Activity: What’s a Virus?

Goal: To build an understanding of viruses using a series of learning stations.

 Procedure:

1. Rotate through the various stations listed below and complete the indicated activity described at each station.
2. On your lab sheet, identify each station you visit with its corresponding number and its title (Example: Station 1: Can You Cure a Cold?).
3. Paste any required charts or diagrams directly onto your lab sheet.

Station 1: Can You Cure a Cold?

1. Look at the cold medications on display. You may have used some of these

      products when you had a cold.

2. Read the ingredient labels on the products. Read the product claims (What does this medication claim to do for you?).
3. Complete the chart on cold medications.  Include the name of the medication and each product’s claims. 
4. Questions:

a. Which medication would you take if you had a cold?  Why?

b. Do these medications cure colds? Explain your answer.

Station 2: Articles on Common Viral Diseases

1. Select any two articles to read (chicken pox, measles, polio, rabies, bird flu).
2. For each disease record the following information:
   1. Name of the disease
   2. Its symptoms
   3. How the disease is spread
   4. Treatment
   5. Prevention

Station 3: Facts on the Common Cold

1. Read the article on the common cold and answer the following questions:
   1. Which group of people is most likely to get colds?  Why do you think this is true?
   2. What causes the common cold?
   3. Which type of virus causes 30 to 35 percent of all adult colds?
   4. Which type of virus causes a large percentage of colds?
   5. Does cold weather cause a cold?

Station 4: Reproduction of Viruses – Flow Chart Activity

1. Study the diagram on how active viruses multiply on pg. 52 in your textbook.    Illustrate and write the steps describing how an active virus multiples.

Station 5: Microbe Website

1. Go to: www.microbeworld.org/microbes/virus.
2. Answer the following questions by searching through the website:

1. What is a virus?
2. What does a virus look like?
3. Where are viruses found?
4. How does a virus reproduce?
5. What are viroids?
6. What are prions?

Station 6: Virus Video

1. View a 5-10 minute segment of the video on viruses and write three new facts you learned.
2. Be sure to write in complete statements.

Station 7: Virus Concept Map

1. Read about viruses on pgs. 48-50 in your textbook.
2. Complete the concept map.

Station 8: What’s in a Quote?

Write at least two sentences in response to the following quote:

Station 9: The Structure of a Virus

1. Sketch the basic structure of a virus.  Use the samples found at your lab station as examples.  You can use a bacteriophage as an example or any other type of virus.
2. Be sure to include the name of the virus and label its basic parts (see pgs. 50-51 in your textbook).