Introduction
Ergonomics, or human factors engineering, is the scientific discipline of designing workplaces, products, and systems to fit the capabilities and limitations of the human body. Its primary goal is to optimize human well-being and performance by reducing discomfort, fatigue, and injury—particularly musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs)—caused by improper fit.
This chapter focuses on the proper way of using body parts in relation to daily activities we are doing, is one of the 4 major topics under Elective 1: Occupational Safety and Health. Work place Safety and Chemical Safety were previously discussed. The next chapter "Ergonomics" which is as important as the recently concluded topic, will equipped the students with the basic knowledge on how to achieve a more safe and accident-free working environment when it comes to workers-workstations-assigned job relationship.
Task
As TVL instructor of SHS students in Occupational Safety and Health, you will assure that at the end of the chapter, all the students will acquire the basic knowledge in Ergonomics in real-job situations. This is a combination of lecture and collaborative learning wherein at the end of the discussion, the students will be group into 5 or 6 members and demonstrate safety practices through role playing using what they have learned.
1. Explain what is ergonomics. https://www.osha.gov/ergonomics
2. Differentiate the use of Ergonomics in different working environment:
A. Lifting and Material handling
B. Musculoskeletal Disorder
C. Office Ergonomics
D. Laboratory Ergonomics
E. Hospital Ergonomics
F. Home and Hubby Ergonomics
.https://ehs.unc.edu/topics/ergonomics/
3.Watch below video on the practical application of Ergonomics in one place.
4.If no more questions, and the class understand the topic. Then the class will be divided into 6 groups (5-6 member each) and demonstrate how ergonomics work in different working environment. The leader will pick which they have to perform among the 6 working environment discussed earlier. A 30 minutes will be given and the class will perform on the next meeting, The role playing or scenario will be 5 to 10 mins long.
Your role playing clearly demonstrate:
- What is the body-work relation needed to perform the job?
- Demonstrate the proper way of doing the job using Ergonomics
- Explain also what might happen if one employee failed to follow Ergonomics system.
Process
The first part of the lesson is lecture. The instructor will give the students all the basic information and facts about Ergonomics. He must explain the importance of the system to all the people who are working everyday especially those who are doing repetitive job. Through the guidance of LRC, available in the web (Wiki), common scenarios in every working environment will be tackled consecutively.
To stimulate more the students in the the learning process YOUTUBE videos will be watched so the students will be able to visualized/see real-life scenario of the working environment with the people applying the principles of Ergonomics to keep them safe and healthy.
After watching the videos, students will apply the lessons learned through collaborative learning/role playing. They will be group into 6 with (5-6 group members) and after picking the chosen scenario for their group, they will discussed what to present in the next meeting focusing on how they will apply ergonomics in work environment or daily living.
Evaluation
our project will be graded using the following rubric.
| Criteria | Excellent (4) | Good (3) | Fair (2) | Needs Improvement (1) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Content Knowledge | Demonstrates full understanding | Good understanding | Partial understanding | Limited understanding |
| Acting Skills | Actions are well coordinated | Minimal actions are unclear | Demonstrate few action in good manner | No serous action seen |
| Sequence of Scenes | Very well structured | Mostly organized | Somewhat organized | Disorganized |
| Creativity/Props | Well-organized production design | Props are available but production design is less appealing | Basic production design | No props/production design |
| Presentation Skills | Clear and confident | Mostly clear | Some hesitation | Unclear |
Conclusion
You have concluded Chapter 3: Ergonomics.
Through this WebQuest, you discovered the importance of Ergonomics not only in the workplace but also in our daily activities. The linked provided are the basic yet essential facts you need to know so you will be able to apply these learnings and prevent work injury/hazard related to improper way of using body parts in doing a particular job. The most important part of this lesson, just like in Work-place Safety and Chemical safety is the application. Make sure that the knowledge will not be stock in mind only, it must be practice to acquired safety skills.
Credits
The following resources were used to support this WebQuest and assist students in learning about Ergonomics:
1.https://www.osha.gov/ergonomics
2.https://ehs.unc.edu/topics/ergonomics/
3.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-iAK4vusq
Teacher Page
This WebQuest was designed for a SHS TVL students class to help students develop a clear understanding on the importance of Ergonomics as integral part in Occupational Safety and Health. The lesson uses a student-centered and the combination of lecture and Collaborative Learning pedagogy were used to make the learning more meaningful. Students are actively listening while the instructor is consecutively giving all the important facts about the subject so they can form the body of knowledge or the context of the subject matter . Throughout the activity, students will focus more on the cognitive skills and meta-cognition during the discussion. After that, when they required to present a job-scenario in which they will integrate the lesson they learned through role playing, they will collaborate with each other to create a good presentation focusing on the importance of Ergonomics.
By the end of this WebQuest, students should be able to define Ergonomics, identify different examples of each, explain the importance of Ergonomics not only in work but in our daily live as well, and apply their knowledge through classroom discussions and presentations. This activity is expected to take approximately two to three class sessions and requires access to video showing, internet connection and presentation software prepared by the teacher. Students will be assessed based on their participation, accuracy of acquired information, organization of ideas, creativity, and presentation skills using the provided evaluation rubric.