Lesson Plans and Experiments

Lesson Plans & Experiments

The Flu

Outbreak Investigation

This lesson plan teaches students about the 1918 influenza pandemic that killed more than 50 million people and has students think critically about a public health crisis using a movie, questions and topics for class discussions.
Note: The DVD will need to be purchased. A .pdf can be downloaded from the site below for ease of use.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/teachers-resources/influenza-teacher-resource/

“When Contagion Spreads: Crowdsourcing Disease Outbreaks”

This lesson plan teaches students about the nature of disease outbreaks in relation to public health and epidemiology. The lesson is based on the movie Contagion and describes a fictional influenza pandemic.

http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/14/when-contagion-spreads-crowdsourcing-disease-outbreaks/

Make Your Own Hand Sanitizer

Good hand hygiene is an important step to prevent infection with the influenza virus or other microorganisms. If you are unable to wash your hands with soap and water, decontaminating your hands with hand sanitizer is a good preventive measure.

http://www.michigan.gov/documents/explorelabscience/Fall_2012_Newsletter_400551_7.pdf

Banana DNA

Students learn about DNA and various lab applications by extracting DNA from bananas. Public health lab scientists use a similar lab concept to extract genetic material (DNA) for analysis so that they can detect infectious diseases in patient and environmental (e.g. food, water, and soil) samples.

https://migrc.org/TeachersAndStudents/BananaDNAExtraction.html

Have your DNA & Eat It, Too (PDF)

This is a fun and engaging experiment teaching the rules of base pairing by having students build an edible model of DNA. See Lesson Plan: Teacher Guide: Have Your DNA and Eat It, Too

http://teach.genetics.utah.edu/content/begin/dna/Have%20Your%20DNA%20student.pdf

Extract Your Own DNA

Students learn that DNA is the blueprint for life and you can extract DNA from practically ANYTHING!

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/body/extract-your-dna.html
http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/labs/extraction/howto/

It's Genetics, Baby!

Should Newborn Screening Be Standardized?

Students learn about newborn screening and the need to standardize tests across the US via a 7th grade lesson plan related to how decisions are made about testing (2nd link is an audio file).

http://www.learnnc.org/lp/external/5615?ref=search
http://sciencenetlinks.com/science-news/science-updates/newborn-screening

Banana DNA

Students learn about DNA and various lab applications by extracting DNA from bananas. Public health laboratory scientists use a similar lab concept to extract genetic material (DNA) for analysis.

https://migrc.org/TeachersAndStudents/BananaDNAExtraction.html

Have your DNA & Eat It, Too (PDF)

This is a fun and engaging experiment teaching the rules of base pairing by having students build an edible model of DNA. See Lesson Plan: Teacher Guide: Have Your DNA and Eat It, Too

http://teach.genetics.utah.edu/content/begin/dna/HaveYourDNAEatItToo.pdf

Extract Your Own DNA

Students learn that DNA is the blueprint for life and you can extract DNA from practically ANYTHING!

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/body/extract-your-dna.html
http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/labs/extraction/howto/

Expect The Unexpected

Ebola Outbreak - PBS

This Public Broadcasting Service lesson provides links to multimedia resources for Ebola outbreak investigation, including a clip from the movie Outbreak, a book excerpt, data analysis worksheets, and a critical thinking project.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/lessons_plans/ebola-outbreak-lesson-plan/

BrainPOP Educators, “Ebola Lesson Plan: Spreading the Facts”

These sites provide various resources for exploring the Ebola epidemic. The lesson plan explains why Ebola has recently become a worldwide concern and compares and contrasts Ebola and flu.

http://educators.brainpop.com/lesson-plan/ebola/

Learning From Disaster: Exploring the Ebola Epidemic

This lesson plan teaches students about the Ebola virus through short videos, Q&A and a discussion about how to contain the outbreak in West Africa.

http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/10/01/learning-from-disaster-exploring-the-ebola-epidemic

Do You Dread the Spread?

This lesson plan teaches students how quickly diseases can spread globally and has students think critically about possible concerns and solutions.

http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2003/04/23/do-you-dread-the-spread/

When Contagion Spreads: Crowdsourcing Disease Outbreak

This lesson plan teaches students about the nature of disease outbreaks in relation to public health and epidemiology. The lesson is based on the movie Contagion and describes a fictional influenza pandemic.

http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/when-contagion-spreads-crowdsourcing-disease-outbreaks/

Make You Own Hand Sanitizer

Good hand hygiene is an important step to prevent infection with the influenza virus or other microorganisms. If you are unable to wash your hands with soap and water, decontaminating your hands with hand sanitizer is also a good preventive measure.

http://www.michigan.gov/documents/explorelabscience/

Entomologists on Safari: On the Hunt for Mosquitoes

In this lesson from the CDC Ambassador Program students are asked to investigate increased mosquito activity, the potential for West Nile virus (WNV) transmission to humans, and to create WNV infection prevention posters. In many parts of the US, public health laboratory scientists conduct surveillance for WNV and other mosquito-borne viruses so the public is aware of their risk of infection and can take proper preventive action.

http://www.cdc.gov/excite/ScienceAmbassador/WestNile_EntomologistsOnSafari.pdf

Hantavirus

In this lesson from the CDC Ambassador Program students use the Internet to research hantavirus pulmonary syndrome or lymphocytic choriomeningitis and then produce a public service announcement (poster, brochure, etc.) to educate others about the disease. An important part of the job of public health laboratory scientists is educating medical providers and the public on emerging diseases and ways to prevent infection.

http://www.cdc.gov/excite/ScienceAmbassador/ambassador_pgm/lessonplans_hantavirus.htm

