Medical Mysteries is a one or 1 1/2-week lesson unit with readings and associated comprehension questions, a WebQuest, video links, optional writing assignments, and other resources on the impact of diseases on history and people’s efforts to understand and control them.

It's now a zip file, including an editable word document so you can make changes in the lessons to better meet your students' needs.

It's an introduction to the diseases that made scientific research both urgent and difficult, and to the human stories behind medical progress.

It includes 3 reading selections followed by comprehension questions: The impact of disease on history, solving the mystery of Yellow Fever, Scurvy, and Sailing Ships.

The first reading selection has a sidebar explaining some key disease vocabulary, and a crossword puzzle provides additional practice.

There is a web quest with instructions, suggested questions, and two useful links (not including Wikipedia) for each of 11 scientists so student groups can choose one to investigate and then introduce to the rest of the class.

The contents list and lesson plans also suggest links to excellent short videos on the Black Plague, smallpox, cholera and the London ghost map, the Spanish flu, and pellagra.

Who should take this product?

Recommended for middle school up, as well as home schools and intermediate or advanced ESL students. 26 pages including 4 answer sheets and a bibliography.

If you would prefer a shorter unit and are not interested in a student WebQuest, see “The Impact of Disease on History” ($5.25) for the two main reading selections from this packet, with their comp questions and all the optional video links, or “The Mystery of Scurvy” ($2.00) for one two-page article, comp questions, and links to videos and information on the difficult search for the causes and treatments of other deficiency diseases. You can also buy the Disease Detective WebQuest and basic background materials without the reading selections for $4.00