Jacksonville, Fla. – Bed bugs are on the rise in our communities, so the Jacksonville Bed Bug Task Force, a community partnership formed by the University of Florida/Duval County Extension Office created Bed Bugs and Book Bags a youth enrichment curriculum. The curriculum is designed for third through fifth grade students, although it can be adapted to any age group.

There are three lessons with a total of ten activities and a teacher’s guide that focus on bed bug biology, feeding, and prevention and is appropriate for classrooms, day cares, camps, and meetings. This award-winning 4-H curriculum uses the experiential learning model for each lesson allowing students to “Do, Learn, Reflect, and Apply” what they have learned. The curriculum is aligned with the Florida Next Generation Educational Standards and Benchmarks for Health Education. The curriculum is benchmarked for health educators, although is popular with science teachers, pest management professionals, 4-H leaders, and camp counselors.

The curriculum is available for download at no charge. A one-time 30-minute computer training with a quiz should be completed prior to accessing the curriculum. Once you have completed the training, you will have some background information on bed bug biology that will help you bust some bed bug myths. The educator training and the curriculum can be accessed at the Duval County Extension website at http://duval.ifas.ufl.edu/Bed_Bugs.shtml.