Submitted by: Mindy VanDevelder
School: Varina High School
Summary
Epidemiology is the study of organisms that cause disease and the processes by which disease-causing agents spread. Biology II students at Varina learn about these processes through a series of current events, research assignments, video games, and labs. Three of these assignments in this Epidemiology unit are excellent at capturing student attention, thus promoting learning: the Pandemic2 video game is one of these assignments.
TIPC Ratings
Approaching – one of the cross-curricular benefits of this lesson is that it exposes the student to World Geography. The reason I rate this low for this category is that there is not a research component to this assignment directly; the Pandemic2 video game is one of the elements I use to introduce students to the concept of disease in order to gain their interest and give them a common point of reference for the unit.
Approaching: students use communication via in-class discussions about game play and then an MS Word document (their assigned paper) to describe their video game choices to me.
Target – As students are the infectious pathogen in this game, this assignment allows them to think like a pathogen: “how do I most effectively infect people,” “what are the most effective means of spreading,” “how can I mutate,” etc. Students use their evolution points earned by game play to spread their pathogen and infect the world.
Target – Students learn about pathogens by approaching the learning process using one of the most creative venues I can find: a video game. Every game is randomly selected, thus unique, so student play for each game is original and unlike anyone else’s gameplay in the class.
Student Artifact
