Essential & Foundation Questions

Here are my Essential & Foundation Questions:

Essential Question:

• What kind of general academic skills can people learn from epidemiology?
  

Foundation Questions:

• What is Epidemiology?
• How can epidemiology be taught in the classroom?
• What skills are needed to be an epidemiologist?
• What kind of schooling is needed to be an epidemiologist?
• Are epidemiologists doctors?
• Where do epidemiologists work?
• How do you become and epidemiologist?
• What types of cases do epidemiologists work on?
• What is the history behind epidemiology?
• What kind of technology is used in Epidemiology?
  

Key Terms

Here are ten key terms that people should know about epidemiology:

1. Retrospective Study: A study type that finds people with and without a disease and then goes back to find out if their health habits could have caused the disease.
2. Prospective Study: A study that starts to watch people over time in the future. The study looks at the habits of a group of people and then follows them to see who gets a disease and who doesn't.
3. Index Case: An index case is the first case of a disease to be identified, either ever or at the start of an epidemic or a seasonal (or periodic) outbreak.
4. Outbreak: A sudden increase in prevalence
5. Virus: an ultramicroscopic (20 to 300 nm in diameter), metabolically inert, infectious agent that replicates only within the cells of living hosts, mainly bacteria, plants, and animals
6. Pathogen: An agent that causes disease, especially a living microorganism such as a bacterium or fungus
7. Prevalence: The total number of cases of a disease in a given population at a specific time
8. Epidemic Disease: An epidemic disease is a disease that many people acquire over a short period
9. Endemic Disease: An endemic disease is one that is always present in a population
10. Cluster: A group of cases close in time and place.

A little more work...

Today in class I got some more work done. I began to really think about the interview that I am going to have to do. What questions would I really need to ask? What questions will relate to my project? I got a few questions that I would like to ask the Epidemiologist before I started working on something else. The questions are:

1. How did you get interested in Epidemiology?
   How big was the field when you began?
   Has it grown over the years or remained the same?
   At what age do you think most people learn or start becoming interested in epidemiology?


2. Do you think it's important for students to learn about Epidemiology at a young age?
   When do you think students should be introduced to Epidemiology?
   Our school has a 13 week long epidemiology program where students have the opportunity to learn and actually "be" epidemiologists. What are your thoughts on this?

After figuring out some questions I began working on finding websites. My project deals with teaching 10th graders about Epidemiology so I am going to need to find websites about 1) Epidemiology... 2) Teaching... and 3) Epidemiology simulations for students. The few sites that I found today are:

• Http://en.wikipdia.org/wiki/Epidemiology
• Http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/projects/epiville/
• Http://aje.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/156/2/190
• Http://www.collegeboard.com/yes/ft/iu/units.html
• http://www.cdc.gov/

Thats all the work that I got done for today. More to come soon...

Getting Started

OK, so now that I have a rough idea down of what I want to do for my project it's time to fine tune it and really hone in on what needs to be done. The first step in my project is learning about Epidemiology. I already know a decent amount but I still have a lot more to learn before I do anything with it.

Learning about Epidemiology isn't going to be easy, but one great place to start is the Library. I am going to need to check out a few books and read up. The books that I have selected include the following:

• An applied approach to epidemiology and toxicology...
• Gute, David M.
• Biohazards: Humanity's battle with infectious disease
• Grady, Sean M.
• Tabak, John

These books seem like a good place to start. The first book will introduce me to epidemiology and the second will inform me of the infectious diseases facing the world today.

I am also going to need to set up an interview. To do this I am going to need to find and get in contact with someone in the field of Epidemiology. The University of Pittsburgh has just the place:The Department of Epidemiology. At the department of Epidemiology I can contact a professor and possibly set up an interview or even just e-mail a list of questions to be answered.
Well class time is up so I need to wrap things up for the day... I guess I'll finish tomorrow.

A New Project

Today I started working on my graduation project. For a while now I have been really unsure on what to do for my graduation project and today I started getting somewhere. I have decided that I want to do my project on something that has to do with epidemiology. Out at Pitt, every Thursday, they have a group that meets and learns about epidemiology. I would like to do something for my project with this group. Mrs. Fossum has suggested that I help teach the research class about epidemiology and I think that I would like to do something with that.