Summary
This lesson aims to help students develop an understanding of zoonotic diseases. In this lesson, students will explore how zoonotic diseases spread.
Essential Question(s)
What are zoonotic diseases and what factors lead to their spread in human populations?
Snapshot
Engage
Students listen to an interview with David Quammen about COVID-19.
Explore
Students complete a digital breakout about zoonotic diseases, specifically Ebola.
Explain
Students discuss the concepts they learned in the digital breakout.
Extend
Students select a zoonotic disease to research and create a webpage of their disease.
Evaluate
Students evaluate and give feedback to their peers.
Materials
Lesson Slides (attached)
Bell Ringer Handout (attached; one per student)
Breakout Handout (attached; one per student)
TIP Chart (page two of Breakout Handout; one per student)
Disease Website Rubric (attached)
Teacher Guide (linked; one per teacher)
Sticky easel pad paper
Markers
Pencils/pens
Preparation
Setting up the Digital Breakout
Before implementing this lesson in your class, preview the digital breakout. If you want to see students’ responses, you will need to duplicate the digital breakout and replace the Google Form with the one you create. Use the video, Digital Breakouts Using Google Sites and Forms, to assist you in building your digital breakout. Print out or save the page to the Teacher Guide to help scaffold students’ work in the breakout.
Building a Google Site
In this lesson, students will develop an informational page for their disease on Google Sites. For each class period, create a Google Site that looks similar to the example.
Engage
15 Minute(s)
Go to slide 3. Before class begins, instruct students to complete a Bell Ringer activity that will assess their prior knowledge. Give students the Bell Ringer Handout and ask them to record their responses to the following questions:
If there were a pandemic/zombie apocalypse, why should we choose you for our survival team?
What causes diseases?
What diseases can people get from animals?
Go to slide 4 to introduce the Essential Questions and then to slide 5 to introduce the Lesson Objectives.
Go to slide 6 to allow students to listen to the David Quammen interview—David Quammen: How Animal-Borne Infections Spill Over to Humans—about COVID-19. After students listen to the interview, use the I Notice, I Wonder strategy to facilitate a class discussion about the interview and revisit the Bell Ringer questions.
Explore
30 Minute(s)
Go to slide 7. Provide the Breakout Handout to each student. Students will record their work on the handout in order to refer to it later in the class. The second page of the handout uses the TIP Chart strategy where students will record Terms, Information, and Pictures for the vocabulary they are exposed to during the digital breakout. You can guide your students on what to include in each column. For example, assign them to write both the scientific and the common names for specific diseases or specific details that are important to note.
Go to slide 8 and ask students to navigate to the Zoonotic Disease Digital Breakout. If this is your first time using digital breakouts with students, it may take scaffolding to ensure students are navigating through the breakout. Tell them that this breakout will be similar to an escape room. As they work together and listen for clues, more and more pieces of the puzzle will come together. With each correct guess they make, they will be able to move on to the next lock, and they will come closer to completing the breakout successfully.
Allow students to work through the breakout and move through the classroom to support productive struggle. You can allow students to work in pairs. Remind students to record the things they find in the breakout handout.
Reference the Teacher Guide to help scaffold students’ work in the breakout.
Explain
30 Minute(s)
Go to slide 9. Have a discussion with students after the digital breakout (this can include reviewing the answers) and before moving to the Extend activity. Discussion topics could include:
How do cell and virus structures differ and how does that affect our response to different diseases?
Zoonotic diseases are becoming more common. Why do you think that is?
Why are zoonotic diseases more prevalent in specific areas of the world?
If you have discussed transcription and translation, compare how mRNA and DNA vaccines work.
Scientists often theorize on the "Next Big One (NBO)," the next global pandemic. Do you think there will be a next big one?
What have we learned living through a global pandemic?
Transition to slide 10 and introduce students to the Anchor Chart instructional strategy. Provide students with materials to have students make an anchor chart about the important ideas of Zoonotic Diseases and clarify any misconceptions.
Extend
30 Minute(s)
Go to slide 11. Have students return to their partners to discuss the new things that they have learned. Students should create a page with Google Sites with their partners. Pass out a copy of the Disease Website Rubric to each group. Make sure to emphasize to students that the five criteria listed must be included in their web pages.
Evaluate
10 Minute(s)
Go to slide 12. Allow pairs to form groups of 4 students. Have students trade projects and give feedback using the Exclaim and Question Strategy. Ask students to share one thing that they learned about from another group and one thing they would add to their page.
Resources
K20 Center. (n.d.). Anchor chart. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/58
K20 Center. (n.d.). Bell ringers and exit tickets. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/125
K20 Center. (n.d.). Exclaim and question. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/94
K20 Center. (n.d.). I notice, I wonder. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/180
K20 Center. (n.d.). Tip chart. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/185
K20 Center. (n.d.) Google Sites. Tech Tools. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/tech-tool/631
Pioneer RESA Tech. (2017, November 3). Digital breakouts using Google sites and forms. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLPPHgXMwTE
Quammen, D. (2020, March 28). David Quammen: How animal-borne infections spill over to humans. (S. Simon, Interviewer) NPR. https://www.npr.org/2020/03/28/823071230/david-quammen-how-animal-borne-infections-spill-over-to-humans