Authentic Lessons for 21st Century Learning

Lesson 5E Lesson
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Got Culture?: A Look at Zoonotic Diseases

Zoonotic Diseases

Caitlin Shogren

Based on Got Culture?: A Look at Zoonotic Diseases by Mariah Warren.

Summary

This lesson aims to develop an understanding of Zoonotic Diseases. In this lesson, students will explore how zoonotic diseases spread.

Essential Question(s)

What is a zoonotic disease 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 Slide (attached)

  • Bell Ringer Handout (attached, one per student)

  • Digital Breakout Handout (attached, one per student)

  • Student devices with Internet Access

  • Large Post-it Paper and markers

  • Digital Breakout Site

  • Disease Project Site

  • Disease Website Rubric

Engage

Go to slide 3. Before class begins, invite students to complete a Bell Ringer activity that will assess their prior knowledge. Give students the Bell Ringer handout (virtual or hardcopy) and ask them to record their responses to the following questions:

  1. If there were a pandemic/zombie apocalypse, why should we choose you for our survival team?

  2. What diseases can people get from animals?

  3. What causes diseases?

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 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 bellringer questions.

Explore

Go to slide 7. Provide the Digital Breakout handout (virtual or hardcopy) to each student. Students will record their work on the handout in order to refer to later in the class. The first portion 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.

Go to slide 8 to explain the process of a 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.

Allow students to work through the digital 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.

As students begin the breakout, ask them if they have ever been in an escape room before. 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.

Reference the teacher guide to help scaffold students’ work in the breakout.

Explain

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? (A hot zone map can be used to show this)

  • 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?

Throughout the discussion, have students make an Anchor Chart of the important ideas of Zoonotic Diseases and clarify any misconceptions.

Extend

Go to slide 10. Have students return to their partners to discuss the new things that they have learned. Together, students should create a page on a Google site. The webpage should focus on a specific zoonotic disease (Example Here). Make sure to emphasize to students that the five criteria listed in the slide must be included in their webpages.

Evaluate

Go to slide 11. Allow pairs to form a group of 4 students. Have students trade projects and give feedback using the Exclaim and Question Strategy. The projects will serve as a summative assessment, which you will grade using the attached Disease Website Rubric.

Resources

K20 Center. (n.d.). Anchor chart. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/64f2b35101a470dda36d44421900af08

K20 Center. (n.d.). Appointment clock. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/d9908066f654727934df7bf4f505c91e

K20 Center. (n.d.). Bell ringers and exit tickets. Strategies. Retrieved from https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/d9908066f654727934df7bf4f505d6f2

K20 Center. (n.d.). Elbow partners. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/ccc07ea2d6099763c2dbc9d05b00c4b4

K20 Center. (n.d.). Exclaim and question. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/a89b55a468ff764491d10ec5b201cc3d

K20 Center. (n.d.). Fold the line. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/d9908066f654727934df7bf4f5079658

K20 Center. (n.d.). I notice, I wonder. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/d9908066f654727934df7bf4f507d1a7

K20 Center. (n.d.). Muddiest point. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/baee4e90c5fa1a7060ca04dd8b003a81

K20 Center. (n.d.). POMS: point of most significance. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/b30762a7557ba0b391f207f4c600f5ac

K20 Center. (n.d.). Tip chart. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/185

K20 Center. (n.d.).Triangle-Square-Circle. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/6f19b778b73e4c339d1a7d9653006816

K20 Center. (n.d.). What did I learn today? Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/d9908066f654727934df7bf4f5078797

Kessler, R., & Peterson, H. (n.d.). Global Disease Hotspots 2.0. Retrieved from EcoHealth Alliance: https://www.ecohealthalliance.org/2017/10/global-disease-hotspots-2-0

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

Sandbox. (n.d.). Retrieved from Breakout EDU <DIGITAL>: https://sites.google.com/site/digitalbreakoutjb/sandbox

Tolen, M., & Moura, K. (2020, October 28). 40+ FREE Digital Escape Rooms (Plus a Step by Step Guide for Creating Your Own). Retrieved from Ditch That Textbook: https://ditchthattextbook.com/30-digital-escape-rooms-plus-tips-and-tools-for-creating-your-own/

Downloads

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Standards

Next Generation Science Standards (Grades 9, 10, 11, 12)
HS-LS1-1: Construct an explanation based on evidence for how the structure of DNA determines the structure of proteins which carry out the essential functions of life through systems of specialized cells.
LS1.A: Structure and Function
Oklahoma Academic Standards (Biology)
B.LS1.1: Construct an explanation based on evidence for how the structure of DNA determines the structure of proteins, which carry out the essential functions of life through systems of specialized cells.
B.LS1.1.2: All cells contain genetic information in the form of DNA molecules.
B.LS2.2 : Use mathematical representations to support and revise explanations based on evidence about factors affecting biodiversity and populations in ecosystems of different scales.
B.LS2.2.3: A complex set of interactions within an ecosystem can keep its number and types of organisms relatively constant over long periods of time under stable conditions.
B.LS2.2.4: If a modest biological or physical disturbance to an ecosystem occurs, it may return to its more or less original status (i.e., the ecosystem is resilient) as opposed to becoming a very different ecosystem.
Oklahoma Academic Standards (Environmental Science)
EN.LS2.2: Use mathematical representations to support and revise explanations based on evidence about factors affecting biodiversity and populations in ecosystems of different scales.
EN.LS2.2.3: A complex set of interactions within an ecosystem can keep its number and types of organisms relatively constant over long periods of time under stable conditions.
EN.LS2.2.4: If a modest biological or physical disturbance to an ecosystem occurs, it may return to its more or less original status (i.e., the ecosystem is resilient) as opposed to becoming a very different ecosystem.
EN.LS2.2.5: Extreme fluctuations in conditions or the size of any populations, however, can challenge the functions of ecosystems in terms of resources and habitat availability.

Attachments

Click on a file type icon to download an attachment.

  • Bell-Ringer-Got-Culture
  • Digital-Breakout-Handout-Got-Culture
  • Got-Culture-Disease-Website-Rubric
  • Lesson-Slides-Got-Culture-1

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