Spread of Infectious Diseases (Nickolas Norman)

Title: Analysis and Observation of the Spread of Diseases

Principle(s) Investigated:

• Infectious Diseases
• Sexually Transmitted Diseases
• Transmission of diseases in general

Standards : Past in the appropriate California content standards.

• California Health Content Standards for students grades 9-12
  • Standard #5 - Decision Making (related to infectious diseases, HIV, STDs)
  • Standard #7.1G - Practicing Health Enhancing Behaviors
• California Biology Content Standards for Physiology
  • Standards #9, A-I; #10 A-F; all relating to spread of infections and diseases
• NGSS Specific Content Standards
  • LS2.A - Carrying capacities of organisms which includes explanation of competition, heredity, and diseases.

Materials: Include a list of materials and sources from which they may be obtained.

• Materials will be provided by the professor and are available in the class. Materials needed are below:
  • Approximately twenty test tubes (two per student)
  • Approximately twenty plastic cups (to place test tubes inside of)
  • .4g of Sodium Hydroxide (NaOH)
  • Water (H2O)
  • Phenolphthalein
  • Paper (for notes)

Procedure: Give a detailed explanation of the procedure and include diagrams if possible.

• Students will be provided two test tubes each. These test tubes will be sitting in plastic cups, as holders. Each student will have two identical test tubes filled with water, with the exception of one person's test tubes which will contain a sodium hydroxide solution. The sodium hydroxide solution is representative of a student infected with a disease. Each test tube will be labeled with a number (identifying which student) and a letter (identifying which specific test tube); for example, one student's test tube will be labeled 1C and 1E (control and experiment). Students will then share their solution with another student. This will happen a total of three times with three different partners. The instructor will then go around the class and drop a small amount of phenolphthalein into each test tube around the classroom. Students who have test tubes that turn pink were infected by patient zero. Based on the results, it is now the goal to determine who, in fact, was patient zero.

Student prior knowledge: What prior concepts do students need to understand this activity?

• Students should have a basic understanding of the spread of diseases. Depending on the class, the disease spread could be representative of many diseases such as every sexually transmitted infection, the flu, the common cold, etc. Students would likely have prior knowledge of the infectious disease prior to the commencement of the lab activity. Students should also understand some key words such as patient zero, opportunistic infection, epidemic/pandemic, and control.

Explanation: The instructor will hand out a cup which will contain two test tubes labeled with a number and a letter (either C or E). The students will not touch the C test tube as that is the control. Students will then find a partner in the room to "share their fluid with" from the test tube. The student will then find two more partners after that to do the same thing. At the conclusion, the teacher will walk around the room and drop a small amount of phenolphthalein. Should the students' test tubes turn pink, they were infected by one of their partners which was either patient zero or was infected by patient zero. During this assignment, students should log who they shared fluids with on this form.

Questions & Answers:

1. Why is the study of infectious diseases important? Why should everyone care about this?

2. What is the most common sexually transmitted disease in the United States?

3. What do you think the results of this activity will be? Estimate how many people will become infected on this form.

Applications to Everyday Life: This assignment is relevant to every day life in many ways. It demonstrates how something so simple can have a chaotic end. Just a small handshake can create the spread of the flu. One simple mistake regarding sex can have a detrimental impact not just with that one person but with all future partners. This assignment shows how both epidemics and pandemics can easily begin through small minimal transmissions.

Photographs: Include a photograph of you or students performing the experiment/demonstration, and a close-up, easy to interpret photograph of the activity --these can be included later.

Videos: Include links to videos posted on the web that relate to your activity. These can be videos you have made or ones others have made.