The Gist

Using simulations and role play, students explore how knowledge, social influences, access, and policy all influence whether individuals vaccinate. They then see how vaccination rates of a community determine whether an outbreak turns into an epidemic or gets stopped in its tracks.

Driving Question(s):

How do our individual decisions impact public health?
How are vaccination decisions shaped by a combination of personal beliefs and other societal factors?
What is herd immunity and why is it important?

Hook(s):

Features the custom built Community Immunity simulation that uses storytelling, rich data visualizations, and light gamification to make complex public health and research concepts understandable. Through a beautiful and easy-to-follow storyline, they’ll see how knowledge about disease characteristics (e.g. R₀), relative risks of vaccination versus sickness, and social influences drive individual decision making. They’ll unpack how everyone’s individual decisions drive community vaccination rates that determine whether herd immunity is met and see in detail how vaccinations control the probability of who gets sick or hospitalized during an outbreak.
Features personal stories and research from a public health expert whose mother developed polio as a child and two Vanderbilt researchers exploring connections between knowledge, social influences, access, and policy affect vaccination patterns.

Estimated time2 x 45 min classes

Grades8-12