1. Access Excellence
provides some excellent mystery scenarios that require
students to apply their understanding of disease
transmission to solve the mystery. There are seven mysteries
available and several of them involve a solution that can
only be accessed after a week, making it difficult for
students just to ‘look up the answer’ rather
than trying to work it out by them. Depending on your students
and the computers available to you, you can work as a class,
in small groups or individually on solving the problem.
2. This lesson is written for those students who may only
have access to a few computers with internet access. Divide
your class into several groups.
3. Explain to
the class that each small group has been challenged to
solve the ‘Mystery of… (at this
point you can choose which one you think might intrigue
your students most, we suggest Artica, Blackout Syndrome
or Yellow Jackie).
4. As a class you will go over the mystery, stopping intermittently
to make a choice or for the teacher to ask what students
think is going on. Students should write down the evidence
and observation that they think is pertinent and any inference
that they make from that evidence. Once you have finished
reading through the mystery have each group present their
solution to the group using the evidence and observations
that they collected through the exercise.
5. If you have a larger group of computers available divide
the mysteries among the small groups and set the challenge
to solve the mystery.
6. Students should each create a table where they list
the observation or evidence and the inference made. As
a group, students then explain what they have inferred
from the evidence and observation as the reason behind
7. Individually students should create a flow diagram
or some other graphic display which shows the pathway of
The flow chart or other graphic form allows for assessment
of student’s ability to derive a possible method
of transmission given the information available.
A chart which displays the inferences derived from
and observations allows for assessment of
students’ ability to differentiate between evidence,
observation and inference.
The presentation allows for assessment of students’ ability
to draw and present a conclusion based upon the inferences
made and their prior knowledge from previous lessons.