Summer 2010: Epidemic, Past and Present

HENDERSON SUMMER (formerly DAWSON SUMMER) 2010 - EPIDEMIC: PAST AND PRESENT

Few things have done more to shape human history than outbreaks of epidemic or pandemic disease.
For five weeks in the sumer of 2010, students from Las Vegas and Colorado worked with public health officials, doctors, governmental leaders and others to explore such questions as:

• What is a virus?
• How do viruses mutate?
• How can viruses move from person to person?
• What are some ways of preventing viruses from infecting a person?
• What can past epidemics and flus teach us? How can epidemics affect the economy?
• What questions about individual and human rights does preventing the spread of flu raise?
• How does free travel and globalization affect epidemic outbreaks?
• What are the privacy implications of a flu outbreak?
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Working together, students applied the knowledge and skills they gained over the summer to address real world concerns. Teams of students worked on projects that integrated insights gained from all disciplines. The final projects were showcased at Colorado University, Boulder's ATLAS Building and Vegas PBS studios.  The projects included individual pandemic contigency plans for three local Boulder, Colo. businesses, a hand washing campaign to be implemented in third grade classtooms, a mock trial based on a ficticious case in Las Vegas - heard by a judge at the Regional Justice Center, large scale models of the most germ ridden rooms in a house and interactive displays using iPads, video projection and graphic recordings.