Foodborne Illnesses
Predict what would happen if every restaurant stopped checking food temperatures for one week.
Increased bacterial growth, more foodborne illnesses, and greater outbreak risk.
Your team has only enough funding to perform one laboratory test. Which test would you choose first, and why?
The test that would provide the most useful evidence (PCR, culture, DNA fingerprinting, etc.) for the investigation.
I can live on your skin without making you sick, but under certain conditions I can cause infection. Who am I?
Staphylococcus aureus
If two scientists disagree about the results of an experiment, what should happen next before either conclusion is accepted?
Repeat the experiment, review the data, and verify the findings
If you could invent one new technology to help scientists solve outbreaks faster, what would it do, and how would it improve investigations?
Design a realistic technology (rapid pathogen detector, AI traceback system, portable DNA analyzer, etc.) and justify its effectiveness.
A restaurant wants to spend money on only one food safety improvement. Which improvement would have the greatest impact?
Handwashing, refrigeration, employee training, or sanitation
A grocery store manager wants to prevent future outbreaks. Create one policy change that would reduce foodborne illness and explain why it would be effective.
Employee illness reporting, temperature monitoring, supplier verification, sanitation schedules, or food safety training with scientific justification.
I help decompose dead organisms and recycle nutrients in ecosystems. Without me, life on Earth would be very different. What type of microorganism am I?
Decomposer bacteria
Imagine you are designing the Mission Microbe investigation. What information would you hide from investigators at the beginning to make the investigation realistic, and why?
The contaminated food, laboratory results, supplier information, or patient interviews, and explain how the gradual revelation of information encourages evidence-based reasoning.
A health department has enough resources to investigate only one of two outbreaks. Which investigation should receive priority?
Consider severity, number of cases, spread, vulnerable populations, and public health impact.
Explain why educating customers about food safety is just as important as training restaurant employees.
Unsafe food handling at home can also cause illness.
A news station reports that strawberries caused an outbreak before the investigation is complete. Explain how this could affect both the investigation and the public.
It may spread misinformation, reduce public trust, influence interviews, hurt businesses, and cause people to ignore the true source.
I am useful in biotechnology because scientists can change my DNA to make medicines like insulin. Who am I?
Escherichia coli (E. coli)
A disease spreads through three neighboring schools. How would you decide which school investigators should visit first?
Prioritize the school with the earliest cases, the highest number of illnesses, or the strongest evidence of being the outbreak origin.
Two outbreaks have nearly identical symptoms. Explain what evidence would determine whether they are actually connected.
DNA fingerprinting, timing, food histories, laboratory testing, and traceback investigations.
Explain how to reduce foodborne illness during a large outdoor festival where refrigeration is limited.
Use coolers, monitor temperatures, cook in small batches, practice frequent handwashing, and store food safely.
Scientists discover that a food is contaminated, but removing it from stores could create food shortages in several communities. Explain how public health officials should balance these competing concerns.
Protecting public health is the priority, but officials should communicate clearly, provide alternatives, and base decisions on scientific evidence.
Compare two microbes that can cause foodborne illness and defend which would be harder to eliminate from a food-processing plant.
Listeria, Salmonella, or Norovirus
Predict what could happen if investigators wait one week before interviewing patients during an outbreak.
Memories fade, food may be discarded, new cases occur, and evidence becomes harder to collect.
Design an interview that minimizes bias while collecting information from patients.
Ask open-ended questions, avoid leading questions, collect timelines, verify responses, and compare interviews.
Design a food label that would help consumers reduce the risk of foodborne illness. Explain why each part of your label is important.
Labels may include cooking temperatures, storage instructions, expiration dates, allergy information, and cross-contamination warnings.
As investigators, what would you include in a public awareness campaign that teaches families how to prevent foodborne illness?
Handwashing, avoiding cross-contamination, proper cooking temperatures, refrigeration, and communication strategies tailored to children, teens, and adults.
You discover a microorganism with characteristics of both known and unknown species. Explain what evidence scientists would need before classifying it as a new species.
DNA sequencing, biochemical testing, morphology, reproduction, metabolism, and peer review.
Your investigation is complete. Instead of writing a report, create three recommendations for food manufacturers that would reduce the chance of another nationwide outbreak. Support each recommendation with scientific reasoning.
Environmental monitoring, employee training, improved sanitation, supplier verification, routine testing, or better traceability systems.
Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of patient interviews compared with laboratory testing during an outbreak investigation.
Interviews provide exposure information but rely on memory; laboratory testing provides objective evidence but must be interpreted with epidemiological data.