Evolution: Infectious Organisms Project Research

First, a couple of brief housekeeping items.  Google Classroom once again proved to be too cumbersome to use as a classroom tool, so all documents pertaining to the Infectious Organisms Project will be stored here on the class website.  Additionally, rather than have one long running project post, I have decided to write separate posts for smaller chunks of work to help students locate information quickly and easily.

Onward!  At the beginning of class, students will find out which infectious organism they have been assigned to research.  The vast majority of students elected to work individually, so I have made the decision that while students may collaborate, they will need to turn in their own individual project.  Students will have today (Wednesday, May 3) and tomorrow (Thursday, May 4) to deeply research their organism.  Learn as much as you can!  Read, watch videos, talk with each other to share resources, and let me know if you are struggling to find information or are unsure if the resources you are using are scientifically credible.  By Friday, each student must complete two more Article Summary Worksheets for the two best articles found for their assigned organism.

Due at the beginning of class on Friday, May 5:

• Article Summary Worksheet completed for the Biological Warfare Case Study (assigned yesterday) – read through all 12 slides!
• Answers to the four questions found on slide 1 of the above case study
• Two additional completed Article Summary Worksheets (see sentence in bold red text above)

Also from yesterday, here is a link to the project rubric.

A few resources to help with your research:

• World Health Organization (WHO) Fact Sheets
• Mayo Clinic – Diseases and Conditions
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
• NOVA – Lice and Human Evolution
• Toxoplasmosis: Is your cat messing with your mind?
• Claviceps Purpurea (Ergot, the source of LSD)
• Candiru Fish – fact or fiction?
• Human Bot Fly
• Where does Ebola hide between epidemics?

Ready to start working on your comic strip?  The rubric provides a list of content to include in the comic strip.  A successful comic strip will be easy to read, have pictures that help explain what is happening, and it should take the complicated information you read about and craft it into a form that is easy to understand but is also informative.  The topics are pretty intense, and comics often have some humor in them, so if you can lighten the mood in an appropriate way using a bit of humor, your reader will appreciate it!

For students excited to draw their comic strip by hand, we have poster paper (go big!) and 8.5″ x 14″ printer paper along with pens, colored pencils, and crayons.  Prefer to go digital?  A Google search for “comic strip creator” will provide several website options.  Find the one you like best and get to work!

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