Money Doesn't Grow on Trees

Social Studies Online

See CyberSchoolBus: Health

1. Do the class activity.

2. Discuss reasons why people may have difficulty gaining access to essentials like food.

3. Add to the Spider Map if further ideas emerge from the discussion.

4. Complete the Tripod Diagram to show the three key factors that people need access to if they are to improve their health standards.

5. Refer to the Community Service section. Consider possible Social Action that students themselves could take to address factors that cause health problems.

6. Continue working on the Mini Inquiry into factors that limit people's access to resources, goods and services.

7. Values Exploration
   Greater government involvement in providing public health activities, ensuring that the poor have access to essential health services, and supporting research and development are identified as key factors in improving people's health standards.

   The Issue:
   Should the state (government) be responsible for providing access to medical and health related resources?

   Human Continuum

   1. Ask the students to quietly, on their own, think seriously about this issue. Encourage them to record their thoughts on paper using words and symbols.

   2. After five minutes they are to create a Human Continuum. Those who feel very strongly that the state is responsible for providing access to health resources go to the front of the room; those who feel very strongly that the state should NOT be responsible for providing access to health resources go to the back of the room; those who are unsure or have no opinion go to the middle of the room; and the rest of the class position themselves along the continuum.

   3. Move along the continuum and ask the students to explain why they have positioned themselves where they have on the issue.

   4. Organise the class into groups of 3 - 4 by (if possible) pairing up students from opposite ends of the continuum and adding one or two from the middle to create each group.

   5. Each student explains why they hold their particular point of view (or values position) and their reasons are recorded on a large sheet (A3) of newsprint.

   6. The group examines likely consequences of people having a range of differing values positions on this issue and records those on their A3 sheet.

   7. Conclude with each group presenting their findings to the class, followed by a whole class discussion.

Extension Activity
Conduct a Social Studies Inquiry into people's access to health and medical resources, goods and services around the world. Compare countries that have state funded medical systems with those that have partial systems or none at all.