Running head: THE EFFECTS OF DEHYDRATION

The Effects of Dehydration on the Body

Jessica Navarrete & Caroline Estrada
Arizona State University
PPE 310- Course 25966

Dr. Hesse
April 30, 2016

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Introduction

Living in Arizona, dehydration is a common concern for our students due to intense heat
during the spring through the summer. Last year in Phoenix, the hottest day reached the
temperature of 117 (Ray Stern, 2015). Similar high temperatures have caused many incidents of
dehydration in students which can lead to: nausea, vomiting, headaches, weakness, seizures,
confusion and rapid shallow breathing (Arizona Department of Health, 2016). This is a big
concern because dehydration could also lead to serious disabilities for student athletes and in rare
incidences even death.
Jessica and Carolines big question is how is dehydration prevented in schools? As
educators it is important to ensure that students are healthy and drink enough water through their
day to stay hydrated. This means making sure water is accessible to all students through working
water fountains; water breaks after physical education courses and times to leave the class to get
water of they are thirsty. In order to bring prevent dehydration in schools, Jessica and Caroline
plan to implement weekly water drinking contests, school health committees and administration
requirement of reusable water bottles school wide.
Review of Current Literature
Dehydration happens when the body runs out of liquids. The reason the body runs out of
liquids could depend on one of the following reasons: intense physical activity, diarrhea,
vomiting, sweating, diabetes, and frequent urination (Mercola, 2015). What Happens to Your
Body When You're Dehydrated is an online article that explains a few reasons why dehydration
happens, the symptoms that come with dehydration, and the risks a person has when they suffer
from dehydration (Mercola, 2015) . In order to prevent dehydration, a person needs to drink
water immediately after the body has gone through a period of losing large amounts of water. Its

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advised that a person carry a bottle of water at all times during exercise or when the body

experiences hot temperatures. The key for a person to avoid dehydration, as stated in the article,
is for him or her to listen to his/her body. When a person has the strong urge to drink, they
always should do so. Another point the article made is that the person should make sure its
filtered, drinking water and not an artificially sweetened drink.
As stated by RaisingArizonakids.com, According to the Arizona Department of Health
Services, nearly 1,500 Arizonans visit the emergency room annually because of heat-related
illness. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that heat illnesseswhich can
happen during practices or competitionsare a leading cause of death and disability among U.S.
high school athletes (Vicki Louk Balint , 2014).
Secondary to gastroenteritis, dehydration is the leading cause for hospital admissions and
office visits (Pruvost, I., Dubos, F., Chazard, E., Hue, V., Duhamel, A., & Martinot, A., 2013).
In the article, The Value of Body Weight Measurement to Assess Dehydration in Children, the
researchers share their information from a study conducted in December 2005 through June
2009. The found 25,000 visits and 4,300 short-stay hospitalizations of children aged 1 to 24
months admitted to French University Hospital for dehydration. Of these children, 293 were
chosen for follow up studies. The group was able to research and support that post-illness weight
is not a good measure for identifying dehydration in children.
Parents Lack Understanding of Causes, Signs and Symptoms of Dehydration in
Children, is an article that draws attention to the lack of information parents have to identify
dehydration in their child (NewsMedical, 2010). Realistically, dehydration can happen at any age
when the body loses more fluids than what it is taking in, however some of the symptoms in
children can be related to other illnesses. Dehydration in children can cause a child to be very

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tired. It is common for children to be tired at an infant stage since their body is developing and
they need sleep to grow. The article draws attention to other symptoms such as frequent
urination, dry mouth and lack of tears when crying for parents to notice in order to identify
dehydration in their child.
Water, Hydration and Health is an article that validates the importance of drinking water
to keep your body functioning (Popkin, B. M., D'Anci, K. E., & Rosenberg, I. H., 2011). Water
makes up a large percentage of the human body and is therefore known as the homeostasis of the
body, meaning it keeps our body in balance. Water helps regulate weight, energy intake and
ability to perform everyday tasks. This article also stresses the importance that water can help
prevent diseases, which no other beverage could help maintain this constant health for our
bodies. Lastly, this article includes the counter points of other caloric beverages that propose
vitamins or other health benefits. However these beverages will not carry out the same functions
and balance that water provides our bodies. Without water, we would dehydrate and not replenish
the energy needed to carry out our daily functions
In current societies it is becoming more common that populations are replacing their
bodys thirst with tea, coffee, alcohol and other beverages that are not plain drinking water
(Moritz, A. 2014). The items mentioned above contain water however, they also contain
chemicals that are bound to dehydrate the body even more. In the article, Dangers of
Dehydration, it tells us that beverages that contain caffeine trigger stress responses that increase
urination making the body lose even water that it needs to keep from dehydrating. Other
beverages that have sugar added, raise blood sugar levels. Drinks with alcohol in general,
dehydrate the body of all water. All of the drinks that are not plain water, in one way or another,
take up the water that the body needs to keep itself from being dehydrated.

