A wise [person] should consider that health is the greatest of human blessings.
- Hippocrates
Of all human experiences, childbirth is one of the most miraculous. With modern medical science, it is commonly one of the safest as well. That is, unless you live in the developing world where a woman has a 1 in 16 chance of dying from complications related to pregnancy or delivery.
In this issue........
Improving Maternal Health
Cultural Characteristics Influence a Region's Character
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/lessons/10/g912/region.html
In this National Geographic lesson, students will analyze demographic data and explore relationships between several cultural characteristics of nations. A key component of the lesson is examining health statistics including maternal health to draw conclusions about developed, undeveloped, and underdeveloped countries.
This lesson provides some excellent country profiles that include maternal mortality rate, fertility rate, and other statistics related to the status of women in other cultures. The lesson plan eventually reveals the actual countries and through further research, the students need to draw conclusions about the nations such as "Countries that have high total fertility rates and high maternal mortality rates will tend to have poor health care."
The lesson provides the background and the activities that will engage students and challenge their way of thinking about health around the world and in particular women's maternal health. This lesson would be suitable for students in Social Studies 8, Unit 1: Culture or Social Studies 11, Unit
Curriculum Links and Objectives
Health in Latin Amerian
http://chnm.gmu.edu/wwh/modules/lesson15/lesson15.php?c=plans&s=0
This lesson is from the Centre for History and New Media at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. After completing this lesson, students will be able to summarize the issues regarding violence and reproduction for Latin American women, and compare the treatment for women of different socio-economic situations.
The lesson provides excellent primary source documents that can be used at the secondary level to increase the understanding of women and issues related to health.
This lesson can be used in Social Studies 11, Unit 1: Human Rights or History 11 Unit 5: Global Issues.
Curriculum Links and Objectives
Partnership for Material, Newborn, and Child Health 
http://www.who.int/pmnch/members/join/en/index3.html
Although not a lesson plan, this website provides background information that teachers will find useful. The site is from the World Health Organization (WHO) and provides a wealth of information such as statistics, reports, images, and a resource guide. Some of the topics covered include maternal health, newborn health, child health, and HIV and health.
Fight For Life
http://www.who.int/making_pregnancy_safer/videos/en/index.html
This site is also from the World Health Organization (WHO). While not a lesson plan, this site provides access to a series of eight videos (provided in streaming wmv format) that can be viewed from the site or downloaded to your computer. The videos, all running about 23 minutes in length, are from the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and include stories on women in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bolivia, India, Malawi, Moldavia, Mongolia, and Uganda. Computers will need a free Windows Media Player 9 to play these clips. If your computer does not have Windows Media Player, the site provides a link where it can be downloaded, again at no charge. These stories provide an excellent insight into the lives of women in the respective regions.
The site also provides information on the other "health related" Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) namely Reducing Child Mortality and Combating HIV/AIDS, Malaria, and other Diseases. These two MDGs were featured in past issues of WorldBeat. Please check our Past Issues section for more information.
As always, teachers should preview this material beforehand to determine its suitability for specific student groups.
Without restricting the generality of the above, these videos may be useful in grade 12 Psychology, Unit 2: Prenatal Development.
Curriculum Links & Objectives
Why Is World Aging an Important Issue?
http://www.ithaca.edu/aging/schools/pdf/Why%20World%20Aging%20An%20Important%20Issue.pdf
This lesson is from Ithaca College in Ithaca, New York. It deals with the challenge facing governments the world over--an increasingly aging population. Students may wonder why this should be a concern for governments but, through discussion, they will come to see it as the problem that it is.
The lesson provides clear instructions, accessible handouts, and good points for student discussion. After an introductory reading and class discussion, students will research two countries--one developed, one developing--to determine the impact on government policies of an aging population.
The evaluation and extension activities of this lesson are a bit weak, but creative teachers can certainly expand on the suggestions given. For example, students might investigate the history of gender equity in government policies, implications of an aging population on younger workers, the status of elders in developing cultures, etc.
This lesson would be suitable for students in grade 11 Social Studies, Unit 2: Population.
Curriculum Objectives
Health: A Risky Place to be Female
http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/afghanistan/health.html
This is the health page of a comprehensive PBS website on women in Afghanistan. Other pages include security, politics and education. This is not a lesson plan but rather an intensive look at the situation of Afghan women with many links and resources. Teachers would need to develop their own lessons and activities using the materials available.
As their country emerged from decades of war and repressive regimes, Afghan women, who had been nearly invisible during six years of fundamentalist rule, began actively participating in public life. But the initial promise of reconstruction has fallen short. Women still experience many of the same problems -- poor health care, illiteracy, lack of security and political powerlessness -- that they experienced under the Taliban.
The information provided at this site, along with other material in this issue could be used together to provide excellent insight into the conditions faced by women.
