Key Messages
- Young people need access to accurate health information.
- There can be many barriers to young people accessing accurate health information.
Learning Intention
Students will use scenarios to:
- Recognise barriers to accurate health information and ways to overcome these barriers.
- Work collaboratively to solve the question of what actions contributed to the unplanned pregnancy.
Time
30 minutes
Required Resources
- Who’s responsible? A Story of Maeve and Otis.
- or Unplanned Pregnancy character cards.
Success Criteria
Students will be able to:
- Work collaboratively and be able to listen respectfully to alternative options.
- Identify that not everyone has the same access to health services, and they can articulate how these could be overcome in certain situations.
- Identify and differentiate practical, legal and ethical issues surrounding sexual relationships.
Teaching Notes
Discussion around this situation can become heated and students may respond in a sexist or stereotypical way. There is no correct answer and the aim is to consider other perspectives and possibilities that might be outside personal experiences.
Notes for discussion:
- Doctors can assess people under 18 as a mature minor and prescribe contraception without parental consent.
- Consent should be explicitly sought and received. Scenario shows pressure and compliance.
- Age of consent laws should be discussed. As 15 year olds can only legally consent if there is no more than 24 months age gap.
- Young people may want extra information on options for an unplanned pregnancy. These include: parenting; abortion; fostering; adoption.
Procedure
- Read the story of Maeve and Otis. Or have selected students read the character cards aloud.
- As a class or in small groups students sort the characters in order of who is most to least responsible for the unplanned pregnancy. The group should try to come to a consensus. Allow enough time for
collaboration and discussion of practical, legal and ethical issues. - Groups could explain to the class how they came to their decision and how easy/difficult it was to agree.
- Discuss /Examine each character and the role they played in the outcome.
Questioning
a. Why might they have said/done what they did?
b. What factors could have influenced their decision making and the advice they provided?
c. Did each character behave responsibly, legally and ethical?
d. What advice would you have given Maeve?
e. How has this exercise changed/increased your knowledge about determining the reliability of an information source?
f. What alternative sources of information could Maeve have accessed if she was a student at your school.
g. Would you now organise the characters differently?
h. Review the order and reorganise based on who behaved the most to least responsibly. Do you have a different outcome?
j. How have gender norms and stereotypes been represented in the story.
Extension Activity
Students should re write the behaviour/decisions of one character in the story to affect a positive health outcome for Maeve. You will need to explain:
I. what changes you are making
II. why you made them
III. how they will affect change
IV. what social, emotional, environmental, financial factors could be involved
V. where/what resources could your ‘character’ access to inform and enable them to make health choices/decisions or advice.