to be alarmed that dd1 tells me they did a practical demonstration of how STIs are spread at school today.......

[Northernlurkerisbehindyouboo]

Seriously I was like this for a moment till she explained.

It was actually really clever. They all had to walk round the room, each holding a test tube. Test tube contained some white fluid . Two test tubes had been spiked with another invisible substance (representing the STI). Every time the music stopped they had to share fluids with somebody . Some people had stoppered test tubes so they couldn't share fluids. At the end (after three 'exchanges') they used some indicator something and revealed that the 2 infected tubes had infected 12 others. In total flap of misapplied anxiety I asked dd1 'which group were you in'
'Oh, I wasn't infected' she replied
'Jolly well done darling' sayeth I 'Is that because you had a stopper in'?

They do NOT tell you about this sort of thing at antenatal classes.........

This is a brilliant demo. I teach science and use it whenever I can fit it into a topic!
The kids always like it, but I've never thought about what they tell their parents when they get home.
fuzzpig The infected liquid is starch and the uninfected milk. We use iodine as an indicator which turns the starch black/blue.

You're lucky she's got such a good teacher! I may suggest this to my dd's school.

What a great idea! Very memorable, too.

Fantastic lesson, shame the kids at work aren't old enough to benefit from it - I'd steal that idea.

That is brilliant. Just brilliant.

I used to teach that lesson. The liquid is watered down milk and th diseased one is starch solution, you test with iodine.
It is amusing to see how it pops up in the cliques who share with all their mates.

Fantastic what a great lesson, teachers are just sooooo much better and work soooo much harder than when I was at school.

fantastic idea :)

That is so clever! Love it.

I was immediately thinking of the Monty Python thing, though ...

Ewww.

Don't all schools do this in sex ed? Between that and the Sperm Game there are no behaviour issues in Y9 PSHCE anymore. The bodily fluids do take up a lot of room in the staffroom fridge though, and have to be clearly labelled.

clearly labelled

I don't know if they all do it or not. Dd1 is my first child going through the education system.

We just make up a big batch of fluid, then split it and add cornflour to some. Put it back in two big milk bottles with big 'DO NOT TOUCH, STI LESSON' labels and hope that people actually read before pouring milk in their coffee.

That sounds like a fab lesson. Loving that teacher.

My DD is 17 and I lament the days when I first started having a sex life when AIDS was a real and immediate fear.

We were careful in the '80s because we were afraid of it. rightly so, but the risk of STIs has not lessened!!

We never did this demonstration at school. It is a really good idea though!

It's an alkali, quick drop of universal indicator and away you go! Does tend to make the point though!

I've done this one too, with alkali and a bit of phenolphthalein. (my favourite indicator)

That is an excellent lesson.
I'd love to have seen your face when she told you aout the STI practicals though

It's a v good idea. All I learned from sex ed was the names of several kinds of STI and a long list of forms of contraceptives that surely can't even have been available in 1988. Has anyone EVER been able to purchase a condom that just sits on the end of a willy and doesn't cover the whole thing? Dreadfully unsafe they were apparently - but luckily, they discontinued them in 1961. Also, a load of things that a teenager would never be offered like coils.

whathasthecatdone, what is the Sperm Game??

(it wasn't like this when i were at school...!!)

As gordy says it's an oldie and there are many variations of it.
It is very good.

We have done it where we have put music on and turned the lights down and each one in the group is given a character's name and a bit of info about them eg. One girl is going steady with a boyfriend and won't cheat on him. Another person might be the boyfriend and has no intention of cheating but does this once. How it works is that everyone taking part has a glass that is half full with a liquid but unbekown to one person there's has an invisible solution in. In charater they chat to each other and if the outcome is that couple sleep together they pour half the contents of one glass into the other and then pour half back. At the end of the 'party' all the glasses (they are labelled and have the characters name on ) are tested. One of the glasses will change colour dramatically and that will indicate who bought the STI to the party ( so to speak!!)

Just a little game we made where sperm have to answer questions correctly to get to the egg. Honestly, sex ed in our school is fab as the PSHCE coordinator is so creative, and they don't make the embarrassed RS teacher teach it anymore, we are all willing volunteers. There is no excuse for not knowing about STIs and contraception these days, unless your parents withdraw you from sex ed and you have to sit in the library.

I tell you what, though, it is amazing how many odd names 14 year olds have for the reproductive organs. Also that no matter how many times you explain about bush meat and the transference of SIV in monkeys to HIV in humans, 14 year olds always think that someone had sex with the monkey.

14 year olds would (and even if they didn't, they would claim to think that!)

Brilliant lesson. We didn't do anything like this when I was at school (not all that long ago!) We got barely any sex education as it was a Catholic school. It was supposed to be taught but the teachers were mostly personally against it and so didn't :(

And we will never complain again that the usual answer to 'what did you do in school today' is 'nothing'.

StuntGirl I went to a Catholic Girls school and all we got was an abortion video and Chris de Burgh records in RE - 'A spaceman came travelling'!!!