Virtual Classroom COVID-19

Let's Learn About Coronavirus (COVID-19)

Learn about Coronavirus 2019 from the World Health OrganizationWhat is important to know in this video?
  1. Virus originate from Wuhan province in China.  
  2. Patients had pneumonia like symptoms and their common link was the live animal market.
  3. This is a new disease.
  4. Coronavirus is shaped like at crown and is the cause of the common cold, SARS-COV 2003, MERS 2012 and SARS COVID 2019.
  5. Originate in animals and spillover into the human populations. MERS-COV came from camels and SARS came from civic cats. COVID-19 host is yet unidentified.
  6. Transmission is in the form of respiratory droplets.
  7. The average is 5-6 days for transmission to symptoms but can be seen in as little as 1 day or as long as 14 days.
  8. Symptoms are fever, fatigue, cough and shortness of breath.
  9. 80% of people recuperate. 20% have more adverse reactions based upon other health factions such as cancer and diabetes.
  10. Prevention is hand-washing, maintaining social distance and using a mask.  


Structure of a CoronavirusCOVID-19 virus under an electron microscope
The coronavirus particles are organized with long RNA polymers tightly packed into the center of the particle, and surrounded by a protective capsid, which is a lattice of repeated protein molecules referred to as coat or capsid proteins. In coronavirus, these proteins are called nucleocapsid (N). The coronavirus core particle is further surrounded by an outer membrane envelope made of lipids (fats) with proteins inserted. These membranes derive from the cells in which the virus was last assembled but are modified to contain specific viral proteins, including the spike (S), membrane (M), and envelope (E) proteins.Transmission electron microscope image shows SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, isolated from a patient in the U.S. Virus particles are emerging from the surface of cells cultured in the lab. The spikes on the outer edge of the virus particles give coronaviruses their name, crown-like, NIAID-RML.
Cororna virus structureCorona virus under microscope


Homeostasis and virusesAre they alive?

Homeostasis is any self-regulating process by which an organism tends to maintain stability while adjusting to conditions that are best for its survival.
https://www.britannica.com/science/homeostasis

A virus is a submicroscopic infectious agent that replicates only inside the living cells of an organism.
https://www.britannica.com/science/virus

  1. Are viruses alive? In 1946 they were proven not to metabolize and are not in a cell of their own, but are only a chain of RNA.They live in a parasitic existence with their host.
  2. Viruses need a host cell to replicate and remain alive.
  3. Tufts explored a cholera bacteria with a bacterial phage and discovered that the virus could absorb qualities of the host and then subsequent viruses would also have the immune quality of the cell.  
  4. This would suggest that viruses are at least adapting to their surroundings and recreating themselves for survival.
  5. Mutation is a form of adaption developed to maintains life, but also allows an organism to regain homeostasis.  



Best recommendations on hand washingHow well do masks work?
  1. Lesson Plan for High School
  2. Coronavirus Worksheets
  3. Test Your Knowledge

Covid Lesson Plan