Infectious Diseases

Activities

Here are activities to help with the teaching of this topic. If you have any comments please e-mail Jo Oladejo at the Nuffield Curriculum Centre.

Lesson on cell membranes (estimated time 60 minutes). The overall focus of this activity is to make clear to students that scientific understanding does not just emerge from experimental data, and to develop their confidence in evaluating the extent to which evidence supports scientific explanations. This is a class activity, involving discussion and group-work.
The detail on cell structure is beyond that required for SPU, but it is included as involves discussion of the role of models in science.

1. Antibiotics: Role Play

  (estimated time: 5-10 Minutes)

In this role play students have to explain the uses and limitations of antibiotics in their own words. It is best done at the end of the topic to reinforce the ideas.

Teachers Notes & Student Sheets (, 14 KB)

2. Broad Street Pump

In this field visit you look more closely at one of the important scientific studies which led to better understanding of the spread of disease (epidemiology) and sanitation in London in the nineteenth century.
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Teacher Notes and Student Sheets (, 146 KB)

3. Cells: animal cells, bacteria and viruses

This is a simple activity which students could carry out for homework to revise the structure of animal cells, bacteria and viruses.

Teacher Notes and Student Sheets (, 65 KB)

4. Dengue Fever

  (estimated time: 45 minutes)

In this activity students are given background information on an infectious disease, and they are asked to produce a graph and a chart in Excel to represent data they have found on a website. The activity may be suitable for assessment of ICT key skills, and requires access to computers so may be most suitable as a homework assignment.

Exercise (, 61 KB)
Data on number of reported cases (, 73 KB)
Population data (, 26 KB)

5. Dengue fever tasks relating to exercise above

Example tasks

Example task 1 (, 30 KB)
Example Task 2 (, 16 KB)

6. Development of the Germ Theory of Disease

This activity could be used as a summary at the end of the topic or as a revision exercise. It could be used as a paired class activity or as homework.

Teacher Notes & Student Sheets (, 63 KB)

7. Germ Theory of Disease - John Snow

This activity is for use in class with alternative reading and discussion of a question. It teaches an interesting and important story in the history of the Germ Theory of Disease. It also introduces some key ideas about how a scientific theory develops. These will be expanded and reinforced later in the course.

Teacher Notes and Student Sheets (, 30 KB)

8. HIV discussion statements

These statements are a good way of starting a study of AIDS. They have proved very effective in stimulating interest and discussion.

Teacher Notes & Student Sheets (, 21 KB)

9. Infectious Diseases in the News

  (estimated time: 20.30 minutes)

This is an introductory homework activity which encourages students to begin to use newspapers and magazines to complement their SPU classes.

Teacher Notes (, 16 KB)

10. Semmelweis

  (estimated time: 45 minutes)

This extract from 'The Century of the Surgeon' by Jurgen Thorwald is a version of the story of Semmelweis. The activity expects the student to read a substantial passage, and then answer some questions covering ideas about science and 'germ theory of disease'.

The full, uncut extract can be Semmelweis extract (67 KB) here for students who like a challenging read.

teachers notes and student sheets (, 27 KB)

11. Spread of infectious disease

This simple model, courtesy of Oldham "Excellence in Cities", allows students to visualise the spread of an infectious disease and to see how different parameters can affect the rate and extent of the spread.

Teacher Notes and Student Sheets (, 11 KB)
model (, 440 KB)