The Effect of Covid 19 on Countries

[stawns]

So I'm creating a research project for our upper intermediate (grade 6/7) classes and I'm interested in what people here might have to contribute.  I am using the template for a unit I've done several times on the differences between developed and under-developed countries.  In this unit students would choose a developed country (like Canada) and an under-developed country (like Chad) and do a comparison of the two countries, based on the criteria of : Geography, Economy, Health Care, Government and Human Rights.  Students create a booklet for their comparison of the two countries and then, at the end, write an essay stating that either developed countries DO have a responsibility to help developing countries improve their living conditions or they DO NOT have a responsibility to help developing countries improve their living conditions.  It's been a very successful unit in the past, but I haven't done it for about 5 years and I feel like I have a real opportunity to update the topic.

 

https://div12socialstudies.weebly.com/

This is the website for the original assignment and I think I will just amend this site if I decide to update.  

 

My idea is that rather than just do this comparison, I want them to see how Covid 19 has affected the developed countries compared to the under-developed countries.  I'm thinking a "before and after" (I know it's not after) comparison of each country, based on specific criteria, should give them a somewhat clear picture of how covid-19 has affected them differently.  What I'm curious about is what criteria you fine people think would give the clearest, simplest picture of this comparison.  Obviously the criteria would mostly be economic, health care, human rights, education.  

 

At the end, they write an essay on whether developed countries have a responsibility to aid in the vaccination programs for under developed countries.

 

I've got a pretty good idea of how I want to approach it, just curious to see if people think of something I haven't.

Edited January 2, 2021 by stawns

[YEGCanuck]

Man I loved Socials in high school and only wish I was in your class. My only suggestion would be to encourage a close look at how and when governments reacted to the pandemic and current outcomes. What changes have occurred in governments during this period and perhaps a historical comparison to the last global pandemic.

[stawns]

5 minutes ago, YEGCanuck said:

Man I loved Socials in high school and only wish I was in your class. My only suggestion would be to encourage a close look at how and when governments reacted to the pandemic and current outcomes. What changes have occurred in governments during this period and perhaps a historical comparison to the last global pandemic.

That's a great point and I'm not sure why I didn't think about that, as the original assignment had a government type element.

 

Kudos, thanks

[stawns]

7 minutes ago, YEGCanuck said:

Man I loved Socials in high school and only wish I was in your class. My only suggestion would be to encourage a close look at how and when governments reacted to the pandemic and current outcomes. What changes have occurred in governments during this period and perhaps a historical comparison to the last global pandemic.

The original assignment focuses on the economic living standard discrepancies and I end it with an activity called The Trading Game. 

 

Six teams of 4ish.......two well to do countries, 2 middle of the road countries and two poor countries.  Each team gets an envelope before they start with a combination of cash, scissors, pencils, erasers, paper and shape templates.

 

The goal is to produce different shapes, of different sizes, made out of paper and then sell them to an international body (me).  Different shapes have different prices, as do different sizes.  For an example, a large circle might get them a top price of $500, whereas a small square might get a top price of $100.

 

The catch is, not all the envelopes are equal.  The rich countries get the most complete package and likely have some of each resource.  Middle countries have a one thing they have a lot of, but short on other things.  The poor countries get very little of anything.  When they game starts, they can monetize and trade their resources (paper, scissors, erasers, templates etc) with the other 5 teams.  They use templates to create the shapes, then they cut them out and bring them to me to buy.  

 

I have two adults sitting with me.  One settles trade disputes and one is quality control.........the more perfect the shape, the higher the price they get.  I'm the negotiator and the price I offer is based on the quality report, but also supply and demand.

 

After an hour, the teams count their money and the team with the highest profit margin wins.

 

It's an amazing activity

 

 

 

 

 

 

[-AJ-]

What a cool idea! I love how it challenges students to think about some deeper questions of morality and ethics too.

 

An idea I have is to also include an element of if COVID affected the two different classes of nations in the way students expected. Maybe ask them to come up with some sort of "hypothesis" beforehand and then evaluate that afterwards. I suppose it could also invoke confirmation bias, but it could be argued that confirmation bias might already be there.

[stawns]

39 minutes ago, 6of1_halfdozenofother said:

One area to consider would be that the infrastructure to test - and in many cases, because of the state of infrastructure, the criteria to allow for testing - will affect the statistics being reported.  Even in a developed country like Canada, there were different criteria at different stages and different criteria by the different health jurisdictions (province to province, and maybe even health authority to health authority within a province) for who would be allowed to be tested.  BC has had a higher reliance on contact tracing, and had given initial priority to testing towards frontline health workers and to verify cases where most of the risk factors were already present (travel within certain timeframe, symptoms present, etc.), so at different times of the past 10 months, different parts of the statistics are not as reliable (or consistent).  I would expect the same for other health jurisdictions and countries, given the different infrastructure lending to their ability to test (and thus driving who would fall into which of their testing priority classes).

 

I guess where I'm getting at with that long-winded blurb is - unfortunately the stats can't be mapped across different jurisdictions as a reliable or consistent metric.

I'd have to dumb that way down as the kids doing this are 11/12 years old

[Canuck Surfer]

Single best thing we can do with 11 & 12 year olds?

 

Collect idea's, like wearing masks.  Yes washing hands, even if boring.

 

Encourage their parents to get vaccinated?

 

Have the kids feel good about joining in! Even though its not really their health at risk? 

 

Have them feel the health of older generations is also a responsibility they can help with.

 

#slowthespread  

#doitforgrandma

 

[stawns]

1 hour ago, Canuck Surfer said:

Single best thing we can do with 11 & 12 year olds?

 

Collect idea's, like wearing masks.  Yes washing hands, even if boring.

 

Encourage their parents to get vaccinated?

 

Have the kids feel good about joining in! Even though its not really their health at risk? 

 

Have them feel the health of older generations is also a responsibility they can help with.

 

#slowthespread  

#doitforgrandma

 

I like the idea of them researching mask policy and public health orders in their chosen country.........do they have one?  Is it nation wide etc, states/provinces.  It gets them thinking about geography too.

[Ilunga]

On 1/3/2021 at 11:38 AM, stawns said:

I'd have to dumb that way down as the kids doing this are 11/12 years old

Teachers are one of the most undervalued professions here in my country ,Australia,IMO.

Here in the state of Victoria we had some of the strictest lockdown restrictions in the world for a while and schools were all shut and we had to home school.

Parents suddenly had a new respect for teachers.

Big time respect for your lesson plan and what you are doing.

Edited January 12, 2021 by Ilunga