The World Around Me

Get the Lead Out

In this experiment called “Lead Presence Testing” from Rohm and Haas, students will test for the presence of lead in their homes, collect and gather data and interpret results for ways to reduce family exposure to lead, if found.

http://www.juliantrubin.com/encyclopedia/environment/lead_test.html

Learning and Teaching About the Environment - EPA

This site includes lesson plans, activities and ideas on many environmental science topics including environmental health. See Health tab: Lead Blockers; Lead in Paint, Dust, and Soil; A Citizen’s Guide to Radon; Mercury Bioaccumulation (biomonitoring); Chemicals, the Environment, and You (toxicology), etc.

http://www.epa.gov/students
http://www2.epa.gov/students/lesson-plans-teacher-guides-and-online-resources-educators

The Lead Placemat: Understanding Lead Exposure - CDC

Students will create a two-sided placemat that displays the physical and chemical properties of lead, the uses of lead in our society and the adverse effects of lead on public health.

http://www.cdc.gov/excite/ScienceAmbassador/environment_LeadPlacemat.pdf

Water Filtration - EPA

This set of demonstration projects helps students understand how public health laboratory scientists test public drinking water systems and help identify if public water is safe to drink.

http://water.epa.gov/learn/kids/drinkingwater/kids_activity_grades_4-8_waterfiltration.pdf

Activity 1: History of Radiation Protection (PDF) - EPA

Students learn about the history and personal benefits of radiation protection. This lesson plan includes vocabulary, history, a worksheet, answer key and timeline cards.

http://www3.epa.gov/radtown/docs/radiation-protection-activity1.pdf

Superbugs: antibiotic Resistance

Superbugs and Antibiotics: Explore With a Dice Game

Some of the more deadly hospital associated infections are caused by germs that have developed resistance to common antibiotics and are often referred to as superbugs. This lesson plan describes a simple dice game that illustrates how antibiotic resistant organisms or superbugs remain after antibiotic treatment.

http://www.sciencebuddies.org/superbugs-and-antibiotics-explore-with-a-dice-game.php

NY Times Lesson Plans Highlighting Antibiotic Resistance
http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/11/27/outbreak-2/?_r=0

"What Causes Antibiotic Resistance" by Kevin Wu - TEDEd

This link provides a lesson plan on antibiotic resistance and includes a video, questions, and additional resource links. Public health laboratory scientists are involved in detecting those organisms that are resistant to or developing resistance to available antibiotics

http://ed.ted.com/lessons/how-antibiotics-become-resistant-over-time-kevin-wu

Make Your Own Hand Sanitizer

Good hand hygiene is an important step to prevent infection with the influenza virus and other microorganisms. If you are unable to wash your hands with soap and water, decontaminating your hands with hand sanitizer is also a good preventive measure.

http://www.michigan.gov/documents/explorelabscience/Fall_2012_Newsletter_400551_7.pdf

Glow Germ

This lesson plan teaches students how important hand washing or using hand sanitizer is for the removal of infectious agents (germs) such as bacteria, viruses, parasites and fungi. The infectious agents and their removal are demonstrated by using a product called GloGerm.

http://www.glogerm.com/

Growing Bacteria/Agar Lab

Students learn about agar plates and bacterial growth by making the plates and culturing bacteria from classroom surfaces. Students can also add a drop of hand-sanitizer and look for different results.

Grow Bacteria/Agar Lab PDF

Measles, Mumps, Pertussis, Oh My!

PBS Vaccine War Lesson Plan

This lesson plan allows students to examine the debate among public health officials, doctors and parents around vaccine safety and differing perspectives on the benefits and risks of vaccination.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/teach/vaccine/

Fighting Disease: Researching the History and Biology of Vaccines - NY Times

This lesson plan helps students learn what a vaccine is, and why we need vaccines, as well as how they work, and how were they developed. Students can utilize their knowledge about vaccines, explore the history and biology of vaccines and create educational posters on vaccines.

http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/fighting-disease-researching-the-history-and-biology-of-vaccines/

Lessons for Vaccination: Learning Corner

This site provides a variety of lesson plans on vaccination that are listed with appropriate grade levels. Sign up and minimal charges are required for use.

http://www.lessoncorner.com/Health/Disease_Prevention/Vaccination

Common Vaccinations: Discovery Education

This site offers a variety of free resources to teachers by grade level and topic.

http://www.discoveryeducation.com/teachers/free-lesson-plans/common-vaccinations.cfm

There's What In My Food?

The Teachers Guide: Your Game Plan for Food Safety

The program includes DVDs, posters, experiments, and more. Teach your students how quickly bacteria can multiply at warm temperatures or the importance of using cold temperatures to slow growth.

http://www.fightbac.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/fight-bac-curriculum-book.pdf

Make Your Own Hand Sanitizer

Good hand hygiene is an important step to prevent infection with the influenza virus and other microorganisms. If you are unable to wash your hands with soap and water, decontaminating your hands with hand sanitizer is also a good preventive measure.

http://www.michigan.gov/documents/explorelabscience/Fall_2012_Newsletter_400551_7.pdf

Growing Bacteria/Agar Lab

Students learn about agar plates and bacterial growth by making the plates and culturing bacteria from classroom surfaces. Students can also add a drop of hand-sanitizer and look for different results.

Growing Bacteria/Agar Lab PDF

FBI Case: Perils at the Picnic

This case study describes a scenario in which children become the detectives on the case of a foodborne illness.

http://www.fightbac.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/grades4-8fbicase.pdf

Home Food Safety Survey

This survey provides a tool for students to use to help them determine if they are fighting BAC! at home.

http://www.fightbac.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/grades4-8survey.pdf