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Combating Viruses
| After the school nurse presented concerns regarding communicable diseases to students at the Lisbon Central School in Lisbon, CT, the seventh-graders realized that their peers did not fully understand the ways viruses spread and methods that can help reduce the spread of diseases, especially the flu. |
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Students brainstormed ideas for projects that would help prevent or reduce virus-related diseases in the school. They talked about how to share information with other students about the issue. They used a chart to evaluate the pros and cons of each suggested solution.
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| After group discussion, the service-learning students decided that they wanted to focus on cleaning cafeteria tables between each of the lunch waves and on issues related to the lack of hand washing by students before they eat lunch. |
| Planning for the project included a large chart posted in the classroom with all of the steps listed. The large group then broke into smaller groups with each working on project steps of interest to them. For example, one group created a survey for students to measure current hand washing behaviors. |
| To learn more about the cleaning of the cafeteria tables, students interviewed cafeteria personnel. They learned about the bleach solution used for cleaning, and found that the amount of bleach was not always the same each time the tables were cleaned. After some research, marking the buckets with the specific amount of bleach to be used in the water each time solved this problem. |
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The service-learning students handed out lollipops before lunch that were coated with a harmless powder not visible under normal lighting. The lollipops had labels with statistics about the spread of viruses.
After lunch, the students showed how the powder had spread to hands, table surfaces, food, and faces using a black light to make the powder visible. This was a practical lesson and a memorable visual for their peers about how easily viruses can spread.
The project was also featured in an article in the school newsletter. |
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