Malaria Challenge! Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute

Thursday, 31 May 2012 14:32

Malaria challenge is a free multimedia educational resource that raises awareness of malaria by exploring the different stages of the Plasmodium lifecycle and discussing methods for treating and preventing the disease. The resource contains 3D animations, scientific images and videos of the parasite as well as interviews with world leading malaria researchers. Malaria Challenge has been created by the Public Engagement team at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in partnership with scientists from the Institute’s Malaria research programme.

Malaria Challenge is accompanied by two short films, Malaria: an introduction and Can malaria be eradicated? There are also three different discussion-based activities which use the resource as a research tool and can be used in the classroom with 14-18 year old students.

The three discussion activities are:

The Big Debate: Students use the Malaria Challenge resource to research one of five different stages of the malaria lifecycle. In groups they investigate the biology behind the different stages and how they fit into the overall lifecycle. They also identify different intervention methods that are used to target the different stages and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of these interventions.
Funding Decisions: Students are given a hypothetical pot of money which they can use to fund one or more malaria intervention projects. In groups they must discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the projects and decide which project(s) should receive funding.
Managing Malaria: Students play the role of malaria programme managers for a community in an area affected by malaria. In groups they must assess the situation facing the community and propose a strategy that will work towards eliminating malaria from that area.

The resource and all of the supporting materials can be downloaded for free from http://www.yourgenome.org/landing_teachers.shtml

They are also available on CD just email pubengage@sanger.ac.uk for more information.

mc third screen shot