Enrichment Trips (2024-2025)
September 5th
David J. Sencer CDC Museum
Proceeding the initial security check of the cars and parking of the cars, the majority of my fellow STEM juniors and I entered the building where we affirmed our presence through the checking of our names on a sheet of paper and continued to the security checkpoint where our personal items were scanned and returned to us after we walked through a different scanner. Thereafter, we were met by the guide and were given devices so that we could hear her clearly and sat down in a circular seating arrangement with an overhang to the museum on one side. Above the overhang were multiple screens which came to initiate our tour of the museum as it discussed the prevention of polio spread in India. During this, it was learned that India had the largest concentration of polio cases in the world by the time the effort to reduce its fruition had begun of which during that time period, more than five countries were endemic with polio. However, the endemic of polio in India did come to cease with these efforts and the number of countries with endemics was reduced to two. The vaccine given was administered orally as drops to children as it would be a faster method of distribution and vaccine type creates immunity that typically lasts a lifetime. Before and after the video, the guide explained that her job at the CDC before/in addition to being a guide at the museum was that which required DNA sequencing, growth of bacterial samples, etc. She latter explained that she initially wanted to be in school college for something chemistry related though it changed to microbiology/biochemistry. Proceeding the video, we observed the temporary art exhibit upstairs which featured that which people made during the pandemic including bunnies that seemed to have antigens and the deaths in the U.S. depicted similarly to the circles on a tree, of which better growth would coincide with increased number of deaths which was half a floor down. We entered the main exhibit on the bottom level where we were told of the beginnings of general health care organizations as well as the CDC itself. The initial organization listed was the Merchant Hospital Service which was intended to maintain the health of merchants as they would be ones likely to contract disease from areas outside the U.S. Though, they also were concerned for the health of the public and later emphasized this through changing the name to account for it. This would latter develop into the U.S. public health service. With the U.S.’s joining of World War I, there came to be a large abundance of soldiers that were located to Georgia and other Southern states for training. As there were an abundance of mosquitos in the area, many of the soldiers being trained contracted malaria spread by the parasites, killing or incapacitating many of them. In response, there was an effort by the U.S. Public Health Service to spread larvicide, greatly reducing mosquito populations which would prevent assertation of malaria through them and in this process, the CDC was created which would be based in Atlanta. Thereafter, we went to a section that detailed the outbreak of polio in the United States which included use of technologies such as the iron lung to enable breathing in patients with polio as it ranged from not having an effect on a person’s movement to reducing function of lungs and lower body typically starting from the feet and upward. Additionally, it was mentioned that as technologies developed that allowed for greater mobility or comfort to enable breathing some preferred older technologies to newer ones. The next section decerned the movement to end smallpox endemics, displaying tools such as ped-o-jets and various needles which were used to administer smallpox vaccines through puncturing the skin. A section was presented thereafter decerning a case study on determining the cause of an unrecognized respiratory disease including the process of affirming that it was a single disease based off symptoms, such as presence of cultured bacteria from samples of bodily fluid, fever, vomiting, age, etc., identifying the location that all that were ill had been to, being the Bellevue-Standford Hotel in Pennsylvania, the process used to identify where the pathogen was positioned that caused the disease, taking samples from various common surfaces, and method for confirming presence of a pathogen through culturing samples. It was determined that the cooling agent for the air conditioning contained the bacteria that caused the disease. The tour guide then detailed CDC partnerships with other government organizations such as with NASA preluding and proceeding the Apollo 11 moon mission as to ensure that no diseases are spread from Earth to other orbiting bodies and vise versa through ensuring cleanliness of pod before launch and putting the astronauts in isolation when they landed. The tour then lightly detailed the HIV outbreak highlighting the importance of the populace to not assume that a disease is centered in only one or multiple niches of people, especially when caused by a pathogen, unless there has been thorough research upon it. Then the prospect of an epidemiologists identifying of the source of a pathogen in the food industry concerning the possible locations (producer, processing, shipping and store) as well as the risk factors such as the loss of revenue by one of these groups. An incident involved a Blue Bunny packaging plant in which multiple machines had to be tested. The last section that the tour was over decerned Guinea Worm through how it spreads, through being ingested as a larva after which it grows to eventually reach extremities where it sends a burning sensation, triggering the host to place the appendage in water where it releases its larva, and organizations that promote protection against it including the Guinea Worm Eradication Program under the Cater Center. At the end of the tour, we attained cards with descriptions of pathogens as well as medical interventions to use against them and learned that the tour guide originally went to college for a degree related to chemistry, yet changed to microbiology and biochemistry to then have a lab job.
