By: Bethany
On Friday, November 6th, our school’s Honors Biology and AP Human Geography classes went to Shoreline Jr. High for a field trip. On this field trip, they participated in Operation Outbreak. Operation Outbreak is a virtual simulation where students care for an avatar during a virus outbreak.
A few students got the chance to work in roles, like healthcare workers, biomedical researchers, and more, to try and protect the population from the outbreak. Thanks to these workers, they found out that the virus was Hantavirus and created a vaccine.
If students didn’t have a specific role, they worked in family groups to answer quiz questions about biology for money. They could use their money to buy masks as well as medicine, to prevent getting sick. Our students learned about how outbreaks can affect the population and how they can change our bodies’ immune systems.
Students at Utah Valley University conducted this study to learn more about outbreaks and how people behave during one. We are so glad our students got to take part in this amazing learning opportunity!