STDS/HIV:
LESSON: STD Awareness: Join The National GYT Campaign
Have students break into teams. Tell students that we’re going to use Facebook to try to create STD Awareness and we need all their creative ideas for reaching the teen audience.
Part One
Have the class break into teams. Give everyone the link to the CDC’s STD Facts to use as a reference point.
Allow time at the end of this class brainstorming session for each team to share their ideas.
Part Two
As homework or as an extra credit assignment, have members of the team draft their Facebook page idea and then survey some of their classmates to get their opinions about how well this page might work in creating awareness and attracting attention to important STD information. Encourage team members to gather suggestions for improvement along with general responses to their page ideas.
Bring responses back to class and share results that the team received to this informal survey.
Part Three
Use feedback from the informal survey of classmates to make modifications and changes; then have the team leader upload the page to Facebook. Have each team work to see how many friends they can draw to their page. There could be a competition with a chart posted in class that is used to track the amount of activity each of the pages is generating.
Part Four
If there is time, have some of the team members survey Facebook friends to determine what friends are finding useful on the page and their responses to the page. Have students summarize the responses they receive and share their findings with the class.
Ideas generated for the page and the rationale for selecting these ideas. Numbers of friends students work as a team to attract to their page. If students complete Parts Two and Four, include the design of their survey tool and their summary of results that they share with the class.
LESSON: STD Awareness: Join The National GYT Campaign
Overview
Half of all new STDs occur in 15-24 year olds and many have NO symptoms. This lesson invites students to join the national campaign to raise awareness about STDs among their peers. Facebook is the vehicle this lesson encourages the students to use in their campaign efforts.
April has been declared as National STD Awareness Month. MTV, the Kaiser Family Foundation, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and other partners are supporting the National STD Awareness Month with the GYT: Get Yourself Tested campaign to inform young people about STDs, encourage and normalize testing for STDs, and connect young people to testing centers.
Check out the GYT teen-friendly site for more details. CDC encourages you to visit this site not only in April but all year round to access materials, educational tools and information to support STD awareness work in your classroom.
Half of all new STDs occur in 15-24 year olds and many have NO symptoms. This lesson invites students to join the national campaign to raise awareness about STDs among their peers. Facebook is the vehicle this lesson encourages the students to use in their campaign efforts.
April has been declared as National STD Awareness Month. MTV, the Kaiser Family Foundation, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and other partners are supporting the National STD Awareness Month with the GYT: Get Yourself Tested campaign to inform young people about STDs, encourage and normalize testing for STDs, and connect young people to testing centers.
Check out the GYT teen-friendly site for more details. CDC encourages you to visit this site not only in April but all year round to access materials, educational tools and information to support STD awareness work in your classroom.
Level:
High School
Time: 1-2 days (brainstorming) + X days for testing, implementation
Preparation and Materials:
Time: 1-2 days (brainstorming) + X days for testing, implementation
Preparation and Materials:
Procedures
- Open with a few facts illustrating how important it can be for teens to learn about STDs.
STD awareness is critical these days. 1 in 4 sexually active teens will get an STD every
year. This is a shocking statistic!
- Encourage your students to try to recall some of the things they may have learned
about STDs in previous classes. You may want to show a CDC instructional video to help provide background for this discussion.
- Introduce the STD Awareness National Campaign and have students discuss
why the CDC and its other partners may have felt the need for such a campaign.
- Now introduce the GYT site and spend a bit of time exploring it with your
class.
- Introduce the STD Awareness National Campaign and have students discuss
why the CDC and its other partners may have felt the need for such a campaign.
- Inform the students that we are going to try to do our own version of the campaign here in our school.
Activity
Have students break into teams. Tell students that we’re going to use Facebook to try to create STD Awareness and we need all their creative ideas for reaching the teen audience.
Part One
Have the class break into teams. Give everyone the link to the CDC’s STD Facts to use as a reference point.
- Have each team brainstorm how to create their own Facebook page for the
purpose of STD Awareness.
- Have each group consider what would make the Facebook page they create
attract the attention of their friends. What would make friends want to link to
this page and also share it with their other Facebook friends?
- Remind the group that this page has to be one that can be shared at school.
In other words, the language, images and other material need to be school-
appropriate; you as well as other school staff will be able to check their page
periodically to ensure that it meets school standards.
- Each team needs to appoint one person who will assume responsibility for this page (e.g. putting it up, managing it, etc.) although the group will be developing the page as a team
Allow time at the end of this class brainstorming session for each team to share their ideas.
Part Two
As homework or as an extra credit assignment, have members of the team draft their Facebook page idea and then survey some of their classmates to get their opinions about how well this page might work in creating awareness and attracting attention to important STD information. Encourage team members to gather suggestions for improvement along with general responses to their page ideas.
Bring responses back to class and share results that the team received to this informal survey.
Part Three
Use feedback from the informal survey of classmates to make modifications and changes; then have the team leader upload the page to Facebook. Have each team work to see how many friends they can draw to their page. There could be a competition with a chart posted in class that is used to track the amount of activity each of the pages is generating.
Part Four
If there is time, have some of the team members survey Facebook friends to determine what friends are finding useful on the page and their responses to the page. Have students summarize the responses they receive and share their findings with the class.
Assessment
Ideas generated for the page and the rationale for selecting these ideas. Numbers of friends students work as a team to attract to their page. If students complete Parts Two and Four, include the design of their survey tool and their summary of results that they share with the class.