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DISEASE ALERT!: A WebQuest for Second Year High School (Science)
Authored by N. Espesor and P. Arinto
Introduction
There is an outbreak of different diseases in the remote areas in the
Philippines. The government is calling on all sectors of society to extend
assistance. As
part of the outreach program of the school, your principal has asked your class
to find out more about the diseases plaguing your countrymen and women.
Your task is to give the people information about the diseases that affect their
area, including the symptoms, causes, and effects. Also, you must be able to
suggest how they can prevent these diseases from spreading.
Task
Each group will study and describe one of the following diseases: typhoid,
malaria, dengue, tuberculosis, diabetes, cholera, measles, hepatitis B, leprosy,
and influenza (including SARS).
Your group must be able to come up with a multimedia presentation (using MS
PowerPoint or StarOffice Presentation software) that will raise public awareness
of a specific disease. You will gain expertise in the disease assigned to your
group by using resources on the Internet, reading print sources from the
library, and interviewing by email doctors and/or experts from the Department of
Health and other local centers of expertise.
Your group presentation will consist of six-seven slides (with text and
graphics/photos) containing the following information:
signs and symptoms – 1-2 slides
causes (organisms that cause the disease) - 1 slide
short-term and long-term effects (on body organs) - 1-2 slides
prevention - 1 slide
graph showing the prevalence of the disease in the Philippines - 1 slide
local experts/groups studying and working on controlling the disease in the
Philippines – 1 slide
Process
To accomplish the task, follow these steps:
1. You will be assigned to a team of 4-6 members each. Each team will study a
specific disease. Your teacher will assign which disease each team will report
on. To make sure that everyone in the team makes a contribution, divide the
following roles among yourselves:
| Roles |
Responsibilities |
| Member 1 |
· collect information and prepare the text for the slide/s
on the signs and symptoms of the disease assigned to the group
· collect information and prepare the text for the slide on the causes of
the disease |
| Member 2 |
· collect information and prepare the text for the slide/s
on the short-term and long-term effects of the disease assigned to the group
· collect information and prepare the text for the slide on how to prevent
the disease from spreading |
| Member 3 |
· collect data on the prevalence of the disease in the
Philippines and make a graph showing this data
· collect data on which experts and organizations in the Philippines are
studying the disease |
| Member 4 |
· serve as team postmaster or email coordinator
· serve as the multimedia designer: prepare the actual multimedia
presentation
· make the oral presentation to the rest of the class |
If there are more than four team members, the roles of Member 2 and 4 can be
shared by two members each.
2. When you have agreed on your individual roles, begin reading about the
disease assigned to your team. A list of online articles is given in the
Resources section. However, this list is not comprehensive. You also need to
read print resources on your topic. You will find these resources in the school
library and other libraries.
As you read, take detailed notes for the section of the team report that is
assigned to you.
You have one week for this part of the research.
3. Meet as a team to go over your notes and identify the gaps in information that
you can fill by interviewing doctors and researchers from the Department of
Health and its affiliate offices, the National Institutes of Health, and the Philippine General Hospital.
Very likely, the missing information will include local statistics—that is, how
many in the Philippines are afflicted with the disease, what are the specific
causes of the disease in the Philippines, and how is the disease being managed
(treated and controlled) in the Philippine context. You can also ask for
information on who or which individuals or groups in the Philippines are taking
the lead in studying and managing the disease (for example, there is a Malaria
Study Group at the University of the Philippines Manila).
You will interview local experts by email, not face-to-face. The list of email
addresses of Department of Health officials can be found at this website:
http://www.doh.gov.ph/emailadress.htm. For the names and email addresses of
experts at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) - UP Manila, email nih@upm.edu.ph.
It is possible that when you email someone, that person will say he/she does not
know the answer to your questions. You can then ask him/her to refer you to
someone who does know. Be sure to ask for email addresses.
In order that the experts you are corresponding with will not feel overwhelmed,
do send email as a team. That is, instead of each member emailing individually,
put together all of your questions in one email and assign one of your members
as the team postmaster or email coordinator. This person will also check your
email box for responses, print these and give you a copy.
Print the emails you send and receive. These will have to be submitted along
with your team presentation.
You have two weeks to get local information through email interviews.
4. Organize the data or information you gathered from your research in the
library and on the Internet and from your email interviews, and begin writing
the content of your team presentation. Each member should prepare the content of
the slide assigned to him/her. Each slide should contain graphics/pictures and
text. The text is in the form of short phrases and sentences, not long
paragraphs.
Note that this is not yet the time to actually prepare the slide. All you have
to do is prepare or draft the content of the slides. You have two days to make
your drafts. At the same time, the multimedia designer should be choosing the
font styles, font sizes, animation features, and presentation designs that your
group should use.
You should complete this step in one-two days.
5. Meet as a group and go over each other’s drafts. Comment on each other’s
drafts and improve these together. Also comment on the multimedia designer’s
suggested design for the team presentation.
When you are satisfied with the suggested content and format of your team
presentation, turn over your drafts to the graphic designer for him/her to
encode. The multimedia designer will also prepare the team presentation by
encoding the text and scanning and placing the pictures, if any.
You have one week to complete this task.
