sexually transmitted diseases
STDs
Ask students to look at www.valtrex.com to see what they can learn about genital herpes and its treatments (or print out the web pages for them). What are the dosages, the costs, the side effects, and the effectiveness of the product? What impression does the web site give you about genital herpes? What would it be like to have to have genital herpes and how would you deal with it? Would you pay for medication, or just deal with it?
Assign each student or group of students an STD (see workbook for ideas). Each group should do a presentation on their STD. Presentation ideas include a poster, brochure, commercial, etc. The presentation should include the following information: What is it? (bacterial or viral); How many people have it?; How does someone get the disease?; What are the symptoms? (This will probably be different for males and females.); What are the long-term effects?; How does someone find out s(he) has this STD?; How is it treated and is it curable?; Am I safe if I consistently use a condom?; How can I avoid getting this STD?
The Kiss of Death: Get a shoe box and wrap it in colorful wrapping paper. Place Hershey’s candy kisses inside using the following ratio: 10 silver; 4 gold; 3 hugs; 1 red. Mix the candy in the shoe box. Tell the students that when we treat sex like a game, we never know what the consequences will be. Let each student pick one kiss from the shoe box and place it on his/her desk. When everyone has a candy, tell each person with a silver kiss to stand up. These students did not get a physical problem but they do have to deal with the emotional consequences of sex outside of marriage. Next, have the students that picked a gold kiss stand up. These students have to deal with an unplanned pregnancy. Now have the students with the hugs stand up. They get to choose an STD to deal with. Then, ask if anyone received the red kiss. This individual has HIV. Lastly, reiterate that when you have sex outside of marriage, you never know what you will get each and every time you have a sexual encounter. (Why kNOw Abstinence Education)
You Thought You Were Alone: Have a girl come up to the front of the classroom. Tell the class that we are going to pretend that she has come to the doctor for a pregnancy test and it was negative (thankfully!). But, now we ask her if this is the first guy she has sex with. She says yes. Before she had sex with (pull a male volunteer to the front who we will call Joe), she had been a virgin. We then ask Joe if she is the only person he has had sex with. Joe says he had only had sex with Kim and Kristi (pull up two more volunteers). Continue pulling people up until you have half the class at the front of the room. Now go back to the original girl and ask her to look at all the people Joe has brought into the relationship. Tell her, “You thought you were alone on that night in the back of the car, at home, etc., but look at all the people who were really there.” There are two ways to end this. The first way is to select random students and give them diseases. Remind everyone who is now at risk. The second way is to use the results from the “Kiss of Death” activity. This will show the risk involved. (Why kNOw Abstinence Education)
Silent Epidemic: This activity helps students understand how STDs are spread. To perform this activity, you will need to go talk to your local Science Teacher. He/She should have all the supplies you need to perform this activity. Give each student (except 2 with a class of 20-25) a small test tube half full of water. Give the remaining two students a test tube half full of a weak HCl solution (ask your science teacher about other substances that can be substituted). All students should be given a dropper for his/her test tube. Ask the students to get up and exchange fluids with their classmates. Assign some students to exchange with only one other individual, some with two and some with 3-5 students. After this is complete, have the students return to their seats and place 1-2 drops of phenolphthalein in each test tube. The test tubes that turn pink are the ones that contracted an STD. Then tell the students the number of students that started with an STD. Discuss the relationship between this activity and the spread of STDs. You can include the following: How do you know if someone has an STD?; How are they spread?; What factors put you at higher risk for contracting an STD (# of partners)?; etc.