Name: Karishma Date: January 8th, 2019

Student Exploration: Disease Spread

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? By covering your
mouth, you prevent germs and viruses from being transferred to other surfaces which can
then infect other people or directly to other people (if you’re close enough to them).

2. Why should you always wash your hands before you eat? This kills the germs on your
hands to ensure that you do not ingest them, which will result in food infection.

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: The simulation pane shows how
disease spread among people interacting with each other as time progresses.

2. Look at the color key on the bottom right of the Gizmo. What is happening when a person
changes color? When a person changes color they have been infected by the disease either
through airborne, foodborne or person to person transmission.

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 Get the Gizmo ready:
Activity A:
● Click Reset ( ).
Person-to-person ● On the CONTROLS tab under Active Diseases,
transmission turn off 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. 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 do you
think might affect how quickly a pathogen is spread from person to person?
The type of pathogen and how infectious it is definitely affects speed of transmission, as do
population density and immune system strengths.

2. 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 purple person represents one who has
been infected by person to person contact

B. Click Play, and observe the simulation for a while. What must happen for the disease
to spread from one person to another? They must come into contact with an infected
person
C. How long did it take to infect five people? 57.1 hours

3. Experiment: Click Reset. Change the Number of people to 15. Click Play, and record how
long it takes to infect five people. Then repeat the experiment when there are 25 people and
35 people in the room.

Number of people in room Time required to infect five people (hr)

15 15.4
25 6.1
35 3.7

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4. Interpret: Study the data you collected. What trend do you see in the data, and how would
you explain it? As the amount of people increases, the amount of time taken for five people
to be affected decreases. This is due to the higher probability of people coming into contact
with each other; greater possibilities of the infection being passed.

(Activity A continued on next page)

Activity A (continued from previous page)

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. (Note: For the
“Medium” setting, move the slider half-way between the Low and High positions.)

Probability of Transmission Time required to infect five people (hr)

Low 44
Medium 10.2
High 8.3

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? As the probability of transmission increases, the time taken
for 5 people to be infected decreases. This is because it becomes increasingly more likely
for the infection to be transferred from person to person.

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 time did the disease spread most slowly? Most quickly? Most slowly at the
beginning and most quickly when the number of people infected was more than the
number of people unaffected.

B. How could you explain this change in the rate of the disease’s spread? Because as
more people became infected, the probability of uninfected people coming into
contact with the disease increases, therefore increasing the rate of disease 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?
➔ vaccination
➔ rapid treatment of infected people
➔ quarantine
➔ better sanitation
Activity B: Get the Gizmo ready:
Foodborne and ● Click Reset.
airborne ● On the CONTROLS tab under Active diseases,
transmission turn off Person to person and turn on Foodborne.

Question: How do foodborne and airborne pathogens spread?

1. 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? It should be similar in the way that people
will still be infected by coming into contact with the pathogen, but it will be different in that
the rate of infection will be lower than in a person-to-person disease.

2. 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? Eat the food

B. How are foodborne pathogens transmitted? By being ingested and then introduced
to the host’s body through absorption into the digestive system.

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.
Unless they consume/ingest the pathogen in any other way other than by eating/drinking, they
should not be infected, as it cannot be transmitted in another way.

3. Analyze: Select the GRAPH tab, and wait for every person to become infected.

A. At what time did the disease spread most slowly? There is no proper pattern to
ascertain when the disease spread slowest.

B. How could you explain this change in the rate of the disease’s spread? Different
tolerances to food, different dietary choices, and the lowered transmissibility of food
borne pathogens.

(Activity B continued on next page)

Activity B (continued from previous page)

4. 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 takes much longer for a foodborne
pathogen to affect a group of people than a pathogen which can be transferred from person
to person contact.

5. 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?
I would expect it to be similar as the people would be infected upon introduction to the pathogen
and that the rate of infection would increase as the number of infected people increases.
However, I would expect it to be different in the way which it is transmitted; the virus would be
airborne and therefore not transferred through person to person contact or by ingesting food.

6. Experiment: Run a few simulations with the airborne pathogen.

A. What patterns do you notice in how the airborne pathogen spreads? Its rate of
infection increases as the number of infected people increases.

B. How does the spread of an airborne pathogen compare to the spread of foodborne
and person-to-person pathogens? It is roughly similar to person-to-person pathogens,
but it is significantly faster than foodborne pathogens.

7. 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?
Doctors could check if the diseases was foodborne by checking to see if the infected people ate
the food and by analyzing the food. They could check if it was person to person by asking
infected people who they came into contact with. They could also observe how many people
didn’t eat or make contact with each other but still got sick (making it airborne).