Challenge 1: Why is Testing So Important?

Visit & Read

• The CDC website: “Test for Further Infection”.
  • “Considerations for who should get tested”.

Use

• Work through the “Coronavirus Self-checker” to learn about when it is appropriate to seek testing and appropriate medical care, according to the CDC.

Answer: Respond to the survey questions using the profile of this patient:

• (It’s okay to Agree to disclosure)
• Lives in Hartford, Connecticut
• Answer for someone else
• No life-threatening symptoms
• Age: 45
• Feeling ill
• Female
• Not sure if this person had contact with another person who was diagnosed with COVID-19
• Showing these symptoms: feeling feverish, coughing, sore throat
• Live in a single family home
• They work as an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT)

Reflect & Discuss

• What should this person do?

Optional

• Complete the “Coronavirus Self-checker” again, using a profile you create and share your results.

Read

It’s the end of a long and really boring summer of social distancing. You haven’t seen your friends in so long, rarely even been outside of your house, and you’re even becoming tired of mindlessly scrolling through your phone. So, when you get a mass group text from one of your close friends, proposing an informal get together in the local park this weekend, you can feel yourself getting amped.

On Saturday after dinner, you kick your skateboard out the front door and shout to your parents, who are watching tv, that you will be home by nine and that you “just need some air.”

At the park you can see a few of your friends and teammates hanging around the swings and you head over, noting how different everyone looks; some guys have longer hair, a few of the girls have new hairstyles and have obviously been to a hair salon. You note with relief that most of them are wearing a mask, and you pull yours back on too, feeling less awkward.

It’s good to see everyone again and, after a few awkward fist and elbow bumps, you all begin laughing and catching up. As the sun sets, the crowd grows, it’s so good to relax and see everyone looking almost the same as that weird week when school shut down and the whole world went virtual.

For about two and a half hours you laugh and joke, circulating around the informal party, occasionally taking off your mask for a quick selfie with your best friends, posting and sharing.

One week later your mom tells you that school won’t be starting with in-person classes as they had hoped to do. She says the principal has based it on an uptick in students at the school testing positive for the Covid 19 virus, and she suggests you get a test also. You remind her you haven’t left the house since mid-February and you think getting tested is useless.

Watch & Reflect

• "What's the Difference Between Asymptomatic and Presymptomatic Spread of COVID-19?”

Ask

• Write 3 questions for your classmates to answer based on the material.

Discuss

• Use your questions to guide a whole-class discussion about the asymptomatic and presymptomatic spread of COVID-19.

Read & Analyze

• Read through the webpage and review the charts included in “Is Your State Doing Enough Coronavirus Testing?”

Draw Conclusions, Share & Discuss

• Based on the series of charts, make 3-5 claims based on evidence from the data. (You may also cite other sources to support your claims.)

Reflect & Discuss

• Make three claims based on evidence after reviewing these data.
• Some have said that “if you test less, we’ll have fewer cases.” Do you agree or disagree? Use at least two sources to support your claim.

Reflect & Write

Should testing be limited to people with flu-like symptoms or should anyone be able to get a test even if they are asymptomatic? Include at least 3 sources of evidence using data to support your claim.