Samantha becomes ill with malaria symptoms on a family trip to Malawi. The student is determined to find out how to prevent and end malaria in order to help Samantha recover. The lesson plan involves creating an online "Malaria Handbook" wiki and blog to educate others about malaria symptoms, transmission, prevention through mosquito nets and eradication efforts. Students will research malaria prevalence in Africa, UN prevention goals and conduct interviews to complete the online resources and a school event promoting net use.

1. Saving Samantha: Malaria,
Prevention and Eradication
A Wiki Based Lesson Plan
By
Ellen Rosner Feig
All images courtesy of ONE.org and Malaria No More

2. Synopsis of Lesson
• On a family trip to Malawi, your thirteen year old
sister and twin, Sammie, becomes ill with fevers,
chills, nausea and vomiting. The doctors in the
local emergency room have told your parents
that Sammie is suffering from malaria and that
she will need to be treated with medicine in
order to get well. Fearing for your other half, you
are determined to find out everything you can
about malaria including how to prevent and end
it in order to help get Sammie well.

3. Teacher Resources
• Teachers will need to:
– Set up a class page on Wikibooks and give
students access (www.wikibooks.com)
– Set up a class project page on Wikiversity and give
students access (www.wikiversity.com)
– Create a handout with rules on how to use both
sites
– Create a grading rubric

4. Goals of Lesson
• Project:
To create a class “Malaria Handbook” online
and offline that includes glossary
To create a class blog
To create group PSAs
To create a school wide “Under the Nets”
event

5. Prior Skills/Knowledge Needed
•Students should be able to use the Internet to access material including
journal articles, news article and research
•Students should have basic concept of what a Wiki is, how to use one and
the advantages and disadvantages of the resource
•Students should have the ability to engage in research; accordingly, all
students should have received lessons in information literacy including how
to access library resources, how to research, how to use MLA to cite and
how to find proper resources

6. Questions to be Considered
What is malaria? What are its symptoms? How
serious is it?
How is malaria contracted? Do all mosquitoes carry
the disease?
Why is malaria more prevalent in Africa? When did its
prevalence end in America?
How can malaria be prevented?
What is the world doing to prevent the disease?
What can I do to help stop the spread of malaria?

7. Activities
– Identify areas of the world most affected by malaria and create a malaria map
– Understand the ways people contract malaria and write a prevention one-
sheet
– Work Together in your groups to create a Public Service Announcement that
showcases prevention tools including net
– Research and Create a malaria handbook for use in middle schools across the
globe
– Research UN Millennium Development Goals and how the world is working
towards them
– Use Technology to develop a class Wiki (using Weebly or Wikispaces) that
includes a glossary of all terminology
– Design and Create a class blog that includes answers to all of the project
questions
– Interview leaders in the area of prevention and eradication including staff at
Malaria No More
– Plan an event that showcases the important role that nets can play

8. Technology Resources
Wikibooks at www.wikibooks.org
Wikiversity at wikiversity.org
Bergen Community College library online at http://www.bergen.edu/library
Class blog page at http://tellingthemalariastory.weebly.com

9. Outcomes
Students will be able to:
Read and understand a variety of materials.
2. Read, select, and make use of relevant information from a variety of
media, reference, and technological sources.
3. Use data collection and analysis, statistics, and probability in problem-
solving situations and communicate the reasoning used in solving these
problems.
4. Use a variety of tools and techniques to measure, apply the results in
problem-solving situations, and communicate the reasoning used in
solving these problems.
5. Know and understand interrelationships among science, technology,
and human activity and how they affect the world.
6. Understand that science involves a particular way of knowing and
understand common connections among scientific disciplines.

10. Advantages v. Disadvantages
• Students learn
fundamental
information literacy
skills including research,
analysis, citing
• All resources are free to
use
• Concepts are easy and
can be used in any
discipline
• Learning curve for using
a wiki can be high
depending upon
student
• Concern over ability of
others to edit and
change wiki information