Going Viral
Interesting activity that engages students in a “tactile representation of biological process.” Students use backpacks, a key, flash drive and computer to learn how viruses work.
It a... See More
Interesting activity that engages students in a “tactile representation of biological process.” Students use backpacks, a key, flash drive and computer to learn how viruses work.
It appears to have been tested by 25 high school teachers and met with success 15 classrooms. The instructions are well laid out in the article, with links to online videos about viruses. As a middle school teacher, I could see adaptations that could be made to use this in my own class. A couple of concerns are the hiding of the backpacks – my room isn’t large enough and wouldn’t want to trust a backpack hidden somewhere on campus. I would modify the task to provide the bags spread out over the room. Students being given the random key and having them search for the bag in plain sight. They then only have to find the bag the key unlocks. I have netbooks available in my classroom, so when the student has obtained their information, they can go to the laptop instead of having it inside of the bag.
I also liked the suggestion of using QR codes instead of flash drives since I would team the students up in groups of four. At least one member of the group would have a phone capable of accessing the video. I would also have the URL available on the enclosed card with the URL available for them to access on computer.