Psuedo-Virus

Team: 20

School: Bloomfield High

Area of Science: Biology

Interim: Proposal:

Background: The Black Death also known as: Bubonic plague. It is an infection caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis. The bacteria are found mainly in rats and in the fleas that feed on them. People and other animals can get plague from rat or flea bites. Historically, plague destroyed entire civilizations. In the 1300s, the "Black Death," as it was called, killed approximately one-third of Europe's population. Today plague is uncommon. This is largely due to better living conditions and antibiotics.
Our plan is to model the effect of a pseudo-virus in today’s society; we will reference the bubonic plague. We will incorporate the population of the entire country and include variables such as: vaccines, immunities, and other factors that could allow/disallow a person to become infected. This pseudo-virus vaccine will be produced within a month of the first outbreak (of 10 Deaths).


Introduction:

Our team will be studying the effects of a pseudo-virus release in our society. Currently our field of range is a county. We hope to increase the size of the population to at least one state. We will be modeling our virus after the Swine flu virus, which just recently became a problem back in the beginning of 2009.

The Problem:

In our society today, pandemics have begun and will continue to spread through our nation. As with H1N1 (aka Swine Flu), a virus made up of six different types of influenza, was able to spread globally within a matter of months. H1N1 is our control variable and will be a reference for our project.






What we Plan to do:
We plan to produce a model of the affects of a pseudo-virus release in one county. The virus will be new and will have no vaccine for it at the initial pandemic. The virus will be modeled after our current day virus, H1N1. This will help us in determining how long it may spread and other variables that could affect immunities.



Progress
Currently we have had Net Logo sessions with a few challenge members. I, Jon, have started on my program for this model. Matt, Cameron and Kimi have been working diligently on the poster and the website.



Team Members: Jon Romero, Jaron Hubele, Matt Crockett, Cameron Corley, and Kimi McDaniel



Sponsoring Teacher: Elvira K. Crockett, Science Teacher

Works Cited

Net, Medicine.Plaque (Black Death). 2009. 8 December 2009 http://www.medicinenet.com/plague/article.htm

Net, CDC. Bioterrorism. 2009. 8 December 2009 http://www.bt.cdc.gov/bioterrorism/

Team Members:

  jaron hubele
  Jon Romero
  Cameron Corley
  Matt Crockett
  Kimi McDaniel

Sponsoring Teacher: elvira crockett

Mail the entire Team