Disease Spread

Name:
Vocabulary: disease, epidemic, infect, infectious disease, pathogen
Prior Knowledge Questions (Do these BEFORE using the Gizmo.)
1. Why do you think it is important to cover your mouth when you cough? It's not just good manners to cover

your cough. Doing so helps reduce the spread of germs including the highly contagious influenza virus.

2. Why should you always wash your hands before you eat? Washing your hands before eating a meal

is a simple and effective method of infection prevention. When you eat without washing your

hands, the bacteria and germs that are left on your fingers and palms can be transferred

to the inside of your mouth. This can cause illnesses and infections.

Gizmo Warm-up
When a person has a disease, his or her normal body
functions are disrupted. Some diseases, such as diabetes and
most cancers, are not spread from one person to another. But
other diseases, such as the flu and strep throat, can be
spread. These diseases are known as infectious diseases.
Infectious diseases are caused by viruses, bacteria, and other
agents known as pathogens.
In the Disease Spread Gizmo™, you will be able to observe
how various pathogens can spread through a group of people.
Click Play ( ) and observe.

1. Describe what happened on the SIMULATION pane:

Theres people on a room being sick hand you can see

how the disease transforms

2. Look at the color key on the bottom right of the Gizmo. What is happening when a person changes color?

You can see the persons being sick

3. Predict: Some pathogens are spread directly from one person to another. This can happen when people

come into direct contact or share items, such as drinking glasses. What might be some factors affect how

quickly a pathogen is spread from person to person? They get exposed to the disease and can

have it.

4.
 Get the Gizmo ready:
Activity A:  Click Reset ( ).
Person-to-person  On the CONTROLS tab under Active Diseases, turn off
transmission Foodborne and turn on Person to person.
 Set the Number of people to 5.

Question: What factors affect how quickly a pathogen spreads from person to person?
1. Identify: Select the SIMULATION tab on the left and the TABLE tab on the right. (You will want the table
tab open to answer question C.)
A. What does the purple person represent? The contact person to person.

B. Click Play, and observe the simulation for a while. What must happen for the disease to spread
from one person to another? They start grabing the disease

C. How long did it take to infect five people? 34 hours

2. Experiment: Click Reset. Change the Number of people to 35. Click Play, and record how long it takes to
infect five people. Then repeat the experiment when there are 15, 25, and 35 people in the room
# of
people Time required Rate of infection
infecte to become (people/hours)
d infected (hours) round to 0.1
5 0 0.1
10 1 0.1
15 1 0.1
20 2 0.2
25 2 0.3
30 4 0.4
35 5 0.5

3. Interpret: Study the data you collected. What trend do you see in the data? Look at the chart and the graph.
More persons get sick by eating food

4. What do you notice about the rate of infection as more people were infected? More people Get
infected

5. Experiment: Not all pathogens are equally infectious. Click Reset. Set the Number of people to 20. Under
Probability of transmission, select Low for Person to person. On the SIMULATION tab, click Play.
Record the time it takes to infect five people. Then repeat the experiment with a medium and high
probability of transmission. Do three trials and compute the average. Use the average to answer questions

  Trial 3 Trial 2 Trial Average

Time required Rate of Time required Rate of Time required Rate of Time required Rate of
to infect 5 infections to infect 5 infection to infect 5 infection to infect 5 infections
people (hours) round to people (hours) s round people (hours) s round people (hours) round to
 0.01 to 0.01 to 0.01 0.01
Low  16.7  0.5  7    19  0.2    0.5
Medium                
High                

6. Interpret: Study the data you collected in the table above. What trend do you see in the data, and how
would you explain it? I see how people get sick by some different exposed
7. Analyze: On the CONTROLS tab, place the Probability of transmission slider under Person to person
half-way between Low and High. Select the SIMULATION and GRAPH tabs. Click Play.
A. At what times did the disease spread most slowly? and
Most quickly?
B. How could you explain this change in the rate of the disease’s spread?

8. Apply: An epidemic is the rapid spread of an infectious disease. How do you think a government could try
to prevent an epidemic of a dangerous person-to-person pathogen? Please be as specific as possible

9. Predict: How do you expect the spread of a foodborne disease to be similar to and different from the
spread of a person-to-person disease?

1. Click Reset
Activity B:
2. Controls tab
Foodborne and
A. Active Diseases turn off Person-to-Peron; turn on Foodborne
airborne
B. change Number of people to 20
transmission
C. change Probability of transmission to medium

Question: How do foodborne and airborne pathogens spread?

1. Observe: Select the SIMULATION tab. Click Play and closely watch the people moving around the room.

A. What does each person do just before becoming infected?

B. How are foodborne pathogens transmitted?

C. If a person in the simulation never eats or drinks anything from the buffet table, is it possible for
them to become sick with the foodborne disease? Explain your answer.

2. Analyze: Reset. Switch between GRAPH and TABLE tab. Click play. Wait for every person to become
infected. Note: may need to resize the graph.
A. At what time did the disease spread most slowly? Most quickly?

B. How could you explain this change in the rate of the disease’s spread?
3. Compare: How does the spread of a foodborne pathogen compare to the spread of the person-to-person
pathogen you studied in activity A? It is OK to rerun the person-to-person again to check.
4. Predict: How would you expect the spread of an airborne disease to be similar to and different from the
spread of a foodborne disease and a person-to-person disease?

5. Experiment: Click Reset. Change the Number of people to 35. Change to airborne pathogens and Low
Probability Click Play, and record how long it takes to infect five people. Then repeat the experiment when
there are 15, 25, and 35 people. Rerun it at medium and high.
Number of Time required for Rate of infection
people in the people to become (people/hours)
  room infected round to 0.1
5
10
15
Low
Probability
20
25
30
35
5
10
15
Medium
Probability
20
25
30
35
5
10
15
High
Probability
20
25
30
35

A. What patterns do you notice in how the airborne pathogen spreads?

B. How does the spread of an airborne pathogen compare to the spread of foodborne and person-to-
person pathogens?

6. Think about it: Suppose there is an infectious disease at a party. How could doctors tell if the disease was
foodborne, airborne, or transmitted person to person?