HIV Transmission Simulation (And, More Posts ARE Coming!)

NOTE: As long promised, here is my updated take on the HIV Transmission Simulation as created by the fine folks over at Advocates for Youth.

Despite my absence from blogging here, this blog still attracts roughly twenty unique visitors a day. Traffic mainly comes from Google, and after being made aware of this information I'm going to make an effort to contribute to this blog more often. With the AAHPERD Convention coming up, I'm back on a professional development kick! 

The HIV Transmission Simulation is easily one of my favorite activities I've used in my career as a health educator. Originally created by the organization Advocates for Youth, I have used this lesson successfully many times. I've also added some enhancements to the lesson. It does require some initial set-up time, and you'll probably have to buy most of the materials yourself. But, it always leaves a big impact in the minds of my students, and it helps to bring a very important point close to home. Check out the reactions of some of my students from when I first used this activity in 2010.

I've embedded the lesson plan in PDF form below. If you want to see a copy you can print out, please click here. I've also taken it upon myself to identify, in red writing, things that I myself have added to this lesson. Some of these ideas were my own, and others from past professors/teachers/friends. I will be teaching this lesson in the near future to one of my eighth grade classes that is behind the others, so I hope to put up some pictures in the near future.

The original lesson plan from the Advocates for Youth website can be found here. As educators, we are very fortunate that organizations provide teaching materials on their website for free that can enhance what we do in our own classrooms. The original activity is fantastic in itself, I just added some tweaks in order to create different experiences in my classroom. I do not take credit for the original lesson at all; in fact I've seen this concept done in many ways: using index cards and shaking hands, with liquid and chemical indicators, etc.

Future Posts (already written and scheduled to post!):

Saturday 2/25: Sticky Notes (classroom management technique)

Wednesday 2/29: Marijuana Vocabulary Activity (applicable to all levels)

As always, please e-mail me with any questions, comments, or concerns. Also, be sure to check out another blog I co-created with my roommate, Matt: Positive Living.