September 5th
David J. Sencer CDC Museum
Proceeding the initial security check of the cars and parking of the cars, the majority of my fellow STEM juniors and I entered the building where we affirmed our presence through the checking of our names on a sheet of paper and continued to the security checkpoint where our personal items were scanned and returned to us after we walked through a different scanner. Thereafter, we were met by the guide and were given devices so that we could hear her clearly and sat down in a circular seating arrangement with an overhang to the museum on one side. Above the overhang were multiple screens which came to initiate our tour of the museum as it discussed the prevention of polio spread in India. During this, it was learned that India had the largest concentration of polio cases in the world by the time the effort to reduce its fruition had begun of which during that time period, more than five countries were endemic with polio. However, the endemic of polio in India did come to cease with these efforts and the number of countries with endemics was reduced to two. The vaccine given was administered orally as drops to children as it would be a faster method of distribution and vaccine type creates immunity that typically lasts a lifetime. Before and after the video, the guide explained that her job at the CDC before/in addition to being a guide at the museum was that which required DNA sequencing, growth of bacterial samples, etc. She latter explained that she initially wanted to be in school college for something chemistry related though it changed to microbiology/biochemistry. Proceeding the video, we observed the temporary art exhibit upstairs which featured that which people made during the pandemic including bunnies that seemed to have antigens and the deaths in the U.S. depicted similarly to the circles on a tree, of which better growth would coincide with increased number of deaths which was half a floor down. We entered the main exhibit on the bottom level where we were told of the beginnings of general health care organizations as well as the CDC itself. The initial organization listed was the Merchant Hospital Service which was intended to maintain the health of merchants as they would be ones likely to contract disease from areas outside the U.S. Though, they also were concerned for the health of the public and later emphasized this through changing the name to account for it. This would latter develop into the U.S. public health service. With the U.S.’s joining of World War I, there came to be a large abundance of soldiers that were located to Georgia and other Southern states for training. As there were an abundance of mosquitos in the area, many of the soldiers being trained contracted malaria spread by the parasites, killing or incapacitating many of them. In response, there was an effort by the U.S. Public Health Service to spread larvicide, greatly reducing mosquito populations which would prevent assertation of malaria through them and in this process, the CDC was created which would be based in Atlanta. Thereafter, we went to a section that detailed the outbreak of polio in the United States which included use of technologies such as the iron lung to enable breathing in patients with polio as it ranged from not having an effect on a person’s movement to reducing function of lungs and lower body typically starting from the feet and upward. Additionally, it was mentioned that as technologies developed that allowed for greater mobility or comfort to enable breathing some preferred older technologies to newer ones. The next section decerned the movement to end smallpox endemics, displaying tools such as ped-o-jets and various needles which were used to administer smallpox vaccines through puncturing the skin. A section was presented thereafter decerning a case study on determining the cause of an unrecognized respiratory disease including the process of affirming that it was a single disease based off symptoms, such as presence of cultured bacteria from samples of bodily fluid, fever, vomiting, age, etc., identifying the location that all that were ill had been to, being the Bellevue-Standford Hotel in Pennsylvania, the process used to identify where the pathogen was positioned that caused the disease, taking samples from various common surfaces, and method for confirming presence of a pathogen through culturing samples. It was determined that the cooling agent for the air conditioning contained the bacteria that caused the disease. The tour guide then detailed CDC partnerships with other government organizations such as with NASA preluding and proceeding the Apollo 11 moon mission as to ensure that no diseases are spread from Earth to other orbiting bodies and vise versa through ensuring cleanliness of pod before launch and putting the astronauts in isolation when they landed. The tour then lightly detailed the HIV outbreak highlighting the importance of the populace to not assume that a disease is centered in only one or multiple niches of people, especially when caused by a pathogen, unless there has been thorough research upon it. Then the prospect of an epidemiologists identifying of the source of a pathogen in the food industry concerning the possible locations (producer, processing, shipping and store) as well as the risk factors such as the loss of revenue by one of these groups. An incident involved a Blue Bunny packaging plant in which multiple machines had to be tested. The last section that the tour was over decerned Guinea Worm through how it spreads, through being ingested as a larva after which it grows to eventually reach extremities where it sends a burning sensation, triggering the host to place the appendage in water where it releases its larva, and organizations that promote protection against it including the Guinea Worm Eradication Program under the Cater Center. At the end of the tour, we attained cards with descriptions of pathogens as well as medical interventions to use against them and learned that the tour guide originally went to college for a degree related to chemistry, yet changed to microbiology and biochemistry to then have a lab job.
