Zombie Preparedness for Educators: Disease Detectives
ShareCompartir
Disease Detectives: Zombie Outbreak
Goal:
Figure out how the zombie virus was originally transmitted and what hypothesis might explain how it happened.
Status Report: (read to students)
An increasing number of citizens are disappearing, especially at night. These victims are reappearing as perpetrators. They are slow-moving, very strong. They are impervious to pain/injury and appear to be unaware of their surroundings. We’ve discovered that after the victims disappear, they reappear without human blood. Without bloodflow, these perpetrators freeze quickly. We believe this is why they are headed south—to warmer temperatures. They are constantly hungry and attacking at an alarming rate.
We’re currently trying to figure out how to stop them, but a defensive standoff is not a long-term solution. What we need to figure out is how this virus originally infected the first victims.
Here’s what we do know. All of the victims attended a carnival in Vancouver. We’ve collected interviews, but haven’t had time to review them for consistencies.
What we need from you, agents, is a thorough investigation. We need to know the root cause of this virus in order to create a vaccine to stop the growing mass of those infected.
Lesson
Have the students listen to the collected interviews from carnival attendees (10 total). With this exercise, the students will be conducting an investigation into what the infected attendees have in common. Did they all have a corn dog? Did they attend the same shows?
Have students create an 11×11 square graph, or use the one included in this lesson.
When listening to the interviews, instruct the students to mark an X to correspond with the infected person and the carnival activity that they participated in that day.
Note: All of the infected victims will have their stories told by someone else (family member/friend), so make sure the student is writing down what the INFECTED person did at the carnival.
| Haunted House | Rides | Corn Dog |
Petting Zoo |
Pony Rides |
Games | Exotic Bird Show |
Pig Races |
Stunt Show |
Mosquito Bites |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Henry | ||||||||||
| Ben | ||||||||||
| Tyler’s kids | ||||||||||
| Emily’s sister | ||||||||||
| Corine | ||||||||||
| Michael | ||||||||||
| Andrew’s family | ||||||||||
| Jamie’s friends | ||||||||||
| Whitney’s parents | ||||||||||
| Nathan |
Lauren
My son Henry is infected. He started acting really strange when we got home from the fair in town. At first he was really sick and we were about to call the doctor, but he started showing aggression so we left him alone. In the morning, he was gone. We went to the fair on Saturday. There was so much to do, but Henry had a hockey game later that night so we only had time to do a few things. I remember that he asked for a corn dog before we went on the ferris wheel. It made him queasy, so we left the ride area. We spent time at the petting zoo, went through the Haunted House, and saw the exotic bird show and the stunt show. Oh, and we tried to see one of the pig races, but it was so busy over there you couldn’t really see anything.
Ben
Yeah, man, I went to the fair! My friends and I go every year! We only go for the rides. We like to ride everything until we get sick. And the stunt show is pretty awesome. It’s really the only place you can go to eat a turkey leg like a caveman.
Tyler
I took both of my kids to the fair that weekend and both of them have disappeared. I’ve told the police countless times. We went to the fair, we came home, went to bed, and in the morning they were gone. They left behind a lot of drool and a really bad stench, which is why the police think they have been infected. At the fair we did everything. I watched them on the rides, play with the animals in the petting zoo, ride the ponies in a circle, we saw all of the shows on the agenda, and they even convinced me to let them go through the haunted house. We had corn dogs and cotton candy on the way out as we were slapping away mosquitos. I just don’t understand what happened to them.
Andrew
My wife and my kids have both disappeared. My father is sick, so I spent the weekend out of town taking care of him. To entertain the kids, I suggested she take them to the fair and let them get all of that energy out. When I came home, the house was ransacked. At the time the police thought it was foul play, but now they have lumped them in with the rest of the people that are infected and missing. I talked to my wife on her way home from the fair. Our boys were passed out in the backseat, and she said they had fun. She said they did the rides before eating. The kids were too young for the haunted house, so she volunteered to do the dunk tank to pacify them. I remember she said they saw the stunt show while they had corn dogs and lemonade in the stands. She told me that they rode those ponies that walk around in a circle, and then went through the petting zoo. They missed the pig race, so she said they spent a lot of time with the animals. She texted me photos the whole time so that I wouldn’t miss it. Alex loves animals.
Jamie
I went with friends to the fair this year, but they were way more into it than I was. I ate a corn dog while they were watching the pig races, and ate cotton candy while they petted all the animals. Why come to the fair just to see dumb animals? After that we rode all of the rides, played a few games, and went through the haunted mansion before calling it a night. The mosquitos were terrible. Oh, and we did sit through the stunt show, but like I said, the mosquitos were swarming. The next day, they were missing.
Emily
My sister is totally a zombie! Well, they say it’s some kind of virus, but whatever. She’s a zombie. She came after me once we got home from the fair. At first I thought she was joking around, but she had this dead look in her eyes and was grunting a lot. I don’t even think she knew it was me she was lurching towards. I barred myself in our interior bathroom, like in a tornado, you know? I actually slept in there. She was gone in the morning. It was so totally creepy. Oh, yeah, the fair? We went around dinner on Saturday. We blew all of our allowance. I had a funnel cake and she had a corn dog and a candied apple before riding all of the rides. We had one of those wristband things that let’s you do everything you want. We even went to the exotic bird thing, but didn’t stay long. We also went to the pig races, but it was really crowded and the mosquitos were everywhere. Sarah got a closer look than I did, but it was still a waste of time. I was over the animals by then, but Sarah went through the petting zoo while I checked in with our parents.
Corine
My husband and I went to the fair this year, but we stayed away from the mainstream crowd. We mostly went for the food. I was craving a funnel cake, and my husband ate everything in sight. We ended up eating the funnel cake, cotton candy, shaved ice, shaved potato fries, and corn dogs. Healthy, I know. Sometimes you have to live a little. Anyway, we watched the exotic bird show while we ate, and then caught a movie afterwards. The mosquitos were everywhere at the fair. It was kind of gross.
Whitney
My parents actually went to the fair, but we didn’t get to go. My parents had a date night and dropped us off at our grandparents’ house. Mom had a pie in one of the contests, so they went for the ceremony. When they got home they called told us they had corn dogs and turkey legs to celebrate her win and watched the stunt show and the bird show. They didn’t ride any of the rides though. My mom is paranoid about the safety of those things. Dad did say she screamed her way through the haunted house, which is kind of funny. My sister is really into animals, so they went by the petting zoo and snapped a few photos to show her. Oh, and Dad won us goldfish at one of those games. It served them right that they were covered in mosquito bites. I thought it was unfair that they got to go have fun and we had to spend the night watching loud TV with old people. When they didn’t pick us up in the morning we were worried and eventually called the police, but they had less answers than we did. It seems like a lot of people just vanished.
Nathan
I don’t know why you want to talk to me. It clearly wasn’t anything at the fair that made these people turn into zombies. Everyone knows zombies come from radiation. Plus, I was at the fair and do I look like a zombie to you? What did I do? I rode all of the rides, ate a ton of junk food, and played a few games. Oh, and watched the bird show, or the “exotic” bird show, whatever. I thought I was going to see something cool like a vulture, but it was a bunch of pigeons.
Michael
I took my family to the fair this year, but we all got sick after eating the deep fried butter. The kids rode the ponies around in a circle, but we couldn’t even attempt to ride anything. We did go through the haunted house and watched the exotic bird show, but after that we had to leave. We were all fine in the morning, but food poisoning is no joke.
- Page last reviewed: June 14, 2017
- Page last updated: June 14, 2017
- Content source: