Disease Web Quest

Introduction

Many people like to speculate about the possibility of a zombie apocalypse affecting civilization!!! In every movie or video game about a zombie apocalypse there is an infectious disease that turns humans into the undead flesh-eating zombies that threaten to take over the world. In the video game and TV series “The Last of us” it is a fungal infection that turns people into zombies when they come in contact with the fungus. In the movie “28 Days Later” people become infected with the zombie virus through blood contact. In the movie “I Am Legend” there are two strains of the virus, one that is transmitted through the air and another strain that is transmitted through physical contact. Like these fictional infectious diseases, there are many real infectious diseases that are caused by fungi and viruses.

Task

You will work in small groups of five students or less. Your group will research a disease of your choice and become the class experts for that disease. Once your group have all of the required information for your disease your group will create a Google Slide presentation and share it with the class.

Process

The class will be split up into thirds to research a disease based on what causes the disease. One-third of the class will research a disease that is caused by a virus, one-third of the class will research a disease that is caused by bacteria, and the last one-third will research a disease that is caused by a fungus. Each third will be split into two groups of approximately five students to research one disease. This will result in two groups researching a disease caused by a virus, two groups caused by a bacteria, and two groups researching a disease caused by a fungus.

Your group will research a disease of your choice to become the class expert for that disease. Once your group has all of the necessary information, you will create a google slide presentation to share with the class.

Select a disease based on your assigned type of disease. Below is a list of diseases that your group can pick from or you can find your own disease. Each group must research a different disease.

Virus	Bacteria	Fungus
Influenza (The Flu)	Strep Throat	Ringworm
Covid-19	Tuberculosis	Pneumocystis
Chickenpox	Lyme disease	Candida auris
Hepatitis B	Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus

Research the disease. Your group will need to include the following:

Description of the disease
What causes the disease (virus, bacteria, or fungus)
How the disease is transmitted from person to person
Who is most likely to be affected by the disease
Symptoms
Possible complications if untreated
Treatments
Prevention

While you are researching, record the websites that you gather information from. You will need them to create the works cited page.

The following websites will help you during your research:

Virus

Bacteria

Fungus

Create your Google Slide presentation. Your presentation should have at least 10 individual slides. Use the following format when creating your presentation.

Slide 1: Title slide - topic, names of group members
Slide 2: Description of the disease
Slide 3: What causes the disease (virus, bacteria, or fungus)
Slide 4: How the disease is transmitted from person to person
Slide 5: Who is most likely to be affected by the disease
Slide 6: Symptoms
Slide 7: Possible complications if untreated
Slide 8: Treatments
Slide 9: Prevention
Slide 10: Works cited

Presentations should be formatted in a way that is neat and aesthetically pleasing. Each slide should contain all necessary information and have pictures.

Have one person submit the presentation in Google Classroom. Make sure each member’s name is on it so everyone can receive credit.
Each group will present their slide show to the class. Every member of the group should participate in the presentation.

Evaluation

The following rubric shows how your group will be graded for this assignment. Each person will receive a group grade for the content and creativity that is presented. In addition to the group grade, each student will receive an individual grade for the part they present to the class and their ability to answer questions. This project is worth up to 40 points total.

	1-6 Points	7-13 Points	14-19 Points	20 Points	Total
Content (Graded as a group)	Group answered less than 50% of the questions about their disease	Group included 65% of the required information about their disease	Group included 80% of the required information about their disease	Group included all required information about their disease.
	1 Point	2-5 Points	6-9 Points	10 Points
Creativity (Graded as a group)	Group put no creative thought into the project.	Group added rushed, sloppy components that did not enhance the meaning of the project.	Group added a component that adds some meaning to the project.	Group added many creative and unique aspects to the project that adds meaning.
Presentation (Graded individually)	Student did not participate in the presentation. Student was unable to help answer any questions.	Student reluctantly participated in the presentation. Student was unable to answer questions about the slides that they presented.	Student participated in the presentation. Student was able to answer most of the questions about the slides they presented.	Student actively participated in the presentation. Student was able to answer all questions about the slide/slides they presented.
Student 1 Name:
Student 2 Name:
Student 3 Name:
Student 4 Name:
Student 5 Name:

Conclusion

You had the opportunity to research a disease for this Web Quest. During your research you learned the causes, transmission, symptoms, treatments, and prevention of one disease. You then had the opportunity to present the disease to the whole class allowing them to learn for you.

Additional Learning Opportunities

If you enjoyed this and want to learn about additional diseases you can answer the same questions as above for a different disease. Here is a short list of diseases you can pick from.

Virus	Bacteria	Fungus
Stomach flu (gastroenteritis)	Legionnaires' disease	Coccidioidomycosis (Valley Fever)
Measles	Q fever	Histoplasmosis
Ebola	Whooping cough (pertussis)	Aspergillosis

Credits

Virus

Bacteria

Fungus

Teacher Page

PA Standards:

10.1.9.E

Analyze how personal choice, disease and genetics can impact health maintenance and disease prevention.

10.1.12.A

Evaluate factors that impact growth and development during adulthood and late adulthood.

acute and chronic illness
communicable and non- communicable disease
health status
relationships (e.g., marriage, divorce, loss)
career choice
aging process
retirement