Is there a common problem with folks in Village Park?  If so, what is it and what are you going to do about it? 

As the town physician of Village Park, Dr. Mack regularly sees 4,000 patients in the area.  Students are told that Dr. Mack thinks a significant number of her patients have some serious disease: the same underlying cause affecting the same part of their bodies. She doesn't know what it is but she's worried that it's slow acting and in the past 20 years, more and more folks are getting seriously sick (maybe eventually dying of it).  But before she can tell you even what it is that's led her to this conclusion that this subset of patients has the same underlying cause affecting the same part of their bodies, she dies (from the same disorder?).  Students are then presented with the task of continuing Dr. Mack’s work in the hope that they can find out what’s wrong with the patients and eventually help them.

Disease Detectives is a project-based, technology-enhanced, 8-week high school biology curriculum unit.  Students learn core biology concepts of Cellular Structures and Functions, Energy Processes of Living Things, and Chemistry of Biological Processes in the context of solving a medical mystery associated with CAD, the leading cause of death in the U.S.  Students analyze a variety of data sources to conduct their investigations including real medical data provided via software, computer-based laboratory experimental environments, and a live broadcast of coronary artery bypass surgery.