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Overview:
This lesson will focus on the spatial diffusion of the influenza (flu) pandemic of 1918-19. Spatial diffusion is the geographic spread of ideas, innovations, or phenomena (such as disease).
Connections to the Curriculum:
Geography, biology, history
Connections to the National Geography Standards:
Standard 17: "How to apply geography to interpret the past"
Time:
Three hours
Materials Required:
Objectives:
Students will
- trace the spatial diffusion of the influenza pandemic of 1918-19; and
- describe its effects on the regions of contact.
Geographic Skills:
Acquiring Geographic Information
Organizing Geographic Information
Answering Geographic Questions
Analyzing Geographic Information
S u g g e s t e d P r o c e d u r e
Opening:
Ask students to identify diseases that have ravaged human populations throughout history. Examples may include the bubonic plague, yellow fever, malaria, AIDS, chicken pox, measles, polio, tuberculosis, and the flu.
Have students individually list factors that would promote or hinder the spread of new strains of flu. After a few minutes, ask students to share their lists. Write their ideas on the board or a large sheet of paper. The final list should include contact with other people, unsanitary conditions, travel to other lands, and contact with other living organisms that are carriers, or "vectors," for the flu.
Development:
Have students work in small groups to research the influenza pandemic of 1918-19 in print and/or on the Internet (they might want to begin with the resources in the Related Links section, below). Items to pay particular attention to include the following:
- Location of outbreak
- Description of location (e.g., isolated region, military base, or urban area)
- Age of victims
- Number of dead in location
- Length of illness before death
- Means of prevention (e.g., gauze masks, or quarantine of individuals or villages)
- Primary means of contraction
Students should compile their findings on blank outline maps of the world, labeling them with dates of reported outbreaks, number of deaths, and possible means of contraction.
Closing:
Students should compare maps and analyze the pattern of the diffusion of the flu pandemic. Have the students look for similarities and differences in the number of deaths. What could account for some of these patterns? Have the students make generalizations about the spread of the flu.
Students should share their results with the class by identifying on a large map of the world the impacts of the disease. Have a classroom discussion on the world's preparedness for the next outbreak of an extremely lethal strain of the flu.
Suggested Student Assessment:
Tell students they will playing the role of epidemiologists (health workers who study the incidence, distribution, and control of disease) at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). They have been asked to plan a strategy to contain a virulent flu outbreak in a populous part of the world today, such as Western Europe. What features today would cause the flu to diffuse faster and farther? What features today would help slow and contain the flu? Have them write reports taking these factors into consideration, including information about more recent public health issues, such as the SARS virus.
Extending the Lesson:
Expansion diffusion can be mapped to show the extent of different flu pandemics, as well as to identify permeable barriers to the disease's spread. Have the students identify areas that were spared the flu in 1918-19. What barriers may have slowed the spread of the flu? Ask students to explain what humans have learned about the spread of disease.
Related Links:
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