Child Brides: Stolen Lives
http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/341/educators.html (lesson plan)
http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/341/index.html (video)
This is from the United States Public Broadcasting System (PBS) series NOW. It provides a startling insight into the issue of child brides in many developing countries. NOW's production team travelled to Niger, India and Guatemala to report on a global custom that devastates lives and keeps communities from prospering.
After viewing the video (it can be downloaded, viewed as streaming video, or viewed as a podcast) students are divided into small groups to discuss the societal and generational impacts of child marriage. Following this, they re-convene as a large group to discuss their findings.
Continuing in the large group, students move on to discuss strategies to reduce child marriage and to discuss the progress made by NGOs in attempting to overcome the problem.
This lesson provides excellent background information, statistics on child marriages in different parts of the world, and interviews with girls from Niger, India, and Guatemala.
This lesson would be suitable for students in grade 11 Social Studies, Unit 5: World Governance.
Curriculum Objectives
AIDS in Africa: The Scope of the Problem
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/lessons/01/g912/africaaidsI.html
This lesson was prepared in collaboration with the Office of Ground Water and Drinking Water at the Environmental Protection Agency in the U.S.
As part of the lesson, students will learn about how water becomes impure with parasites and other contaminants; they will read personal accounts of unsafe water; and they'll work together to brainstorm solutions to the water problems of communities in Africa.
The lesson plan covers eight class periods, but teachers may find that they will be able to cover the material more quickly. Access to a computer lab (or computer connected to a projector) will be needed to view the photos during the first part of the lesson. Students will need to use the computer lab for research during the latter stages of the lesson. They will also need access to poster board or other material for their final product.
An evaluation rubric is provided with the lesson as are links to sites providing additional information. This lesson would be useful in grade 11 Social Studies, Unit 3: Environment.
Curriculum Objectives
AIDS in Africa: More than Sympathy
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/lessons/01/g912/africaaidsII.html
This is a companion lesson to The Scope of the Problem (above). It, too, is from the National Geographic. The lesson focuses on why the disastrous numbers surrounding the AIDS epidemic in Africa exist. It asks students to explore what is being done, and what can be done, to ease the situation. During the lesson, students will identify cultural factors within Africa that underlie the scope of the AIDS epidemic there, discuss worldwide responses to the crisis in Africa, list evidence of attitudes and excuses in the world that explain these responses, and determine what could be done within Africa and in the outside world to ease the AIDS crisis in Africa.
Using statistics and other readings from both the Washington Post and the New York Times students will discuss the forces at work to make the situation as dire as it is. Students are asked to develop three worldwide goals and three goals for Africa to address the crisis.
Note: Access to the Washington Post and the New York Times requires a one-time free registration. Some teachers may choose to print the relevant articles for distribution to students rather than have all students register. Teachers may also want to change the lesson to include statistics on HIV/AIDS from Canada which can be found at AVERT. Their website is http://www.avert.org/canstatr.htm .
This lesson would be best suited for students in Social Studies 11, Unit 2: Population.
Curriculum Objectives
Addressing World Hunger
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/lessons/18/g68/tghunger.html
This lesson, from the National Geographic, introduces students to programs that exist to address the complex problem of world hunger. They will read articles about specific initiatives and projects, and will be asked to discuss these projects and whether they think they are effective. Students conclude by writing statements they would make to friends or relatives who think the world hunger problem may be irresolvable.
During the lesson, student will discuss some of the reasons why people go hungry. They will read become familiar with three organizations that are fighting world hunger, and write sentences describing what each organization does, read articles on projects aimed at alleviating hunger, label maps with the places mentioned in the articles, discuss the articles as a class, and write statements to friends or relatives who might find the world hunger situation hopeless.
Note: While the lesson is not intended as an exhaustive look at world hunger, it provides a good introduction to the issue.
This lesson would be suitable for students in Social Studies 8, Unit 4: Interdependence.
Curriculum Objectives
Evaluation Links
Saskatchewan teachers have been provided support resources for student assessment and evaluation from the provincial ministry of education,
Saskatchewan Learning. Specifically, teachers have been provided with the document Student Evaluation: a Teacher Handbook, in print format.
Chapter 4 on specific student assessment techniques contains a variety of ready-made rubrics, rating scales, checklists, portfolio set-ups
and templates that could be adapted to each task developed in your classroom. This resource is available on-line at:
http://www.sasked.gov.sk.ca/evergreen/policy/studeval/chap4001.html.
The simple templates outlined on this Saskatchewan Learning site, will help you tailor your assessment to match any activity and ensure that
your objectives are being met.
Another source of easily adaptable evaluation material is Discovery School located at
http://school.discovery.com/schrockguide/assess.html.
The site has both subject specific evaluation tools and
evaluation instruments for process oriented tasks. You
will also find rubric builders, portfolio evaluation instruments, graphic
organizer evaluation strategies, etc. all
at this site.
Another rubric generator can be found at
http://www.teach-nology.com/web_tools/rubrics/. And, for a discussion on the value of using rubrics in
the middle grades, teachers may want to go to http://www.middleweb.com/rubricsHG.html.
