Lesson 5. Looking at Disease Transmittance and Evolutionary Response
**If you feel that you are strapped for time or falling behind in delivering curriculum, skip this
lesson and go directly to lesson 7. Each movie is in the 2 hour range and if you are working in
45 minute periods, it will take 3 days of instructional time**
Notes on this lesson…..
Depending on my time, behaviors and work put out by the students, I sometimes opt to show
them a whole movie that relates to the immune system. By this time of the year I have been
working the students hard and this is a much needed “working break” for them. There are
several options out there and it will depend on the age of the students and the student interest
which one you may like to show. It will also depend on other factors and what you are
comfortable with.
The lesson plan is reflective of what I would provide using the movie Outbreak. If you decide
on a different film, replace the questions for Outbreak with the assignment for the appropriate
movie.
Osmosis Jones is always a favorite. There are several variations on questions that you can ask
for this movie that can be found online by doing a google search for Osmosis Jones movie
questions. I have used this with younger Living Environment groups (composed mostly of 8th
graders and/or 9th graders). I do not use the question sheets with them: instead I ask them to
compare the science in the movie with the science they have learned in class to compare the
validity of the movie and the characters to real evidence and knowledge.
Outbreak is my preferred movie to watch as it takes a look through the eyes of the different
government agencies (military and civilian CDC) and the work of an epidemiologist. The
science in the movie is realistic and does not introduce any misconceptions like other sci fi
movies can, however it is greatly simplified. It introduces the concept of biological warfare
which is applicable and a very real threat nowadays. The downside is that this movie is rated R
but it is an early 1990s rated R…. there is limited violence, no gratuitous sex or nudity in the
film, and the reason for the rating is that the f bomb is dropped a handful of times in the movie
and that is all. Proper procedure for watching this in class is to
1. get your administrators permission which will include submitting this lesson plan
including the objectives and the reason for wanting to show this particular movie over
another that is not R rated, the impact of the movie for educational purposes and a copy
of the consent form being sent home (at the end of the lesson you will find the documents
that you will need to turn in for permission. I did not recopy the lesson plan you will
need to add that and the student work to the documentation… however each school is
different and you may want to check with your administrator ahead of time to see if there
is anything else they would like included in it)
2. send home consent forms to the parents with the students for them to get signed a week
prior to the video and explaining the educational value in watching the movie. Any
students that I have not received forms from I will start calling homes 2 days prior and
get consent over the phone where I sign the slip, note that it was verbal consent with the
date and the time I talked with the parent
I usually preface the movie by telling the students a plot summary so they know what to expect
as far as the story line (otherwise you will have students asking you every 5 seconds what did
that mean what happened there what is going on with this, etc. and they miss a lot of the movie
doing that), I let them know it is R rated because of the language, and that they are really
focusing on how the disease was spread and what skills the scientists used in order to save the
town and contain and cure the disease. Questions to go along with this movie are attached to the
end of the lesson plan.
Contagion is a newer movie that is rated PG13 so you do not have to jump through the same
hoops to show it as you would Outbreak. There are good and bad things about this movie. They
are trying to get across a lot of high level concepts in this movie without introducing
misconceptions but that leaves a lot of holes and questions to what is really happening in the
movie. The writers went to great lengths to make the film as accurate as they could in terms of
the science but when faced with some of the harder concepts they glanced over the details and
the jumping around to different scenes as not to bore the audience, it can make it hard to follow.
The focus of the movie is more on the social impact of an epidemic than on the science aspect of
it which has much value but it left for a lot of scenes that are more disturbing than Outbreak
(there were dead children, mass graves, etc) and may leave the kids scared and paranoid. There
is some vocab and concepts in there that are very beneficial to understanding transmission: they
talk about an index patient, the R0, the need to be able to reproduce samples in a lab to be able to
study them, briefly touch on how the virus works (showing protein coat, receptor sites, and
cellular interaction) and mutation into new forms. Where there is a lot of innuendo throughout
the movie that it is a bioweapon it turns out to be something that is passed from a bat to a pig and
then their index patient ate that pig at a casino in Hong Kong.
Choosing movies would really be up to you: what you would like the students to take away in
the end and if you have the time.
Objectives
1. Define disease in terms of homeostasis
2. Look at and behave as a scientist with regards to contagious diseases
EQ: How does a scientist begin to look at disease through the lens of evolution? How can we
track the source of contagious diseases?
Bridge
Answer the following questions….
1. What is disease?
2. What does the word contagious or infectious mean?
Mini Lesson
Expectations for the next 2 days…. We will be watching the movie Outbreak. As we watch the
movie, answer the following questions…..
Work Period
1. Describe how the movie begins.
2. What is the role of Dr Sam Daniels in the film?
3. What is the role of Dr. Roberta Keough (Daniel’s ex-wife) in the film? How is it
different from Dr Daniels role?
4. What is the source of the Motaba virus?
5. Who or what originally carries the disease?
6. How was the disease transmitted to humans?
7. How was the disease transmitted between humans?
8. Describe how Daniels and his team as well as Keough go about figuring out the source of
the infection.
9. How does the Motaba virus mutate? How is this an example of evolution?
10. How do they finally destroy the virus?
Summary
Answer the EQs:
SPED and ELL Modifications:
1. Allow students to work with a partner to answer questions about the movie
2. Pause the movie frequently to check for understanding and answer any questions that
may arise.
3. Stop every 10-15 minutes and have students draw a quick 2 minute summary as to what’s
happened so far. (can be done on numerous iPad drawing apps)
4. Prerecord article being used for Independent practice so students can listen to as much as
needed.
Apps and Internet Activities:
Drawing apps:
1. DrawingBox App:
2. Educreation App:
Closing
This movie is an example of biological warfare and how contagious disease can be deadly.
However, we encounter contagious diseases every day.
1. Why do we not die every time we come in contact with a contagious disease?
2. If we have developed immunity to say something like a cold or the flu, why can we get it
again?
Independent Practice
Article on biological warfare with questions