Subscribe

9th grade · Science · Unit 4 of 14

Infectious Disease

Germs, vaccines, antibiotics and how diseases change.

What your child practices

Practices pathogens, vaccines, antibiotics and antibiotic resistance, mutations and strains, waning immunity, and public health measures that limit the spread of disease.

Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) teks student expectation: B.5(D) · pathogens, how disease spreads, and antibiotic resistance

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. A pathogen is a virus or organism that causes disease.
  2. Vaccines train the immune system; immunity can wane over time. Antibiotics treat bacteria only.
  3. Take antibiotics exactly as directed to help prevent resistance. Hand washing and staying home limit spread.

Example: Why should you finish an antibiotic prescription exactly as directed? Stopping early can leave the toughest bacteria alive. Those can grow into a resistant population. Answer: to help prevent antibiotic resistance

Infectious Disease in Texas

In the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS), this is unit 4 of 14 in 9th grade Science, after Microbes & the Immune System and before Evolution & Selection.

Gradelings describes a child's practice on this unit as Beginning, Approaching, Meeting or Exceeding (Four practice steps). That reflects practice, not a report-card mark: the teacher decides the mark.

Source: Texas Education Agency (TEA)

Sample questions

A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.

  1. Question 1

    Mutations in a virus can lead to…

    • new strains
    • a vaccine becoming a bacterium
    • fewer genes

  2. Question 2

    Antibiotics are used to treat infections caused by…

    • stress
    • viruses
    • bacteria

  3. Question 3

    Preventative medicine includes…

    • waiting to get sick
    • vaccines and hand washing
    • only taking medicine after symptoms

  4. Question 4

    Waning immunity means…

    • protection from a vaccine or past infection fades over time
    • germs get stronger every year
    • immunity is always permanent

  5. Question 5

    A pathogen is…

    • a type of antibody
    • a kind of vitamin
    • an organism or virus that causes disease

  6. Question 6

    Why is high vaccination coverage important for babies who are too young to be vaccinated?

    • it replaces breastmilk
    • it lowers the chance they meet the disease
    • it makes them older

More 9th grade