9-12
SAFER·HEALTHIER·PEOPLE™, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Department of Health and Human Services. Excellence in Curriculum Innovation through Teaching Epidemiology and the Science of Public Health (EXCITE). Students become CDC scientists and investigate a recent outbreak of hantavirus. They identify the disease, the sequence of events, methods of transmission, and how to prevent the infection.
Activity Duration: 7-9 hr
Cost: free
Standards:
Teacher comments:
High school teacher: This is a case study role-play activity. Students role-play as CDC professionals and discover that the virus they are studying is hantavirus. Through the process, they learn about the different symptomatic and physiological effects of hantavirus on humans. The Web site is unattractive, although not difficult to navigate. This activity should only be done in the confines of a microbiology class in high school. It is too long and detailed to be effective in an early high school setting. Rating: Acceptable
Virologist comments:
The exercise is well done and will be valuable in learning about the disease as well as the process of identifying the agent of an outbreak caused by an unknown agent. The key link ("Tracking a Mystery Disease") needs to be updated. It is now www.cdc.gov/hantavirus/hps/history.html Rating: Recommended
8-12
SAFER·HEALTHIER·PEOPLE™, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Department of Health and Human Services. Excellence in Curriculum Innovation through Teaching Epidemiology and the Science of Public Health (EXCITE). Students research hantavirus pulmonary syndrome to produce a public-service announcement in the form of a brochure, poster, radio announcement, or television commercial.
Activity Duration: 3-4 hr
Cost: free
Standards:
Teacher comments:
Middle school teacher: The lesson involves a lot of reading for middle school students. It reads at a high school level and would be a challenge for middle school students, especially for struggling readers. Rating: Questionable
High school teacher: This activity hits curriculum objectives that are found predominantly in microbiology, an upper-level high school class. It may be successful in middle school but is not a good use of curricular time. Site is not attractive, but is only needed for PDFs. Rating: Acceptable
Virologist comments:
The exercise is excellent. The lesson plan is of high quality, although some of the links need to be updated. The ones that are present are excellent. Rating: Highly recommended
