Because this activity involves a classroom debate, there are no right or wrong answers. Students will either defend confinement or directly observed therapy during the debate. As you facilitate the debate, pay close attention to time, allowing each pair of students to speak for just a few minutes. This will keep the conversation from dragging. If the discussion stalls, you may need to suggest points of debate.

 
 

Activity 3.2  Streets of Hope, Streets of Despair

The products from this activity will vary depending on your local area and the facilities chosen for investigation. The census variables that students should research are provided on the worksheet. Students should provide a clear and detailed table that includes all of the data they found for each set of census tracts. Students should also have performed some basic mathematical manipulations on the data. For example, if they looked at multiple tracts, in order to compare the minority population of census tracts with a facility to census tracts without a facility, students will need to find the average minority population within each group of tracts.

Several national studies have found significant correlations between race and socio-economic status and the occurrence of hazardous facilities and others have found no correlation (see Appendix A for citations). Studies have been criticized on various points, including statistical techniques and geographic unit of analysis. It is possible that students will not find any significant difference between tracts with or without facilities. If this is the case, lead into a discussion about the significance of their findings. What implications does this have for the national studies that have been conducted?

 
 

Activity 3.3  The Geography of HIV/AIDS and Service Provision

 
Students’ reports will vary depending on your geographic location and the services available there. If you’re located in a large urban area, there may be a large number of services available within close proximity. If you’re in a rural area, services may be few in number and at a farther distance. You can use the following factors as a guide to assessing students’ reports:

• Does the report contain data on the incidence of HIV/AIDS in your county, city, or state? Was the data well cited and well presented?
• Did the group use a variety of sources for the data?
• Did the group discuss the data limitations or the difficulties they encountered in finding it?
• Is the assessment of local services for people living with HIV/AIDS exhaustive?
• Were all possible types of services considered, such as shelters, support groups, hospitals, clinics, etc.?
• Is the local research well documented?
• Does the report contain a map of services?
• Are the recommendations for improving services realistic and well thought out?
• Were students able to make links between the local provision of services and larger scale issues like health insurance, funding crises, or societal attitudes?