veski inspiring students lesson 10: wolbachia

Overview 

In this video, Professor Cameron Simmons talks about the bacterium Wolbachia and the prevention of the mosquito spread virus dengue. Professor Simmons introduces the Wolbachia strain and talks about how it works in Dengue prevention, the areas it’s used in and the future of dengue prevention. 

This video and activities are suitable for middle to senior secondary school students with a solid basic knowledge of science terms.

Key objectives

• Understand the concept of Wolbachia Bacterium.
• Gain an understanding of how Wolbachia stops dengue growing inside mosquitos.
• Understand how research can help prevent this emerging disease.

Background information

• Video (3 minutes 49 seconds)
• Biography: Professor Cameron Simmons
• Eliminate Dengue Project
• Glossary of key terms
• Lesson guide

Activities

• Activity 1: Interpretation of Wolbachia population data
• Activity 2: Wolbachia questions and discussion
• Activity 3: Essay topic

Categories

Bacteria, Wolbachia. Mosquitos