About This Lesson
This outbreak investigation is designed to be a fun and educational opportunity that puts you in the shoes of the responders that are trying to control the COVID-19 epidemic, walking you through each step you need to take.
Who is this for: 9th grade education or above (some knowledge of biology)
What does it contain: The facilitator and participant guides contain educational material, discussion questions, and case files. There is also a facilitator slide deck to show if you want to work through the activity on a shared zoom screen or projector. Finally, the contact tracing activity exists within the worksheets, but is also a standalone document if you wish to just do that activity.
Outcomes:
- Understand how an outbreak investigation unfolds and the complexity of it
- Walk through the steps of an outbreak investigation such as analyzing cases to develop a hypothesis on transmission, population at risk, incubation period, making an epi curve, creating interventions, writing a press release, and developing a contact tracing map
- Learn how quickly a disease can spread and how difficult it can be to contain
- Develop critical thinking and analytical skills in real world issues
Number of participants: While the Outbreak Investigation can be done individually, it is best done as a group discussion with 5-16 people for the contact tracing mystery
Length: The whole activity is estimated to take 3-4 hours to complete, but can be broken up into modules if you want to split the activity. There are also certain activities, such as the Contact Tracing Mystery and the Maine Outbreak, which can be done as standalone, <1 hour activities.
Facilitator Guide This guide is meant for the facilitator to run an entire Outbreak Investigation activity, complete with an answer key
Facilitator Slides These are slides for the facilitator to show to aid in running the Outbreak Investigation activity
Participant Guide This workbook has the entire outbreak investigation descriptions and discussion questions, without an answer key
Contact Tracing Mystery This activity is done like a “Murder Mystery” where each participant gets one (or more) characters and they have to act out their characteristics, where they have been, who they have saw, and try to work together to see how COVID-19 spread
Maine Outbreak This is a quick 30 minute PowerPoint activity with discussion items going over a real outbreak that occurred in Maine in August of 2020
All files Here’s a link to all the Google Drive files, including Google Editable files
If you have any questions or concerns, or need help, feel free to email simulation.global@gmail.com
