SMALLPOX-I Curricular Materials
A General Introduction to the Epidemic Spread of Disease

This packet contains the curricular material for our first module on the Biology and History of Smallpox. These materials are based on original products of the Waters Center for System Dynamics (the precursor of CIESD) where they were used in an undergraduate course, “Plagues and People,” that examined the impact of epidemic disease on human history. They have since been honed and adapted for use in pre-college settings with the support of the CC_SUSTAIN project funded by NSF and administered through the Portland, OR Public Schools.

Download these files

If you have difficulty downloading these files, right click (Mac: control click) on the link and select 'Save Link As' (Mac: 'Download Link to Disk')

• Small-Pox.zip (890kb) - (PC)
• Small-Pox.sit (1.02mb) - (MAC)

Within this folder you should find:

1. “IntroEpidemic” (Adobe Acrobat file): This is the core curricular material that guides participants through a sequence of activities and explorations beginning with a physical simulation of an epidemic, through a participatory definition of the factors and relationships controlling the dynamics of that particular outbreak, to construction of a computer simulation that facilitates examination of various policy options for affecting that outbreak.
2. “Electronic Materials” (Folder): Five files are included here:
   • “SD1998-02BegModelExercises!” (Adobe Acrobat File): This is an exploration of Stock and Flow structures originally built by MIT students under the direction of Jay Forrester. It is part of a larger set of materials called “RoadMaps” that is available for distribution from the Creative Learning Exchange. We use this exercise to help students develop a greater facility in understanding and being able to distinguish stocks and flows.
   • “STELLA7 Models” (Folder): This folder contains 4 STELLA models. One model (“SoloEpid”) provides a means for one individual to experience the Epidemic Game physical simulation, should that individual have missed the group experience or if the group is too small to utilize the exercise. Two other three models are templates to provide students with opportunity and guidance in building a simple contagion computer model. The final model (“ExtBasIn”) provides an opportunity to extend that basic contagion model.

Each of the four models requires STELLA 7, or a later version, of that modeling software. A “Demo” version of the software can be obtained from IseeSystems, Inc., if necessary for this purpose.