Lesson Idea

6 Science Articles about Immunity

None of your students enjoy being sick, but do they understand how they acquire immunity to infections and diseases? This collection features six articles to help students explore the immune system, antibodies, and vaccinations. Engage students with standards-matched adaptations, introductory video content, comprehension questions, and vocabulary to further your lesson outcomes. Each adapted article also comes with additional suggestions for activities to enhance the readers’ understanding and make the class more exciting.

All Immunity Articles

1. Why do measles survivors get sicker?

Abstract: Measles is one of the major causes of death among children, even though there is a safe and effective vaccine against it. In fact, because fewer people have been getting vaccinated, the number of people dying from measles is increasing. Even if those who catch it survive, they tend to get sick more often than those who have never had the virus. Why is that? We wanted to find out about the long-term effects of measles on the immune system – perhaps they would hold the answer. We collected blood samples from 77 unvaccinated children before and after they got infected with the virus during an outbreak in the Netherlands. We tracked the changes in antibodies (the particles that fight off pathogens) in the children’s bloodstream. We found that measles wipes out up to 73% of these antibodies, leaving the children unprotected against other diseases for months, and sometimes years. These findings further show the importance of vaccination.

This article is suitable for middle school and lower high school students. This article comes with an SJK Academy Research Recap video summarizing the content.

Key terms: disease control, immunity, infectious diseases, microbiology, outbreak, teen health, vaccine
Scientific figures: box and whisker plot
Scientific method: case study, data extrapolation, DNA sequencing, ELISA, experiment, natural experiment, representative sampling

2. Why get vaccinated when the flu vaccine doesn’t work well?

Abstract: Have you ever had the flu? Most people recover from it pretty fast. However, the flu still kills thousands of children and adults each year. This makes it a big health problem across the world. The best way we can prevent flu infection is by getting vaccinated. The problem with the flu vaccine is that in some years it doesn’t work as well as others. For example, in 2017-2018 the flu vaccine was less effective in preventing infection among vaccinated people compared to previous years. We wanted to study the impact of less effective vaccines in preventing flu-related infections, hospitalizations, and deaths. We found that even when the flu vaccines don’t work well, they prevent a large number of people from getting infected or hospitalized and save thousands of lives. This effect is called herd immunity. We also learned that when vaccines are less effective, it is most important for school-age children, young adults, and the elderly to be vaccinated.

This article is suitable for middle school students.

Key terms: immunity, microbiology, outbreak, teen health, vaccine
Scientific figures: bar graph, histogram
Scientific method: scientific modeling

3. How can we prevent cervical cancer in Mongolia?

Abstract: Have you ever heard of cervical cancer? It’s one of the most common forms of cancer among women. Most of the cases occur in countries with lower incomes and fewer resources. The leading cause of cervical cancer is human papillomavirus (HPV). There are several effective vaccines against HPV. But introducing them in the vaccination calendar could cost a lot. Would it be worth it? We used a mathematical model to see if HPV vaccination would be cost effective in Mongolia. It helped us estimate the benefits and costs of introducing an HPV vaccine there. We found out that it would cost between $2.4 and $3.1 million (USD) but could save nearly 4,000 lives! We believe that introducing HPV vaccines in Mongolia would be cost effective.

This article is suitable for middle school and lower high school students. An audio version is available in English, and a written translation is available in Mongolian.

Key terms: cancer, disease control, immunity, infectious diseases, microbiology, teen health, vaccine
Scientific figures: bar graph, pictograph
Scientific method: policy analysis, risk analysis, scientific modeling

4. How helpful is the R21 malaria vaccine?

Abstract: Have you ever heard of malaria? It’s a serious disease spread by mosquito bites and affects millions of people each year. Scientists have developed vaccines to help stop malaria. The new R21 vaccine looks very promising. We tested it on 5,139 kids in Africa to see if it works and if it’s safe. We found that the vaccine worked really well. It prevented 73% of malaria cases overall. It worked best for younger kids, stopping 78% of cases. Moreover, most side effects were mild, like a sore arm or a fever, and serious problems were rare. This vaccine could help save many lives if used more widely in places where malaria is common.

This article is suitable for middle school and lower high school students. An audio version is available in English, and a written translation is available in Spanish.

Key terms: disease control, immunity, infectious diseases, malaria, mosquitoes, parasite, vaccine
Scientific figures: bar graph
Scientific method: controlled blind study, experiment, field study

5. How can we better prevent polio?

Abstract: Polio is a potentially deadly and yet preventable disease. A vaccine is available but in order to get rid of the disease, this vaccine needs to have larger coverage. Unfortunately, this is not an easy goal in poorer countries. A single shot of polio vaccine is not enough to prevent the disease, and in developing countries, healthcare workers have difficulties reaching their patients more than once. This is why we wanted to develop a vaccine that requires only one injection. We used safe compounds to mimic the current 2-shot schedule and to stabilize the vaccine. Our tests showed promising results, and hopefully, this approach will help with the development of vaccines against other infectious diseases as well.

This article is suitable for high school students.

Key terms: biotechnology, disease control, immunity, infectious diseases, microbiology, vaccine
Scientific figures: time series graph
Scientific method: ELISA, experiment, proxy data, representative sampling

6. How many lives do vaccines save?

Abstract: Ever since their creation, vaccines have saved countless lives all over the world! Still, people in many countries suffer from diseases that could be prevented by vaccination. We looked at 98 countries where a lot of people are infected with such diseases. We wanted to measure the benefits of vaccination for them. Using mathematical models, we found that vaccination saved 37 million lives between 2000 and 2019! We project that it could save 32 million more by 2030.

This article is suitable for middle school and lower high school students. An audio version is available in English, and a written translation is available in Bulgarian.

Key terms: disease control, immunity, infectious diseases, microbiology, teen health, vaccine
Scientific figures: map, time series graph
Scientific method: data validation, policy analysis, scientific modeling