SPREAD THE WORD, NOT THE GERMS
Project Description
Within the unit on functions, the goal of this project is to have students investing the spread of disease utilizing exponential functions to display the spread of specific communicable diseases. In pairs, students will choose a common communicable disease to investigate and design a poster that educates the community about the growth of the disease during the “incubation” period. Additionally, we will explore the decay of the disease-causing agent. Overall, this is a project to get students involved in discovering the mathematics underlying diseases and how they spread.
Infectious Disease Reflection
1) Respiratory droplets, feces, and the ingestion of food (undercooked/infected) are all ways in which infectious diseases are transmitted from one person to another.
2) Washing hands often, using antibiotics, disinfectants and making sure to avoid an infectious person. When you are sick, give yourself time to recover and make sure to cover your mouth/nose when you sneeze/cough.
3) It is more likely that you will catch a cold or something that is transmitted through respiratory droplets in the air. This is simply because your odds of coming in contact with infected droplets are much higher than the odds of you coming in direct contact with someone who has pink eye. Even so, you would need to touch the pink eye to contract it, much like herpes.
2) Washing hands often, using antibiotics, disinfectants and making sure to avoid an infectious person. When you are sick, give yourself time to recover and make sure to cover your mouth/nose when you sneeze/cough.
3) It is more likely that you will catch a cold or something that is transmitted through respiratory droplets in the air. This is simply because your odds of coming in contact with infected droplets are much higher than the odds of you coming in direct contact with someone who has pink eye. Even so, you would need to touch the pink eye to contract it, much like herpes.
Infectious Diseases
Amebiasis
1) It can be carried for weeks to years, often without any symptoms appearing.
2) Amebiasis is contracted by swallowing the cyst stage of the parasite in contaminated food or water. It can also be spread by direct or indirect contact with fecal material from an infected person.
3) Symptoms usually show within 2-4 weeks.
4) There are several options of antibiotics.
5) Bacterial.
Cryptosporidiosis
1) Two weeks or less.
2) It needs to be directly ingested through the feces of infected people or animals.
3) No information given.
4) There is no specific treatment for cryptosporidiosis. Fluid therapy is given if the patient is dehydrated.
5) It is a protozoan parasite, not a virus or a bacteria.
Pertussis
1) It is infectious for 1-2 weeks.
2) It’s spread through the contagious cough droplets that are dispersed from infected persons.
3) Symptoms begin to show after 7 - 20 days.
4) There are four options of antibiotics.
5) Bacteria.
Yellow Fever
1) The incubation period is usually 3 - 6 days.
2) It is spread to humans by the bite of an infected mosquito.
3) Symptoms usually show after between 3 - 6 days.
4) There is no specific treatment for yellow fever, but patients can be hospitalized for the treatment of their symptoms.
5) Viral.
Yersiniosis
1) 4-7 days.
2) Eating contaminated food is the most common way to catch yersiniosis.
3) Symptoms begin to show after 4 - 7 days of exposure and usually last 1 - 3 weeks.
4) There is no treatment as it usually will solve itself.
5) Bacterial.
Cholera
1) Anywhere from 6 hours to 5 days.
2) It is spread by eating or drinking food or water contaminated by the fecal waste of an infected person.
3) 6 hours to 5 days.
4) There is only fluid treatment for the dehydration that occurs.
5) Bacteria.
1) It can be carried for weeks to years, often without any symptoms appearing.
2) Amebiasis is contracted by swallowing the cyst stage of the parasite in contaminated food or water. It can also be spread by direct or indirect contact with fecal material from an infected person.
3) Symptoms usually show within 2-4 weeks.
4) There are several options of antibiotics.
5) Bacterial.
Cryptosporidiosis
1) Two weeks or less.
2) It needs to be directly ingested through the feces of infected people or animals.
3) No information given.
4) There is no specific treatment for cryptosporidiosis. Fluid therapy is given if the patient is dehydrated.
5) It is a protozoan parasite, not a virus or a bacteria.
Pertussis
1) It is infectious for 1-2 weeks.
2) It’s spread through the contagious cough droplets that are dispersed from infected persons.
3) Symptoms begin to show after 7 - 20 days.
4) There are four options of antibiotics.
5) Bacteria.
Yellow Fever
1) The incubation period is usually 3 - 6 days.
2) It is spread to humans by the bite of an infected mosquito.
3) Symptoms usually show after between 3 - 6 days.
4) There is no specific treatment for yellow fever, but patients can be hospitalized for the treatment of their symptoms.
5) Viral.
Yersiniosis
1) 4-7 days.
2) Eating contaminated food is the most common way to catch yersiniosis.
3) Symptoms begin to show after 4 - 7 days of exposure and usually last 1 - 3 weeks.
4) There is no treatment as it usually will solve itself.
5) Bacterial.
Cholera
1) Anywhere from 6 hours to 5 days.
2) It is spread by eating or drinking food or water contaminated by the fecal waste of an infected person.
3) 6 hours to 5 days.
4) There is only fluid treatment for the dehydration that occurs.
5) Bacteria.
3 Growth Word Problems
1) Tressa went to Wisconsin where she contracted a very dangerous disease called Anthrax that is contagious for 5 days. Everyday she talks to 10 new people. (Assume that each person she talks to passes Anthrax on to 10 more people). How many people are sick by day 10?
2) Olivia goes to Kentucky where she is diagnosed with Smallpox which is contagious for 7 days. Each day she goes to her erobix class where she meets 2 new trainers each day. (Assume each trainer catches smallpox and passes it onto 2 more people). How many people are infected by the end of day 7?
