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About Infectious Disease

The Research Team

The Schools Project

Motivate

This is a permanent record of an exciting project which linked secondary and primary schools with leading researchers from the University of Cambridge in using maths and science to understand how disease spreads through populations. We are grateful to the Wellcome Foundation for funding this project.

Disease DynamicsWelcome to the Disease Dynamics pack.

WORK AND PLAY: DISEASE SPREAD, SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR

AND DATA COLLECTION IN

SCHOOLSThis research project,

funded by the Wellcome Trust, was

a collaboration between a

Mathematics Research Team in the

Department of Applied Maths and Theoretical Physics

(DAMTP) at the University of

Cambridge, the Motivate Project and

UK schools.

This project gave students and teachersthe opportunity to …

•extend the curriculum in a real-life context

•link maths and science

•participate in genuine research

•work collaboratively and/or individually on tasks both within the school and with other schools

•give presentations on their work, and to respond to questions and receive feedback on it

Pedagogic Aims of theMotivate Project:

•to enrich students’ mathematical/scientific experience and widen their educational horizons

•to build confidence & a sense of belonging to the mathematical/scientific community

•to develop creative and critical thinking, and an understanding of maths and science as relevant, living subjects

•to develop cross-curricular resources for schools

•to enable students to carry out mathematical/scientific research for themselves

Research Focus:School students collected data which was used by the research team

for research into disease dynamics.The data forms a significant and valuable data set.

Overview of topics considered during this project:The importance of understanding disease spread.The advantages and disadvantages of vaccination.The ethics of data collectionCollecting and analysing the data: how to do itWhat problems might be encounteredOvercoming problems

Schools’ part in the research:To gather baseline information about one or two local primary schools by phone or email.To go into primary schools to collect questionnaire data.To determine from the data how primary children mix with each other, focusing on interactions both within and between classes.Preliminary analysis of the data.Presentation of findings.