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School Context

Ed and Verma Pastor School is a public school is located in the Roosevelt School District,
which is located all within an urban area. According to Start Class there are 709 students enrolled
and twenty-nine full time teachers that teach kindergarten to eighth grade. The average class size
is of 24 students for each teacher (StartClass). There is no letter grading however it is ranked
2/10 on the Great Schools rating (GreatSchools).
Elementaryschools.org could find that 16% of the students at the school are eligible for
free lunch and 84% are not eligible (Ed & Verma Pastor Elementary School) however the school
is still considered Title 1 because of the districts Title 1 label. On the same site it can be found
that 81% of the students are Hispanic, 15% are African American, 2% are American Indian and
2% are White. The portion of English Language Learners is unknown.
Synthesis of Current Literature
What Happens to Your Body When You're Dehydrated, Water, Hydration and Health, and
Dangers of Dehydration are three articles that share one common idea, drink water when you are
thirsty! When a person gets thirsty, he/she needs to drink water and not alcohol, caffeine or
drinks with sugar added. It is common in current society to pick up a drink at a local coffee shop
or gas station when we are thirsty. The articles advise everyone to think of drinking water instead
because it will benefit his/her body in the best way. Drinks with caffeine, alcohol and added
sugars stimulate the body to urinate more, thus making the body lose more of its hydration.
Another common point made by The Value of Body Weight Measurement to Assess
Dehydration in Children dehydration and Parents Lack Understanding of Causes, Signs and
Symptoms of Dehydration in Children is that dehydration the second leading cause for
hospitalizations. Dehydration can happen to any person of any age but it is harder to identify in

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young children. The articles describe the following as symptoms of dehydration: drowsiness,

frequent urination, dryness of the mouth, lack of tears, headaches, dizziness, and fevers. Young
children need much sleep and it is hard to identify dehydration based off of a sudden increase in
a childs sleep pattern. One would be lead to focus on the other symptoms of dehydration such as
dry mouth, lack of tears, headaches, dizziness, and fevers to suggest that his/her child is suffering
from dehydration.
The overall conclusion of all the articles is that dehydration is common for many people.
When the body experiences dehydration, a person can experience fatigue, dry mouth, dizziness,
headaches and so much more. In order to avoid dehydration, it is best to drink water and avoid
rinks with caffeine, alcohol and added sugars.
Practical Implications
Marketing
After researching the effects of dehydration on the body, Caroline and Jessica have
decided to focus on teaching their students the importance of drinking water. Lack of drinking
water can cause students to feel as though they do not have enough energy to complete daily
tasks in school. They would propose a school wide initiative to promote students to drink more
water per week to have their students live healthier lives and promote dehydration prevention.
Their first step is marketing the importance of drinking water. They will market healthy
habits and benefits of drinking water to promote students and staff to drink more water. Refer to
Appendix D for flyer (Why & How to Drink More Water, 2012).
This flyer provides purpose for drinking more water. They anticipate that this flyer will
market to students the benefits to drinking water and will encourage students to start drinking
more water. They also highly encourage teachers on campus to promote students to create flyers

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for their classroom and that teachers reward students who are staying hydrating throughout the
day or motivating others to live healthy lives as well.
Their last marketing flyer provides steps on how students can establish goals to drink
more water. Refer to Appendix E for our flyer on water drinking goal setting steps (14 Ways to
Drink More Water, n.d.). As middle school student teachers, they find that their students are
motivated by technology, especially if it involves their phones! They found a free water tracking
app that helps students create reminders to drink water on time and tracks progress of the amount
of water the student has drank. They strongly believe that marketing the free app will be the best
strategy to help students keep track and fulfill goals of drinking more water on a daily basis.
Refer to Appendix F to view the features of the Water Reminder and Counter App (Maxwell
Software, 2016).
Student Engagement
The second step in their plan is student engagement to promote students to drink more
water on campus. They planned on starting a school wide contest to market the importance of
drinking water on a daily basis. Students who participate in the contest will be challenged to
drink 56 ounces of water per week. 56 ounces per week is equivalent to students drinking 1 glass
a day. Their incentive for students who complete the contest will be awarded a no homework for
a week (see certificate on Appendix H) pass from their homeroom teacher. Refer to Appendix B
to see the school contest flyer (Jessica Navarrete, 2016).
Scheduling
The contest will take place during the first week of September. Jessica and Caroline
chose this date is because temperatures are still hot enough where we can strongly promote the
importance of staying hydrated when playing outdoors. The students will avoid dehydration

