as hands-on lab activity. The lecture consists of an introduction to the characteristics, causes, and symptoms of STD prevalence, disease ecology, and influence of different social factors affecting the geographical spread of the disease. The laboratory curriculum consists of carefully selected and designed problems that demand from the learner acquisition of critical knowledge, problem-solving self-directed learning strategies, and team participation skills. Students are given open-ended projects or problems with more than one approach or answer, intended to simulate professional situations. The PBL learning approaches are as student-centered and include the teacher in the role of facilitator or coach. Advantages of PBL include the encouragement of student initiative, self-directedness, inventiveness, and independence. However, the PBL demands from students a heightened level of self motivation, and ability to organize their own work plans. The dataset and GIS exercise are introduced to the students after the completion of the lectures on the bacterial and microbial infections, Sexual Transmitted Diseases (STDs) and Epidemiology. Also, the students are introduced to the concept of GIS and the applications of GIS in various fields of study including the biological sciences. By the end of the course, students will develop a comprehensive understanding of the health data and its interpretation at the local and regional scales during multiple years. The exercise modules given are divided into Parts 1 to 4. Depending on the available class time, class size, class type, student level, availability of the computers, software, and the speed of the internet connection, the faculty can decide which parts of the exercise to use or whether to use all the exercise modules in sequence. The faculty can use the ESRI ArcGIS software as shown in the student worksheets or can also use any other open source GIS software such as (QGIS) to complete these exercises. Part 1: Downloading, analyzing, building and Interpreting the STD datasets The 1: Downloading, analyzing, building and interpreting the STD datasets” “Part will help the students explore the different disease datasets available on the CDC website. This module is suitable for one class period. This includes chlamydia, gonorrhea, HIV, TB, viral hepatitis and different stages of syphilis. The instructor can make the students download the datasets at the national, state or county level within each state. The students then can download the data based on multiple years, sex, age, and geography.
as hands-on lab activity. The lecture consists of an introduction to the characteristics, causes, and symptoms of STD prevalence, disease ecology, and influence of different social factors affecting the geographical spread of the disease. The laboratory curriculum consists of carefully selected and designed problems that demand from the learner acquisition of critical knowledge, problem-solving self-directed learning strategies, and team participation skills. Students are given open-ended projects or problems with more than one approach or answer, intended to simulate professional situations. The PBL learning approaches are as student-centered and include the teacher in the role of facilitator or coach. Advantages of PBL include the encouragement of student initiative, self-directedness, inventiveness, and independence. However, the PBL demands from students a heightened level of self motivation, and ability to organize their own work plans. The dataset and GIS exercise are introduced to the students after the completion of the lectures on the bacterial and microbial infections, Sexual Transmitted Diseases (STDs) and Epidemiology. Also, the students are introduced to the concept of GIS and the applications of GIS in various fields of study including the biological sciences. By the end of the course, students will develop a comprehensive understanding of the health data and its interpretation at the local and regional scales during multiple years. The exercise modules given are divided into Parts 1 to 4. Depending on the available class time, class size, class type, student level, availability of the computers, software, and the speed of the internet connection, the faculty can decide which parts of the exercise to use or whether to use all the exercise modules in sequence. The faculty can use the ESRI ArcGIS software as shown in the student worksheets or can also use any other open source GIS software such as (QGIS) to complete these exercises. Part 1: Downloading, analyzing, building and Interpreting the STD datasets The “Part 1: Downloading, analyzing, building and interpreting the STD datasets” will help the students explore the different disease datasets available on the CDC website. This module is suitable for one class period. This includes chlamydia, gonorrhea, HIV, TB, viral hepatitis and different stages of syphilis. The instructor can make the students download the datasets at the national, state or county level within each state. The students then can download the data based on multiple years, sex, age, and geography.