The Speckled Monster

By ASE

Published

2015

Children take part in a simulation of a smallpox outbreak and also draw and analyse a graph for a real smallpox outbreak.

Why you'll never catch smallpox

The Speckled Monster (core activity)
4-5 hours total SCIENCE, MATHS, English

Key Questions:
How did Jenner investigate his ideas about cowpox?
What is vaccination?

Activity Overview:

Children take part in a simulation of a smallpox outbreak which introduces them to the observations that led Edward Jenner to his world-changing discovery that cowpox gives immunity to the dreaded ‘Speckled Monster’.
Children also draw and analyse a graph for a real smallpox outbreak, and use extracts from Jenner’s publication to explore the scientific processes he used to investigate and test his hypothesis.

With thanks to all the contributors to this resource series