Page 24 of 28
Re: Disease Detectives B/C
Posted: April 28th, 2011, 4:27 pm
by QuantumLeaper
Munchkin13 wrote:What place did u guys get at state???? I got fifth.
2nd, but only because the person I was working with is scary smart. She'll be graduating next year though!
I definitely want to do this event next year, I just won't have a partner...
Anyway:
umador wrote:hopefully, if the subtopic is followed, we'll be primarily tested on foodborne (vehicle borne) illnesses, so fingers crossed that CDC will follow that
Can anyone give me examples of other topics that they've done for this event?
Re: Disease Detectives B/C
Posted: April 28th, 2011, 4:32 pm
by srsvball95
QuantumLeaper wrote:umador wrote:hopefully, if the subtopic is followed, we'll be primarily tested on foodborne (vehicle borne) illnesses, so fingers crossed that CDC will follow that
Can anyone give me examples of other topics that they've done for this event?
For the past two years it's been population growth and I think they've also had (correct me if I'm wrong) global warming/pollution heath issues
Re: Disease Detectives B/C
Posted: April 29th, 2011, 11:52 am
by Flavorflav
prelude to death wrote:Yes, I agree with you Kevlar, having also taken the same test myself. Although, I have to say that you did better than me.... >.< (And we lost your team by one point, if the results turn out to be official.)
I felt like at Regionals, my partner and I didn't really focus that much on food-borne illnesses, so thye put on like, 10 questions about food-borne illnesses on there. And then, at State, we updated the cheat sheet and expanded some of the information on there to include food-borne illnesses, so of course, they ask us to compute using chi-squares and to answer questions about vaccines and viral and bacterial infections, right? (I have the worst luck ever....)
There was also a question I was unsure of: If a highly contagious disease breaks out amongst a population, and the population is pretty big, so one person = less than 1%, then 0% of the population will be infected if t = 0. Draw the shape of the graph for when t = 100. When t = 100, 100% of the population will be infected. Assume that the disease is incurable until t = 100, so once you get the disease, you cannot be cured of it until t = 100.(Hint: The line/graph will not be linear.)
Or, the question might have been less vague. It was somewhat like that. So, does anyone else know what the shape of the graph should roughly look like? (Kevlar, tell me if I missed any details.)
Google SIR graph or SIR curve and you will see the shape.
Re: Disease Detectives B/C
Posted: April 30th, 2011, 10:31 am
by havenguy
Noooooooo. We got 3rd at states for disease. We were expecting first. Oh well. We'll see how it goes for nationals.
Re: Disease Detectives B/C
Posted: April 30th, 2011, 12:39 pm
by Archy Middle
1st in state.
People should expect it to be mainly calculations anyway, Epidemiology is the analysis of outbreaks, except for initiating prevention and establishing cases everything should be mathematics based.
Re: Disease Detectives B/C
Posted: April 30th, 2011, 3:40 pm
by Luo
Archy Middle wrote:People should expect it to be mainly calculations anyway, Epidemiology is the analysis of outbreaks, except for initiating prevention and establishing cases everything should be mathematics based.
Interestingly enough, the Disease Detectives test at the Minnesota state tournament had no calculations whatsoever on it. It was all essay-style questions and a few fill-in-the-blanks about specific food-borne illnesses. So although calculations are a significant part of the event in general, they aren't a significant part of every test you'll see.
Re: Disease Detectives B/C
Posted: April 30th, 2011, 3:56 pm
by Infinity Flat
luo wrote:Archy Middle wrote:People should expect it to be mainly calculations anyway, Epidemiology is the analysis of outbreaks, except for initiating prevention and establishing cases everything should be mathematics based.
Interestingly enough, the Disease Detectives test at the Minnesota state tournament had no calculations whatsoever on it. It was all essay-style questions and a few fill-in-the-blanks about specific food-borne illnesses. So although calculations are a significant part of the event in general, they aren't a significant part of every test you'll see.
In general, I'd say that there are 3 main areas of focus for Disease Detectives.
1. Critical Thinking - By far the most important. Being able to understand the significance of each piece of evidence related to an outbreak is essential if you want to be able to do well in this event.
2. Calculations / Case Studies - Knowing how to get and what to do with the data can earn you a lot of easy points on the tests
3. Specific Knowledge (Diseases, Methods of Transmission, Epidemiological History) - This is acquired by reading and taking notes.
Re: Disease Detectives B/C
Posted: May 4th, 2011, 9:12 pm
by EpicFailure
For this particular topic (food-borne), is it necessary to have a lab confirmation that the microbe was found in the food before notifying the public of possible source of disease i.e. recalling products?
Re: Disease Detectives B/C
Posted: May 5th, 2011, 2:02 pm
by The Eviscerator
EpicFailure wrote:For this particular topic (food-borne), is it necessary to have a lab confirmation that the microbe was found in the food before notifying the public of possible source of disease i.e. recalling products?
I don't think so. It is a good idea to recall products if you know that the source of disease was there even if you don't specifically know what microbe it was.
Re: Disease Detectives B/C
Posted: May 7th, 2011, 8:20 pm
by EpicFailure
Thanks. Does anyone know how to tell Cross-Sectional studies apart from others? I've been having a lot of trouble doing that and it's not always as simple as "just a survey".