Issue link: http://educator.cta.org/i/274063
W H AT WO U L D H A P P E N if a disease turned normal human beings into roaming, hungry, flesh-eating zombies? This scenario has been the subject of movies (Night of the Living Dead and sequels) and the monster TV hit "The Walking Dead." Now, a possible zombie apocalypse is being used to bring science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) to life in schools across the country, including the class- room of Katie Martinez at Canyon Crest Academy in San Diego. The zombie scenario begins with a video explaining that a virus has infected humans. They stagger around, no longer speak, and eat noninfected humans. Although zombies aren't real, it's a fun way to learn how disease can spread and how populations suffer the effects of real viruses like influ- enza, says Martinez, San Dieguito Faculty Association. Students discuss which parts of the brain might cause a person to become a zombie. The cerebellum, for example, controls walking. The classes discuss how real viruses (flu) and diseases affect certain parts of the brain. Then, for the math portion, students track how the disease spreads and write an equation showing the curve of the infection rate. Students are asked to use their graphing calculators to estimate at which point the number of zombies and the number of humans would become equal, and what variable would affect this point. "The rate of any disease will eventually decrease because of many factors," Martinez explains. "The main factors are lack of food (healthy humans) and lack of additional targets to infect. For other epidemics, factors may include the development of a vaccine or the elimination of a vector, which is the source that carries or distributes the pathogen, such as mosquitoes, rats or other organisms." The National Academy of Science and Texas Instru- ments (which creates the large graphing calculators) teamed up to create STEM Behind Hollywood, a program that creates STEM lessons based on zom- bies, superheroes, space and forensics. For the zombie lessons, Texas Instruments consulted with Dr. Steve Schlozman, an assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and author of The Zombie Autopsies: Secret Notebooks from the Apocalypse. The result is a blend of science, Hollywood and math in a format that's fun and engaging for middle school and high school students. B Y S H E R R Y P O S N I C K - G O O D W I N Zombies bring STEM education to life P H O T O G R A P H Y B Y S C O T T B U S C H M A N Learning S tuden ts determine how quickly people become zombie s, and calculate the impact of developing v accine s or eliminating vectors. Best practice 42 M A R C H 2 0 1 4 Educator 03 Mar 2014 v2.0 int.indd 42 3/6/14 10:53 AM