Epidemiology Lab Activity

Even though grades are due Monday, I'll try to get in a couple of posts this weekend to make up for the recent absence. It's been real busy at home and work these days.

First up, a new lab, which is one of the tasks that have consumed me recently. I've gone through three different editions as I piloted it with my three different LE classes and I still want to make modifications if I can get some help - maybe next year.

This is the classic contagious disease lab, and I've made it specific to HIV until someone complains about it. In the lab, students simulate exchanging bodily fluids (also simulated, of course) and track the spread of HIV in a "sexually active" community. Of course the kids then joke about whom they've "had sex with" which makes me a little nervous about how other adults will react to the simulation, but I believe in confronting the reality on the ground - over 60% of high schoolers have had sexual intercourse by the time they are seniors. If I can influence them to practice abstinence or safer sex by demonstrating how STIs can spread, then I will take the chance of a parent complaining - better to ask forgiveness than permission in the bizarro world of public education.

Epidemiology Lab

You can change a bit of the introductory text and make it a generic contagious disease lab.

The part I need help with is a method for determining the original infected individual and verifying the conclusion. My students did a great job of figuring out the first part on their own, using their own logic and methods. The difficulty is then verifying their hypotheses by being able to trace all infected individuals back to the index case. At this point you have to take into account the sequence of infection among many individuals who have had multiple partners - it's a lot of detail to try to keep in one's head, and I don't yet have a spreadsheet or flowchart model for organizing it - but I'm working on it.

UPDATE

I've modified the class data table, making separate columns for each partner. Once you have decided who the index case is, you then use the index case as your starting point and draw lines of "descent" from the index case to each infected individual. If I have time I'll post a sample later next week.

UPDATE II (4/5/07)

I DID hear from a few parents about this lab at parent/teacher conferences last week - all positive. Of course that's a pretty small and probably biased sample - the kids who are comfortable going home and telling their parents about the lab are the ones whose parents would most likely be supportive of their children being exposed to this kind of information in this manner. Still, it's encouraging when parents express unsolicited support for what you're doing in the classroom.

Class size doesn't matter

That's why the big dogs send their kids to public schools along with the rest of us right?

From NYC Public School Parents:

Hmm. Joel Klein's stepdaughter went to Miss Porter’s, a boarding school in Connecticut: average class size of 11.

Bloomberg sent his daughters to Spence; middle and high school classes average 13-14 students.

Just more comforting facts to soothe my worry as I struggle to interact meaningfully with my science labs of 32 high school students, mostly sitting on top of each other in a room originally designed for elementary school. No big deal. Class size doesn't matter. At least I know we are all suffering together - rich, poor, powerful, meek - one nation, undivided and all that. Keep up the good work, Mayor, and please, continue to lead by example, stand on principles, put your money where your mouth is. Show the UFT that you walk the walk and have the courage of your convictions. Don't listen to those loony parents with their delusional ideas - you and I know that class size doesn't matter (wink wink).

Looking for a Little Anonymity

My students are starting to find my blog (among other things) thanks to google and my long-standing policy to use my real name. This has started making me a little uncomfortable, so I'm going to make it little harder for them from now on.

I've erased some of the identifying information in my profile and my posts are now attributed to "mister g." Although a few of my student actually call me that, I doubt they would think to use it in a search, and if they do they'll have to wade through 177,000 results to find me.

I don't want to make a big deal of it and I'm not planning to suddenly become a raving lunatic, railing against the board of ed or my school or my students, but I do want to feel a little freer to express opinions that I don't necessarily want my students to stumble upon - things that I generally don't say in school in my role as teacher because I don't think they are appropriate, but I may want to express on a blog targeted at adult fellow educators. It'll be interesting to see if the anonymity actually affects what and how I write.

New York City Parents' Blog

After several years of more or less officially shutting parents out of the education decision making process, Bloomberg & Co. face a potential uprising. In anticipation the administration is trying to mend fences and bring parents in - it may be too late, the damage done. A new blog dedicated to NY City parents and advocates has been launched. Check it out.

New York City Public School Parents