Sharing the Planet with Pathogens

...and we all fall down.

Some say that the nursery rhyme arose from the great plague of London in 1665, though many folklorists disagree. I rather like the sinister connotations attached to such a seemingly innocuous rhyme.

Whatever the source of the rhyme, there is no doubt that a viral attack snuffed out over a 100, 000 lives.

It is interesting to note how our students reacted to this.

Some of these microorganisms are so beautiful while others are downright creepy! The students couldn't help but be fascinated by this unseen world and how much it affected their daily lives.

In order to understand the basic difference between a bacteria and a virus, we chose the venn diagram to fish out the details.

A fishbone graphic organizer helped the students to see how a disease spreads and how we can tackle it, once aware of its characteristics.

This sorting out phase is crucial in making thinking visible, almost tangible.

The map helped the students track a disease as they played the game Plague Inc. on their phones.

They chose to assess their understanding by creating board games. This provided the perfect opportunity to deal with the duality of life and death, good choices versus bad, etc.
As you played the games, the disease unfolds and the players becomes aware of how it starts, spreads and can be controlled.

This game on ZIKA was quite different. As you moved towards hundred, you moved towards Death!

Peer Assessment

As they worked in groups, they had the opportunity to assess one another and give honest opinions about their peers.

Here are some examples of their comments/ reflections. I love the way my students are so frank with one another!

They had to ensure their research guided their creation. The time finally came when they had to test the game and fine-tune it.

Mers Madness

Testing the game out...

Watch the thrill factor as they play their games.

Students create a video instruction which will be converted into a QR code so that others can scan it and play the game with ease.

Reflection time.

Interesting fact:

As we were learning about diseases, an influenza epidemic kept many students at home.

They learnt the difference between an A and B strain . Strange coincidence, isn't it?

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