Sickness Sleuths: The Discovery of the Mysterious Disease

 

For the last two weeks I have had the experience of taking a class called Cure. This class is similar to last term’s class, Disease, in that we learn and discuss things in the medical/healthcare field. This unit was focussed on discovering diseases and finding vaccines. A new math concept that would help to find the efficacy rate of a vaccine was also incorporated. 

This unit was one that allowed students to work together to get a better understanding of what we learned. In this class we played a game that turned into a simulation-like activity. The goal of this game was to discover a disease that had been plaguing an island, then once the disease was identified we would come up with the efficacy rate of the vaccine, along with what percent of the population would need to be vaccinated in order to reach herd immunity. 

This action project is similar to the activity we did in class. In a group of three, we came up with a puzzle/simulation-like activity that takes place in Boston, MA. We chose a disease that used to be a fairly common yet dangerous disease, which we now have a vaccine for. The player will take on the role of an epidemiologist and try to identify the mysterious disease by using math and research skills. 

As a class, we split into two groups of three to complete this action project then we played each other's puzzle. I thought it was interesting to see the other groups project and the differences that went along with it. I enjoyed the creativity that was incorporated into this project and the personalities behind it were shown in this puzzle. This project is a good way to show the skills that we learned in this class and also teach others how to use them. I think that the other group in my class did this well, they made it feel like a fun game rather than a homework assignment. If you would like to take a look at this group's project, press here for the link to one of the group member’s blogs.

I am excited to learn more in this class and share what new skills I will acquire. I hope you enjoy trying out this puzzle!

 

Works Cited:

“Increase in Measles Cases - United States, January 1-April 26, 2019.” CDC, 2019, https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/68/wr/mm6817e1.htm?s_cid=mm6817e1_w. Accessed 19 May 2021.

“Measles, Mumps, and Rubella (MMR) Vaccination: What Everyone Should Know.” CDC, 2021, https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vpd/mmr/public/index.html. Accessed 19 May 2021.

“The basic reproduction number (R 0) of measles: a systematic review.” PubMed.gov, 2017. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28757186/. Accessed 19 May 2021.

“Top 10 Countries with Global Measles Outbreaks.” CDC, 2021, https://www.cdc.gov/globalhealth/measles/data/global-measles-outbreaks.html. Accessed 19 May 2021.