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during this hot week and earn a prize of no homework for the following week. Jessica, Caroline
and the rest of the school staff plan to continue to promote the contest and run one contest per
month until the end of the year. Prior to September, they would like to start up a student and
teacher health committee to immediately start promoting healthy habits and dehydration through
marketing flyers and outreach to peers and possibly corporations or local businesses. For
example the school committee can reach out to a water bottle company such as Arrowhead to ask
for donations of water bottles for students who complete the water drinking contest.
Recognition
Those students who successfully complete the contest would earn the right to a
homework free pass for an entire week. Those students will be recognized on the morning
announcements so that all of the school can hear of their accomplishment. This will also make
teachers aware of students who do not have to do homework that week. Lastly, teachers will send
home certificates that indicate the students accomplishment to inspire them to keep drinking
water every day to stay healthy.
Administration
This activity will not be possible without the help from school administration and other
school staff. Jessica and Caroline will make sure to inform all of those on campus the importance
of drinking water and living a healthy life-style. They will make them understand that all staff
serves as role models and that everyone on campus needs to show students how much water they
drink daily. After this short information session they plan to introduce the water-drinking
contest.

Educational Component

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Their next step would be creating an educational component so that all teachers can
incorporate the promotion of drinking more water and providing awareness of dehydration
prevention. One way to incorporate an educational component in mathematics would be to have
students graph how many glasses of water they are drinking per week to create a ratio of number
of glasses they have drank per week. The number of glasses of water would be listed on the y
axis and week number on the x axis. Over the course of a month or 3-4 weeks, have students find
an average of how many glasses they have drank per week. (Refer to Appendix G.) Graphing this
data would fulfill the following Arizona 8th grade standard:
8.EE.5. Graph proportional relationships, interpreting the unit rate as the slope of the graph.
Compare two different proportional relationships represented in different ways. For example,
compare a distance-time graph to a distance-time equation to determine which of two moving
objects has greater speed (Arizona Mathematics Standards, 2016).
Depending on grade level, Jessica and Caroline have also brainstormed ideas for
educational components across subjects and grade levels. For example a writing component can
be fulfilled by having students reflect on the benefits they have received when applying the
change in their life of drinking more water on a weekly basis. Teachers can add a reading
component by having students read articles about the importance of drinking water. Lastly, all
grade levels can benefit from exploring the scientific method with a hypothesis reflecting the
cause and effects of drinking water. For example, students can explore the hypothesis: If I drink
more water per day, then I will be able to perform better at sports. Students can test this
hypothesis by trying to jump 20 jumping jacks without drinking water and time how long it takes
them to complete the task, as well as rate how well they felt they completed the task. The next
day students can drink 1 glass of water and complete the same task, and then compare results.

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Teachers should have students record this data pattern for a course of a week and at the end of
the week have students reflect on results by writing a conclusion on how drinking more water
helped them complete a physical activity.
Committee
After the plan, the end goal is that all students will be motivated to drink more water. It is
through this program that will help to create a student club for healthy living. These students will
be in charge of creating posters and events that will motivate their peers to live healthy lives.
Some ideas for the club include events that promote healthier living such as jump rope
competitions, vegetable/fruit eating contest, etc. as well as directing more information sessions
for their peers. This way the students will be more engaged in their own learning and teaching of
healthy, hydrated lives.
Conclusion
The high temperatures of Arizona make it easy for our students to experience dehydration
that can lead to more serious disabilities and in more severe cases, death. In order to prevent
dehydration in schools, the program asks that water be accessible to all students while they are at
school. This also means making sure water is available through working water fountains; water
breaks after physical education courses and times to leave the class to get water of they are
thirsty.
The program will only be a test within the first year of its implementation. In this year, it
will show how to appropriately influence administration, parents, staff and students to live
healthy and active lifestyles while paying close attention to their bodys water intake needs. A
student committee will be established that will be in charge of promoting healthy choices among
peers by promoting constant hydration and physical well-being. The staff will work with the

