04 Mar Fighting Disease: Researching the History and Biology of Vaccines

Posted at 02:28h in News by WPD Staff

Jennifer Cutraro and Holly Epstein Ojalvo, The New York Times

Overview | What is a vaccine, and why do we need them? How do vaccines work, and how were they developed? In this lesson, students gauge their previous knowledge about vaccines. They then explore the history and biology of vaccines and create educational posters on the nature of vaccines and public opinions about them.

Materials | Computers with Internet access, poster board and other materials for creating informational posters.

Warm-Up | Administer the following true-false quiz. If students do not have computer workstations on which to complete the quiz independently, you might go through the questions as a class on an interactive whiteboard, read the statements aloud, write them on the board or distribute a print version (using the “Print Quiz” button on the bottom-left side of the quiz).

If students are taking the interactive quiz below, note that when they click “submit answer,” they will be shown the right answer along with a brief explanation containing links to related information.