Summer SAVY, Session 6 Day 3, Science Communication and Immunology (7th – 8th)
I can’t believe the week is more than halfway over! Today was a fun and exciting day filled with interactive games and activities. We continued our discussion of vaccines – how they work, why they work, and how they improve the immune system. We also talked about superbugs – how bacteria can mutate, particularly with antibiotics.
To study these concepts, we used various games and activities.
- We simulated the immune response to poliovirus as a class – each student pair was a group of different immune cells. The immune cells worked together in the correct order to defeat the pathogen.
- We played a game where students got to try to infect different “herds” that had been vaccinated or acquired immunity through infection – it was clear that a herd with 95% immunity was harder to infect than a herd with 50% or 10% immunity. Herd immunity is important to protect those individuals who CAN’T receive a vaccine (either due to a medical condition or perhaps an allergy to vaccine ingredients)
- Students worked in groups to design their own creative superbugs – they came up with scary virulence factors and designed their own scary bacteria and viruses. They had to present their superbugs to a pharmaceutical company that was looking to invest in research to prevent the next pandemic.
- Finally, students played a game called “Immune to Balloons.” Once again, each student was assigned a different role – balloons were pathogens, we had sticky notes that were antibodies, plastic bags that were macrophages, and toothpicks that were killer T cells. Balloons were popped during this activity. You can ask your students what different roles they played in our activities today.
The students all had lots of fun with our interactive activities today. They were all engaged and worked well in their groups! I’m excited for tomorrow – we’ll be experimenting to survey actual microbes in our environments.
Some questions to discuss at dinner:
- Do you think antibiotics are helpful or harmful? What are some pros and cons? Why is it important to listen to your doctor’s advice about when and how long to use antibiotics?
- What are some reasons someone might not get vaccinated?
- What happens when the percent immunity against a particular disease starts to drop? Measles has a required herd immunity of 97% and it’s dropping to 95% in some communities. What does this mean?