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Overview:
This lesson is designed to help students understand the enormity of the impact of AIDS on the population of Africa, by comparing its effect there with its effect on the population of the world in general, and especially on that of the United States. After using maps to locate Africa on a world map, and individual sub-Saharan nations on a map of Africa students will examine charts and graphs to find and compare data about AIDS in Africa, the world, and the United States.
[NOTE: Many of the news articles in this lesson (those from the Washington Post and New York Times) require online registration to view. You may wish to register for these sites before class begins so you can log on for students without their having to reveal personal information.]
Connections to the Curriculum:
Geography, mathematics, biology, computer science
Connections to the National Geography Standards:
Standard 1: "How to use maps and other geographic representations, tools, and technologies to acquire, process, and report information from a spatial perspective"
Standard 3: "How to analyze the spatial organization of people, places, and environments on Earth's surface"
Standard 4: "The physical and human characteristics of places"
Standard 10: "The characteristics, distribution, and complexity of Earth's cultural mosaics"
Standard 18: "How to apply geography to interpret the present and plan for the future"
Time:
Two to three hours
Materials Required:
- Computers with Internet access (or copies of relevant data from Web sites listed in this lesson)
- Blank Xpeditions outline maps of the following: the world, Africa, and the United States (one copy of each for each student)
- Calculators (optional)
- Pencils
- Paper
Objectives:
Students will
- locate Africa on a map of the world, find various countries on a map of Africa, and locate on a map the part of the United States that lies east of the Mississippi River;
- develop their Internet search skills;
- find information from graphs and charts;
- make quantifiable distinctions about the impact of HIV/AIDS on the populations of Africa and the United States; and
- list several cultural and economic reasons for those differences.
Geographic Skills:
Asking Geographic Questions
Acquiring Geographic Information
Organizing Geographic Information
Answering Geographic Questions
Analyzing Geographic Information
S u g g e s t e d P r o c e d u r e
Opening:
Using material from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, explain to the students what AIDS is. Tell them that in this lesson they will be looking at charts and graphs to see how much more people in Africa are affected by AIDS than people in the United States, and that they will also find and discuss reasons for this difference. Explain that the problem is so severe that by 2010 it is believed that there will be 42 million orphans in Africa, and that that number is the same as the number of all the children who live in the United States east of the Mississippi river today.
Development:
Give each student a copy of a blank Xpeditions outline map of the world, Africa, and the United States.
Activity 1:
Ask students to look at the charts and graphs found in the Washington Post feature, AIDS in Numbers, and answer the following questions:
- How many children under the age of 15 are living with HIV or suffering from AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa? How many children under 15 are living with HIV/AIDS worldwide? (If they are able, ask students to figure what percentage of all the children under 15 who have HIV/AIDS live in Africa.)
- How many "AIDS orphans" are there in the world? Where do most of them live?
- What is the life expectancy for people living in Namibia? If there were no AIDS epidemic, what is it believed the life expectancy of people in Namibia would be? How much shorter is the life expectancy in Namibia when AIDS is a factor? (Be sure to have the students locate Namibia on the map of Africa.) If there is time, have the students answer the same questions in regard to the other African nations on the chart, and find and label them on the map.
- How many people are living with HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa today? How many in the rest of the world?
Activity 2:
Ask students to look at statistics from Activity 1 and conduct their own online research to answer the following questions [Note: If students are not advanced enough to do the research on their own, you may want to conduct this activity as a class.]:
- How many AIDS deaths have there been since the start of the AIDS pandemic? (Explain that in this context, a pandemic is a disease epidemic that occurs over a wide geographic area and affects an exceptionally high proportion of the population.) In what year did the AIDS pandemic begin?
- In 1987, the first AIDS drug (AZT) slowed deaths from the disease. Nevertheless, a lot of people died from AIDS that year. How many died in the United States? How many died in Africa?
- In 1996, a three-drug combination therapy became "the norm" in the United States and slowed the death rate. If it works so well, why is it not commonly used in Africa?
Closing:
In pairs, small groups, or as a class, have the students discuss their reaction to these numbers. Which surprises them most? Which angers them most?
Suggested Student Assessment:
Using a flip chart or chalkboard, have students work as a committee to identify three worldwide goals and three goals within Africa that would address the crisis. If the class is large, this can be achieved in small groups.
Extending the Lesson:
- Ask the students to search the Internet for examples of efforts being made to ease the AIDS crisis in Africa.
- Use the information from this lesson in interdisciplinary assignments in English, music, art, etc., asking students to express their reaction to the data on AIDS in Africa in media such as poetry, painting, sketches, or performance art.
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