6. Afterwards, meet as a group and review the presentation prepared by the
graphic designer. Agree on what changes or improvements to make, if any, and
implement these immediately (during the meeting).
7. Be ready to make your presentation to the rest of the class on the date
assigned by your teacher. You will also submit an electronic copy of your
presentation after you have made the oral presentation.
8. Submit your duly accomplished self-assessment and peer evaluation forms on
the due date.
Resources
The links below will direct you to overviews of each disease. You may consult
other sources, of course, including print sources (e.g., medical books). You
will also need to get information on each disease in the
Philippines
from our local experts and references.
Malaria
http://www.cdc.gov/malaria/
http://www.cnn.com/HEALTH/9802/25/philippines.malaria/
http://unisci.com/stories/20021/0222025.htm
All About Typhoid Fever
http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/refpages/refarticle.aspx?refid=761563010
http://www.who.int/vaccines-diseases/diseases/typhoid_fever.shtml
http://healthlink.mcw.edu/article/955158962.html
http://www.edcp.org/factsheets/typhoid.html
All about dengue fever
http://www.medicinenet.com/dengue_fever/article.htm
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/001374.htm (Click on
the buttons under “Contents of this page”)
http://www.umm.edu/travel/dengue.htm
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvbid/dengue/index.htm
Tuberculosis
http://www.medicinenet.com/tuberculosis/article.htm
http://www.aidsmeds.com/OIs/TB1.htm (Click on the buttons on the
right for more information)
http://www.cdc.gov/nchstp/tb/faqs/qa.htm
Schistosomiasis
http://www.medterms.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=5416
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dpd/parasites/schistosomiasis/factsht_schistosomiasis.htm
http://www-micro.msb.le.ac.uk/224/Schisto.html
Diabetes
http://diabetes.niddk.nih.gov/intro/index.htm (Click on the links)
http://www.diabetes.org/about-diabetes.jsp
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs138/en/
Cholera
http://www.who.int/csr/disease/cholera/globaltaskforce/en/ (Click on
the links to find more information)
http://www.disasterrelief.org/Disasters/971112cholera/
http://vm.cfsan.fda.gov/~MOW/chap7.html
Influenza
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs211/en/
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/tutorials/influenza/id439101.html
(Click on the links in this an interactive module)
http://www2.niaid.nih.gov/newsroom/focuson/flu04/background.htm
Hepatitis B
http://www.who.int/emc-documents/hepatitis/docs/whocdscsrlyo20022/introduction/introduction.html
(Click on the buttons in the menu bar on the left to find out more)
http://www.hepfi.org/living/liv_abc.html
http://www.hepnet.com/hkn/b11.html
http://www.hepb.org/02-0119.hepb
(Click on the links on the left)
Leprosy
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs101/en/
http://www.emedicine.com/derm/topic223.htm
http://w3.whosea.org/leprosy/introduction.htm (Click on the buttons
on the menu bar on the left-hand side of the page for more information)
Measles
http://www.health.state.ny.us/nysdoh/communicable_diseases/en/measles.htm
http://kidshealth.org/parent/infections/lung/measles.html
http://www.cdc.gov/nip/diseases/measles/faqs.htm
Evaluation
Your group presentation will be graded as follows:
| Criterion |
Yes
(2 pts) |
Partly
(1 pt) |
No
(0 pt) |
| CONTENT OF THE PRESENTATION |
| A. Signs & Symptoms |
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| 1. Are the signs and symptoms well explained? |
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| 2. Are the body organs affected correctly identified? |
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| 3. Are the signs and symptoms clearly illustrated by graphics? |
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| B. Causes |
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| 1. Are the causes of the disease properly identified? |
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2. Is there a graphic presentation?
(for example, pictures of dirty water, trash improperly disposed) |
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| C. Effects (short-term and long-term) |
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| 1. Are the body organs that are affected identified? |
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| 2. Are the short-term effects properly identified explained? |
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| 3. Are the long-term effects properly identified explained? |
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| 4. Is there a graphic presentation (for example, picture of organ
affected |
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| D. Prevention |
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| 1. Are the preventive measures identified? |
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| 2. Do they properly address the causes and effects of the disease? |
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| E. Prevalence |
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| 1. Does it include the number of persons affected by the disease? |
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| 2. Does it say what places are most affected? |
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| 3. Does it indicate the age groups affected? |
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| 4. Does it state what genders are affected? |
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| 5. Does it present the data in graphic form (e.g., map, chart)? |
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| FORMAT AND DELIVERY OF THE PRESENTATION |
| 1. Are the colors, fonts, and other effects used in the slide
presentation appropriate for the content? |
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| 2. Is the presentation well organized? |
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| 3. Is the presentation audible and clear? |
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| 4. Is the presentation brief but adequate? |
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The individual grade of each student will be computed thus:
| Item |
Percent of Grade |
| Team presentation |
70% |
| Self-assessment |
15% |
| Peer Evaluation |
15% |
| Total |
100% |
Your score for this project will constitute 25% of your grade in the third
grading period.
Conclusion
Health is wealth, the wise saying goes. Unfortunately, most people do not care
to learn about common diseases enough to prevent their occurrence. This
webquest should help you realize that you do not have to be a doctor to care
about preventing disease. Disease prevention is everyone’s concern.
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