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students to create activities and events once or twice a school year. One idea of a student lead
activity can include raising money in a school race to ensure reusable water bottles for every
student at our school.
In three years, it is hoped that the education program will have reached the entire school
and staff. In this time, a solid group of students will be established on a committee to promote
healthy lifestyles among their peers. This group of students will hold quarterly events and plan
activities/workshops for all students. Jessica and Caroline will propose to administration that all
students should be required to bring a reusable water bottle to school and addition of more
drinking fountains to school.
In five years, it is expected to get enough recognition in the designated school that the
plan will spread into other schools within the district. It is anticipated that funding from the
district will be provided to the program to invite professionals to hold health seminars within the
schools for all grade levels. All students, staff and families will be aware of the positive effects a
healthy lifestyle has and negative effect dehydration has. All students by this year will be aware
of the effects of dehydration and will avoid them by bringing their water bottle, especially to
recess and physical education class everyday.
The plan is going to bring awareness to our schools of the effects of dehydration.
Through the program, students and everyone around them will be motivated to live a healthy
lifestyle. The program will inspire all to make good choices that lead them to drink more water to
avoid the effects of dehydration.

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APPENDIX A

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APPENDIXB

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APPENDIXC

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APPENDIXD

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APPENDIXE

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APPENDIXF

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APPENDIXG

Glasses of Water I Drink Per Week

Glasses of Water I Drink

Per Week

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APPENDIXH

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References
ArizonaDepartmentofHealthServices.(n.d.).RetrievedFebruary28,2016,from
http://www.azdhs.gov/preparedness/epidemiologydiseasecontrol/extreme
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ArizonaMathematicsStandards.(2016).RetrievedMarch26,2016,from
http://www.azed.gov/standardspractices/mathematicsstandards2/
Bannett,R.(2016,February1).14WaystoDrinkMoreWaterDaily[Digitalimage].
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morewater1.jpg
Ed&VermaPastorElementarySchool.(n.d.).RetrievedFebruary07,2016,from
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school/40708001879/#section5
Ed&VermaPastorElementarySchool.(n.d.).RetrievedFebruary07,2016,from
http://www.greatschools.org/arizona/phoenix/644EdVermaPastorElementary
School/quality/#Test_scores
MaxwellSoftware(2016,March25).WaterReminderandCounterApp.
Mercola.(2015).WhatHappenstoYourBodyWhenYou'reDehydrated.RetrievedFebruary12,
2016,fromhttp://articles.mercola.com/dehydrationsymptoms.aspx
(n.d.).RetrievedFebruary23,2016,fromhttp://dictionary.reference.com/browse/dehydration

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Moritz,A.(2014).DangersofDehydrationArticle.RetrievedApril06,2016,from

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http://www.enerchi.com/articles/dangersofdehydration/
NewsMedical.(2010,April08).Parentslackunderstandingofcauses,signsandsymptomsof
dehydrationinchildren.RetrievedFebruary12,2016,fromhttp://www.news
medical.net/news/20100408/Parentslackunderstandingofcausessignsandsymptoms
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PhoenixHits117DegreesOneofHottestDaysEverinValley.(2015).RetrievedFebruary28,
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Popkin,B.M.,D'Anci,K.E.,&Rosenberg,I.H.(2011,August1).Water,Hydrationand
Health.RetrievedApril6,2016,fromhttp://academic.research.microsoft.com/
Author/45685979/kristenedanci
Pruvost,I.,Dubos,F.,Chazard,E.,Hue,V.,Duhamel,A.,&Martinot,A.(2013).Thevalueof
bodyweightmeasurementtoassessdehydrationinchildren.PloSOne,8(1),e55063
RaisingArizonaKids.(VickiLoukBalint,2014).RetrievedFebruary28,2016,from
http://www.raisingarizonakids.com/2014/08/childriskheatrelatedillness/
WaterAccessandConsumption.(n.d.).RetrievedMarch02,2016,from
http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/prc/priorityissues/wateraccessandconsumption/
Why&HowToDrinkMoreWater[Digitalimage].(2012,October16).
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com/2012/10/drink.gif

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14WaystoDrinkMoreWater[Digitalimage].(2016).RetrievedMarch23,2016from
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