Infectious Disease: Evolving Challenges to Human Health
Serendip: How Does an Infectious Disease Spread?
 Overview of Activity
The class models a population with a sick person amongst them. They transfer liquid from cups they are holding between each other and at the end the teacher uses an indicator to determine whether the "disease" spread or not. Students will then determine the source of the disease through a class discussion.
Activity Type: In Class Simulation Activity
URLs: http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/sci_edu/waldron/infectious.html
Grade Level: 8-12
Level of Difficulty: Intermediate
Amount of Time Required for Activity: One 40-minute Class Period
Recommended Uses:
Prior to attending exhibit, this may be most effectively used as an investigatory activity to engage students in thinking about how quickly and easily an infectious disease can spread.
After visiting the exhibit, it may be used to reinforce and highlight the speed with which infectious diseases have the ability to spread.
Description
An infectious disease can spread very easily and quickly. In this activity, students simulate the spread of an infectious disease through "fluid" transfer. Students will each have a cup filled with a fluid of some sort, either water or a basic solution (baking soda, 0.1 M NaOH, etc.). The water represents a healthy individual, while the basic solutions represents someone who has been infected with a microbe. Students circulate around the room and share the fluid in their cups with each other. After a number of trials, the teacher uses a Phenolphthalein Indicator to determine which cups were "infected" by changing color. Students then plot their results and try to determine who the original source of infection (the one individual in the class with the basic solution) in the class was. There are a series of post-lab questions included that ask students to discuss various aspects of disease transmission and prevention.
This activity is part of a series by Serendip, founded by the Bryn Mawr College.
Relation to the Science Standards
Middle School and/or High School
Content Standard A - Abilities Necessary to Do Scientific Inquiry
Content Standard C - Biological Evolution
Content Standard C - Behavior of Organisms
Content Standard F - Personal and Community Health
Content Standard G - Science as a Human Endeavor
Related Part of the Exhibit
Tracing Emerging Infectious Diseases
Additional Related Links
http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/sci_edu/waldron/pdf/
InfectiousDiseaseProtocol.pdf
http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/sci_edu/waldron/pdf/
InfectiousDiseaseTeachPrep.pdf
Note to Teachers: You may also use 0.1 M NaOH if the water and baking soda solution looks too different from the water. You may also want to incorporate the concept of vaccines be adding a buffer solution to some of the students’ cups before adding the Phenolphthalein Indicator
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