Culture, religion and politics behind blood donation

Suitable for secondary, high school and college students, this article and accompanying activity sheet can be used in the classroom, school clubs and at home.

This resource links to KS4 and KS5 geography, citizenship, politics, religious studies and philosophy.

It can also be used as a careers resource and links to Gatsby Benchmarks:
Gatsby Benchmark 2: Learning from career and labour market information
Gatsby Benchmark 4: Linking curriculum learning to careers

• Professor Jacob Copeman Jacob has covered attitudes towards blood donation around the world, in countries that include Brazil, China, India, the Navajo Nation, Papua New Guinea, Sri Lanka and the United States. He says it is an “extraordinary emotive force for some communities, and often the source of controversies”. This article focuses on the religious and political contexts surrounding blood donation in India.

• This resource also contains an interview with Jacob about his career path. If your students (or you) have questions for Jacob, you/they can send them to him online. All you need to do is to go to the article online (see the Futurum link below), scroll down to the end and type in the question(s). Jacob will reply!

• The activity sheet provides ‘talking points’ (based on Bloom’s Taxonomy) and activities to prompt students to reflect on Jacob’s research.

• The PowerPoint summarises the main points in the article.

This resource was first published on Futurum Careers, a free online resource and magazine aimed at encouraging 14-19-year-olds worldwide to pursue careers in science, tech, engineering, maths, medicine (STEM) and social sciences, humanities and the arts for people and the economy (SHAPE).

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