The Plague WebQuest

In this activity you will explore the origins of the Black Death and how it spread, the symptoms of the plague, treatments offered during the Late Middle Ages, and the overall impacts of the Black Death on Europe.

Before you get started, open a new Word document. You will record your responses to each of the activities below on your Word doc. when you are finished, submit your document on your BLOG and call it The Plague Webquest (click on Add Media to upload the word document).

Part 1 – What is a “Plague”?

Go to the CDC  (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.website and answer these questions:

1) What is the plague? Write a definition for this disease in your own words.

2) How do you get infected with the plague virus? Write a description of the ways you can be infected, in your own words.

Part 2 – Where did it start?

Go to this PBS  (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.website and answer this question:

1) Where did the plague start and how/where did it spread? Write out the locations the plague spread to in chronological order.

Part 3 – Reactions to the Plague

Go to Eyewitness  (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.History and read the third paragraph (Varying reactions to the disaster) then, answer this question:

1) Make a list of the different ways people of the Middle Ages reacted to news of the plague. Aim for 3-4 different reactions.

Part 4 – Symptoms and Treatment

Go to this page to read about symptoms (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. and this page to read about treatments  (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.of the plague, then answer these questions:

1) Summarize the symptoms of the plague by identifying the four types of plague and their associated symptoms.

2) Summarize the treatments available during the Middle Ages- how successful do you think these treatments were?

Part 5 – Reducing the Threat

Three ways to reduce the threat of plague are: sanitation, insecticide, and antibiotics. Unfortunately, people in the Middle Ages did not have these luxuries. People didn’t know what caused the plague or how to properly treat it and Doctors had to try very hard not to become infected themselves.  How did Doctors protect themselves?  Did it work?

Part 6

STOP and UPLOAD the WORD DOCUMENT TO YOUR BLOG.  Answer the following question as closure or exit slip to this activity on your BLOG!

Why study the Plague?

(MS WORD DOCUMENT FROM WEBQUEST)

Watch this TedEd video, then write a response on your Blog.  Why is it important for us to study the causes and impacts of diseases that happened in the past?

 

Other videos if you are interesting in the Science behind it.

https://www.pbs.org/video/gross-science-what-black-plague/