arctic and the Mi’qmak prevent nutritional deficiencies such as vitamin C or vitamin D? What foods were they able to take from plant and animal resources, and would sailors from the Age of Sail been able to benefit from cross-cultural lessons on nutrition (as with the trappers and voyagers of the fur trade).
Learners may be asked to further research and represent information on the role of vitamins and minerals in the human body. There are many serious deficiencies of nutrients caused by improper diet. Learners could research other nutrient deficiencies, and causes, such as smoking, alcohol abuse, vegetarian diet without proper medical consultation; and also what are the effects of too many vitamins (vitamin toxicity)?

Evaluation approaches:

A written summary of information on vitamin C deficiency based on student research.
How the research on scurvy is reported; in a scientific format, as assigned (chart, bar graph, or other) and connected with ideas about the effects of nutrition on the human body.
The student’s willingness to engage in the task of imaginative journal writing, using data gathered.
The presentation of the research on scurvy (complete, accurate, integrated) and connected with ideas about the effects of nutrition on the human body.
Ability to work collaboratively with a classmate and team.

Appendix to “Scurvy at Sea” Lesson Plan:
Encyclopedic entries on scurvy, such as in The New Illustrated Family Medical and Health Guide, Publications International, Ltd.:Skokie, Ill. (1984). It explains that scurvy is caused by vitamin C deficiency, and is characterized by anemia, spongy gums, a tendency to bleed, and abnormal bone and tooth formations. Wounds and burns do not heal easily in the absence of vitamin C. There can be cases of scurvy in adults and children. Adult scurvy may not show up for three months after severe vitamin C deficiency, but then may show up as tiredness, lethargy, weakness, irritability, weight loss, bleeding at the finger and toenails, swollen, purplish and spongy gums; loosening of teeth, failure of wounds to heal. Secondary infections, such as gangrene, breaks in scars, bleeding, muscle pains and aches in joints, small hemorrhagic spots on the skin of the legs are symptoms of advanced scurvy. In some cases, an arthritic condition, and possibly bleeding in the conjunctiva, the membrane that covers the front of the eye and lines the eyelids.
Prevention: A balanced diet with plenty of vitamin C; citrus fruits, tomatoes, green vegetables such as green peppers, strawberries, raspberries, raw cabbage and potatoes. Treatment: Recovery is fairly quick and complete once adequate Vitamin C is re-introduced into the body.

If the Gale Research Database is available to your school, the Health Reference Center Academic has 99 articles on scurvy. Infotrac.galegroup.com/itweb/nysl_nc_morcsd
Your school may have general book resources such as Bodyworks: The kids’ guide to food and physical fitness, by Carol Bershad. Random House, 1979.