I never imagined 2020 was going to mark my return to teaching after three years out of the classsroom. This pandemic has turned me into a remote teaching tita for my nephews who are now learning from home in the midst of a badly managed pandemic. My approach has been to vet materials that are readily available online and supplement them rather than make all lessons from scratch. I thought I’d put together in one public place some of the materials we are using. Who knows it might come in handy for parents or other titas in the same boat. Feel free to use the worksheets or modify them as you see fit. To keep materials and activities organized, my nephews and I use a private Google Classroom. We also use Google apps to communicate and collaborate on their outputs. That is an option that you might like to consider adopting, too, if you are homeschooling on your own.
HEALTH: COMMUNICABLE DISEASES
LESSON SET 1 | Building our knowledge: What are communicable diseases?
Right now, we are all advised to stay home as much as possible because of COVID-19. Parents and other adults work from home and only essential workers are allowed to go to their workplaces. Even learning has to be done at home, too. Do you know why?
COVID-19 is an example of a communicable disease. Just based on the term “communicable” what do you think a communicable disease is? Find out if you guessed right by watching the video prepared by the National Institute for Communicable Diseases of South Africa titled “Communicable Diseases”.
One term used in the video is “zoonotic”, an adjective. It is derived from the noun “zoonosis” or “a disease that can be transmitted from animals to people”. Learn more about zoonotic diseases by reading the article prepared by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of the United States.
Use the Activity Sheet to summarize important points from the video and the article.
Advanced:
If you’re interested to learn how exactly diseases are spread from animals to humans, watch the TED-Ed video titled “How do viruses jump from animals to humans?”.
LESSON SET 2 | Building our knowledge: How do pandemics spread?
Part 1: Improve Your Vocabulary
In this lesson, we will learn about how communicable diseases spread widely over a community, to several communities, and, at its worst, across the globe. We will find out by watching a TED-Ed video titled “How do pandemcis spread”. Some of the words used in the video might be new to you so let’s prepare by getting to know these words.
1) Are you familiar with the term “pandemic” and “epidemic”? What do you think it means?
2) Find the dictionary definition of “pandemic” and “epidemic” using the Cambridge Dictionary. Use the link: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/. Write the dictionary definitions in your notebook.
3) But what is the difference between a pandemic and an epidemic? Let’s find out by reading the Merriam-Webster article titled “Pandemic vs Epidemic: What is the Difference?”. After reading, explain in your own words the difference between the two. You can name some examples. Has an epidemic ever happened in your community? Do you know of any pandemics that have happened before?
4) When you watch the video in a bit, you will learn that the terms epidemic and pandemic are borrowed from another language. Find out and answer this later.
5) The words “globalized” and “cyanosis” are also used in the video. Use the Merriam-Webster Dictionary to find out its definition. Use the link: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/. Write the definition in your notebook.
Part 2: Watching and Listening for Information
Watch and listen attentively to the TED-Ed video “How pandemics spread”. After watching, use information from the video to answer the questions below. Write your answers in your notebook and discuss them with your learning partner. You can re-watch the video again if you were not able to catch all the details from your first viewing.
- What are the two reasons stated in the video why diseases did not become pandemic when humans still lived a hunter-gatherer lifestyle?
- When did communicable diseases, specifically zoonotic diseases, start to occur?
- Which three viruses are the most common causes of epidemics in the world today?
- What do scientists study and use as evidence of pandemics that happened in the past?
- Scientists have observed that seasonal influenza becomes virulent every 20-40 years because the virus undergoes a dramatic mutation. What is the technical term for this dramatic mutation?
- What is the common cause behind the dramatic mutation of a wild flu virus into a more virulent strain?
- Based on the information in #6, what is one way that we can prevent seasonal flu from becoming virulent?
- Compare the account/narration of the spread Great Mortality/Black Death, the Great Flu of 1918-1919, and SARS. What was common about how the three pandemics spread?
- Why are pandemics likely to occur at present compared to the past?
- What message did the creators of the video wish to impart about how people living today should respond to a pandemic?
This post will be updated once the next lesson set has been completed. The next lesson set shall focus on how communicable diseases can be eradicated.
Titser, Titser! 