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Volume 7: Summer 2: Global Education Project: Impoving Maternal Health: AIDS in Africa, More than Sympathy	Printer Friendly Version

Improving Maternal Health

AIDS in Africa II:   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

Social Studies 20, Unit 2:   Population

• Know that the rate of natural increase in a population is the difference between the birth rate and the death rate.
• Know that population growth rates vary from region to region and that regions with different population compositions make different demands on social policy.

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.

Produced with the support of the Government of Canada through
the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA).