DETECTIVES IN THE CLASSROOM


Event Specifications

Trial/Pilot Event
Disease Detectives - Division B


Description:  Students will be asked to identify probable causes of various public health problems and to propose possible strategies to control or prevent those problems. This event combines a basic understanding of biologic and physical agents that cause disease with an ability to analyze, interpret, evaluate, and draw conclusions from simple data.

Event Parameters:  Non-programmable calculators are permitted. Reference materials and notes are not permitted.

A Team of Up To:  2 competitors

Approximate Time:  50 minutes

The Competition: 

1.

Students will be presented with one or more descriptions of public health problems such as an outbreak of food poisoning, a cluster of cases of West Nile encephalitis, or state data on bicycle injuries.

2.

Based on these descriptions, they will be expected to do the following:
 

a.

Generate hypotheses and recognize various fundamental study designs.
 

b.

Evaluate the data by calculating and comparing simple rates and proportions.
 

c.

Identify patterns, trends and possible modes of transmission, sources, or risk factors.
 

d.

Propose interventions based on promoting positive health behaviors, eliminating or reducing environmental sources, or breaking clearly identifiable chains of transmission.

3.

Students will also be expected to:
 

a.

Define basic epidemiologic and public health terms (e.g., outbreak, epidemic, pandemic, surveillance, risk, vector, fomite, zoonosis).
 

b.

Recognize various categories of disease-causing agents and give examples of illnesses caused by each.
 

c.

Recognize and understand differences between the major groups of infectious agents (e.g., viruses, bacteria, protistans, fungi and animals).
 

d.

Calculations and mathematical manipulations should be consistent with middle school math skills and should be part of the competition. Data may be contrived or modified to make it more appropriate for this age group as long as it does not radically alter results or interpretation.
 

e.

Concepts and principles should be limited to those presented on CDC's EXCITE website (www.cdc.gov/excite). Problem sets, however, may be taken from any source.
 

f.

This event may be run as stations.

Scoring: 

1.

Points will be assigned to the various questions and problems. Both the nature of the questions and scoring rubric should emphasize an understanding that is broad and basic rather than detailed and advanced.

2.

Depending on the problem, scoring may be based on a combination of answers, including graphs / charts, explanations, analysis, calculations, and closed-ended responses to specific questions.

3.

Points should be awarded for both quality and accuracy of answers, the quality of supporting reasoning, and the use of proper scientific methods.

4.

Each completed graph or table is worth up to five points; open-ended questions that require a paragraph of explanation to report the proper interpretation are worth up to ten points; closed-ended responses are worth up to five points each.

5.

Ties may be broken using a separate set of questions that do not enter into the regular score. If teams tied on the basis of their regular scores also have the same total score on the tie-breaker questions, individual scores on a pre-selected sequence of tie-breaker questions can be used to resolve the ties.

Sample Problems:

Students will read a series of reports or summaries of reports adapted from newspapers, scientific publications, or Internet sites dealing with outbreaks or other public health problems in a community or population. They will then answer a series of questions related to the epidemiology of the problem and potential intervention or prevention activities.

  • When given a line listing of symptoms, onsets, and outcomes in a group of persons associated with an outbreak, students will be able to calculate frequency distributions for symptoms, average incubation periods (when given exposure time).
  • When given a description of a public health problem (outbreak or case-cluster), students will be able to determine the most likely category of agent involved in the problem and either come up with likely agents or describe a series of steps that would lead to an identification of the agent.
  • When given examples of epidemic curves, students will be able to identify those from point source outbreaks, continuing source outbreaks and person-to-person transmission.
  • When given examples of reservoirs, vectors or exposure sources for particular diseases, students will be able to propose a group of reasonable prevention and control strategies.
  • When given a description of the distribution of a disease in terms of person, place, and time, students will be able to generate hypothesis about what lifestyle or environmental factor(s) might be causing the disease.
  • When given an example of a possible relationship between a lifestyle or environmental exposure and a certain disease, students should be able to describe possible explanations for finding the relationship. The student should be able to describe the most likely explanation(s) for the relationship.
  • When given an example of a known relationship between a lifestyle or environmental exposure and a certain disease, students should be able to describe a variety of possible prevention and control strategies and the strengths and limitations of each.
  • When given an example of a prevention / control strategy, students should be able to describe the best study design for determining the effectiveness of the strategy. Students should be able to describe why the study design is better than others. Students should be able to describe the evidence from which they would infer the success or failure of the strategy.

Resources:  The following websites and their links contain material that may be useful to event supervisors, coaches and competitors.

  • www.cdc.gov/excite - Centers for Disease Control Office of Science Education - includes primer of epidemiology, problem sets and examples.
  • www.collegeboard.com/yes - Young Epidemiology Scholars program - in addition to information on its competition, this site contains a number of teaching modules that can be used in training. Although targeted at a high school audience, this material may be useful for training competitors at the middle school level.

THIS EVENT IS SPONSORED BY THE U.S. CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION (CDC)
 
 
 
 
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