3) Molly visited Rhode Island where she caught Necrotizing Faciitius, which is contagious for 4 days. Each day she interacted with 4 new people. (Assume that each person she met also contracted the disease and passes it onto 4 more people). How many people have the flesh eating disease after day 4?
2) Olivia goes to Kentucky where she is diagnosed with Smallpox which is contagious for 7 days. Each day she goes to her erobix class where she meets 2 new trainers each day. (Assume each trainer catches smallpox and passes it onto 2 more people). How many people are infected by the end of day 7?
3) Molly visited Rhode Island where she caught Necrotizing Faciitius, which is contagious for 4 days. Each day she interacted with 4 new people. (Assume that each person she met also contracted the disease and passes it onto 4 more people). How many people have the flesh eating disease after day 4?
Updated & New Word Problems
Updated Problem
1) Tressa went to Wisconsin for her annual family fishing trip. While she was walking through the dense woods on the way to the pond, she unknowingly contracted Anthrax. Bum bum bum! She was ill with this terrible disease for 5 days. Not thinking anything of it for those 5 days, she visited a different fishing spot each day. There, she would swap stories about hooks and line and what not with 10 people. Unfortunately they would also become infected. (Assume each of these 10 people met another group of 10 people who would get ill). How many people would be infected after day 5?
New Problem with Numbers
1) Nathaniel travels to Tijuana where he becomes very ill with a disease called Necrtotizing Faciitius. He did his research and found that this particular flesh eating disease is contagious for 4 days. Willing to risk it, he went clubbing for each of those four days. While there he dances with 7 new people. They also become ill and pass the disease onto 7 more people. How many people are infected after the fourth day? (Assume each of the 7 people infect 7 more people).
1) Tressa went to Wisconsin for her annual family fishing trip. While she was walking through the dense woods on the way to the pond, she unknowingly contracted Anthrax. Bum bum bum! She was ill with this terrible disease for 5 days. Not thinking anything of it for those 5 days, she visited a different fishing spot each day. There, she would swap stories about hooks and line and what not with 10 people. Unfortunately they would also become infected. (Assume each of these 10 people met another group of 10 people who would get ill). How many people would be infected after day 5?
New Problem with Numbers
1) Nathaniel travels to Tijuana where he becomes very ill with a disease called Necrtotizing Faciitius. He did his research and found that this particular flesh eating disease is contagious for 4 days. Willing to risk it, he went clubbing for each of those four days. While there he dances with 7 new people. They also become ill and pass the disease onto 7 more people. How many people are infected after the fourth day? (Assume each of the 7 people infect 7 more people).
1 Decay Word Problem
1) Marjorie’s skin was starting to peel off of her body so she decided she would head to the doctor to get it checked out. After a series of tests, they discovered that the had Necrotizing Faciitius. She has 300 bacteria molecules, but with her new treatment the amount of bacteria decreases by 24% each hour. How much bacteria is left in her after 8 hours?
Critique Session
Critique: Graphs are hard to read, maybe change the colors.
Critique: Add a drop shadow on the white text.
Critique: Offset the layout by rearranging/switching themiddle text with the middle graph.
1) I found it helpful that everyone gave us all really specific feedback and answered our questions directly and in detail.
2) I wish we had heard a few more design ideas to spice it up a little bit more.
3) This class critique went a lot better than the first in my opinion and I think we did a good job of continuously giving feedback. We should get better at describing our projects for the first couple of minutes.
Critique: Add a drop shadow on the white text.
Critique: Offset the layout by rearranging/switching themiddle text with the middle graph.
1) I found it helpful that everyone gave us all really specific feedback and answered our questions directly and in detail.
2) I wish we had heard a few more design ideas to spice it up a little bit more.
3) This class critique went a lot better than the first in my opinion and I think we did a good job of continuously giving feedback. We should get better at describing our projects for the first couple of minutes.
Reflection
Math can be used to educate a community about a topic by showing them the mathematical statistics. If hard numbers are proof of a disease, natural disaster, zombie apacolipse, etc. that will affect them negatively in some way, they are more likely to respond. Math can also be used to persuade an audience in a certain direction.
The spread of disease relies upon mathematics in a number of ways. There is always a starting point for a disease and then that infected person comes in contact with x number of people who also become infected. Then the recently infected pair comes in contact with another pair, who finds another pair, who finds another pair, until everyone’s been infected. By relating the amount number of days the infection persists to the amount of people infected each day, you are able to predict the final number of infected people for x amount of days.
I most enjoyed writing the word problems and putting them on a poster with our graphs. It gave us all a chance to be really creative with the math techniques we were learning. I liked reading everybody’s word problems during critique, even though some were super weird. Using photoshop was a lot of fun, thank goodness Charlotte remembered how to do everything. Overall I really enjoyed the project and I feel confident that I know the material.
The spread of disease relies upon mathematics in a number of ways. There is always a starting point for a disease and then that infected person comes in contact with x number of people who also become infected. Then the recently infected pair comes in contact with another pair, who finds another pair, who finds another pair, until everyone’s been infected. By relating the amount number of days the infection persists to the amount of people infected each day, you are able to predict the final number of infected people for x amount of days.
I most enjoyed writing the word problems and putting them on a poster with our graphs. It gave us all a chance to be really creative with the math techniques we were learning. I liked reading everybody’s word problems during critique, even though some were super weird. Using photoshop was a lot of fun, thank goodness Charlotte remembered how to do everything. Overall I really enjoyed the project and I feel confident that I know the material.