RESOURCES: Viruses, Germs, and Vaccinations

[Ryan Goble]

From NSTA's Book Beat.

Viruses, Germs, and Vaccinations

The CDC's map of flu activity and surveillance, news stories about the severity of this year's flu season, and coverage of measles cases in the United States can be lead-ins to classroom lessons about communicable diseases. The formative assessment strategy highlighted in "Confronting Common Folklore: Catching a Cold" from What Are They Thinking? Promoting Elementary Learning Through Formative Assessmentcan be just what the doctor ordered to help you figure out how much your students know about communicable diseases. After eliciting students' preconceptions about what causes a cold, teachers can use those ideas as a springboard to help students differentiate between the cause of an infectious disease, the transmission of the disease, factors that contribute to good health, and unhealthy behaviors that can lead to a cold.  Download the lesson "Disease Detectives" from Teaching Science Through Trade Books to provide K–6 students with an opportunity to examine what germs are and how they are spread. Grades K–3 students can explore microbes through an activity involving growing yeast on agar. Grades 4–6 students can participate in a simulated epidemic in which they trace the spread of the faux epidemic to the "zeroth" patient (initiation point). For a lesson related to vaccines and the human immune system for grades 9–12 students, download "A Fair Shot?" from It's Debatable! Using Socioscientific Issues to Develop Scientific Literacy, K–12. This lesson embeds content about immunity and vaccinations in an exploration of a controversial question about whether the Gardasil vaccine should be mandatory for specific age groups. With vaccines so often in the news this month, general discussions and investigations related to what we know about disease prevention and how viruses and germs are transmitted couldn't be more timely.