Mia Gradelski
AP Biology
Current Event 16 Review
February 12, 2018
Cunningham, Aimee. “Scientists Are Tracking How the Flu Moves through a College
Campus.” Science News, 8 Feb. 2018,
During this season when many students are absent from school and the rise of flu shots are more prevalent, it is interesting to stop and ponder about how this contagious flu can spread and infect other people rapidly inside a dorm room. Throughout the article, readers are introduced to many of the unusual findings done by students at Universities and Colleges regarding their perspective on the issue. This is called the “C.A.T.C.H Virus which stands for Characterizing and Tracking College Health.” The article goes in depth to explain how the trajectory of the virus is uncommon but the infections are in close contacts to one another. The article then transcends into the main project that the article focuses on which is the study of a classroom of freshmen that he asks multiple questions to based on their insights on illnesses. The author constantly keeps a bias attitude towards the findings and opinions of the students. Towards the middle of the article, many key questions are represented that are important in evaluating the common cause of the flu virus and what factors lead to spread so immensely. When the author states, “If we don’t understand how [viruses] are transmitted, it’s hard to come up with policies that are really going to work.” In addition, the article continues following up on Milton and his colleagues report using specific examples from his tests. For example he found, “Of 134 fine aerosol samples taken when patients were breathing normally, 52 contained infectious influenza virus.” This lures readers not only to question the assumption that people are making when they feel treated but what are the limiting factors to the spread of influenza. Lastly, the article goes into more depth regarding the full effect of this continuing test and how the “size of the current flu outbreak may be on the researchers side” but they leave the most prevalent message that “One one person gets sick, it goes around to everyone on the floor” and there is no way out of it.
Throughout the article, there are key facts that we can be mindful of especially as a student from college or junior high. This article demonstrates that influenza can spread in up to 2 days to another person in contact with a sick person. This leads readers to be more aware on the effect of the virus and how it can be prevented. I’ve learned that even breathing close enough to another person in the same air can penetrate the flu to start. I couldn’t believe that little gestures such as sneezing or coughing into tissues can still lead to a risk of catching the flu for another person.
Overall, this article was very well published having detailed examples of tests and statistics gathered from many colleges across the US. Some strengths that were evident are the complexity of the labs. For example, almost in every paragraph there is a reference to the C.A.T.C.H. study and what it “aims to find out if what’s in the air is catching.” In addition, it was interesting to hear from different sources by sourcing “Donald Milton, an environmental and occupational health physician-scientist” not just one college that could have raw data. Some weaknesses that I noticed while criticizing this article was the lack of a solid option. There was a ton of evidence from multiple sources, but the article felt overwhelmed rather than hearing the author write about the evidence in a cohesive manner put into an argument. In order to improve upon this, the author should’ve gathered the best supporting evidence and create his own summary relating to what he had found.
Kunzang Namgyal
ReplyDeleteMr.Ippolito
AP Biology- EF even
February 12, 2018
Cunningham, Aimee. “Scientists Are Tracking How the Flu Moves through a College
Campus.” Science News, 8 Feb. 2018,
This week I chose to read Mia’s current event on the article, "Scientists Are Tracking How the Flu Moves through a College Campus.” Mia did a good job of summarizing the article, explaining that a flu can spread rapidly in a campus setting. Mia also successfully picked effective quotes to insert into her article that left a lasting affect and explained the importance of this research. Mia concisely explained the experiment, in which many freshmen college students were asked questions to observe their amount of knowledge on the flu virus.
There are two areas in which Mia could improve. Mia should have given the credentials of the scientist that performed the study because without the scientist’s credentials, the reader does not know if this study is credible. I also think that Mia could have brought up the recent flare up of the flu across America when explaining why this article is relevant to readers today. This would have been a more pertinent reason that readers would read this article rather than the reason to simply learn about the flu and how it is spread.
I learned that even being in the same room as a person with the flu could make me more susceptible. With the amount of individuals catching the flu at this time is very high and this article is very relevant because of how much of a nuisance the flu is.
Abbey Thomas
ReplyDeleteMr. Ippolito
AP Biology
14 February 2018
Cunningham, Aimee. “Scientists Are Tracking How the Flu Moves through a College
Campus.” Science News, 8 Feb. 2018,
For this current event I commented on Mia’s review of “Scientists are Tracking How the Flu Moves through a College Campus” by Aimee Cunningham. One thing Mia does well in her review is she sets up why scientists were monitoring the flu in college campus, and it is because the trajectory of the virus is uncommon. Without adding this information, the reader would have been confused on why there is research being done. Along with including this information, Mia did a good job of quoting the article, which helped with understanding and gave a first hand account of what the researchers were thinking and saying. Lastly, her third paragraph was well developed. In this paragraph, Mia explained what was well done by the author and what could have been improved to make the article more thorough.
While there were many things in Mia’s response to Cunningham’s article, there were some aspects that could have been improved. One thing Mia did not include was what was the significance of this study. Her response would have been better if she added information on why this study was needed and how the data collected would be used. Another thing Mia could have done better was include more background information on the scientists that were conducting the experiment, and if it was a private group or if they were working with governments to combat the flu season.
Overall, Mia’s response to Cunningham’s article was very well done and I learned many things. For example, before reading this review I did not know that a person with the flu coughing into a tissue could possibly affect others. This information is good to have because this has been a bad flu season and this information will help people to take precautions.
Nina Veru
ReplyDeleteAP Bio, C-odd
Current Event 16
2/13/18
Cunningham, Aimee. “Scientists Are Tracking How the Flu Moves through a College
Campus.” Science News, 8 Feb. 2018,
This particular flu season has been the worst one yet, so I chose to review this piece by Mia Gradelski. The author did an excellent job explaining the study presented in the original article. The C.A.T.C.H study was mentioned, which stands for Characterizing and Tracking College Health. Gradelski claims that the study found that “The article goes in depth to explain how the trajectory of the virus is uncommon but the infections are in close contacts to one another.” Many college students have been infected with the flu due to the fact that they live in close corridors with one another. Mia does an excellent job of relating the article back to our lives as teenageres. She mentions how we should be aware as to how the virus spreads so that we can take certain precautions. Mia claims, “This article demonstrates that influenza can spread in up to 2 days to another person in contact with a sick person.” Knowing that the virus doesn’t take long to spread, allows for the reader to be more mindful of things such as handwashing. Lastly, I enjoyed how the author shared her own thoughts by stating how she was shocked that the flu was an airborne virus, and can spread by someone simply blowing their nose.
Although the author wrote an excellent review, there were some things she could have improved upon. For instance, her word choice and grammar could use some work. Gradelski states, “breathing close enough to another person in the same air can penetrate the flu to start.” I feel as though the word “penetrate” was used improperly in this sentence. To make the writing more clear, the author could have stated, “breathing close enough to another person in the same air can spread the flu.” In addition, Mia used some really great quotes, but should have been more mindful of their placement. Mia states, “If we don’t understand how [viruses] are transmitted, it’s hard to come up with policies that are really going to work.” In context, this quote did not make much sense, and should have been followed by a thorough explanation.
This review was extremely interesting and beneficial to our society today. As stated, the flu has been fatal this year. It's especially relevant in our lives today because the flu spreads rapidly in college, and we are all going to college in the near future. I learned that the flu can spread in a matter of two day, which is why it is important to wash your hands and take other preventive measures.
Robby Schetlick
ReplyDeleteAP Biology
Ippolito
Current Events 16
February 12 2018
Citation: Cunningham, Aimee. “Scientists Are Tracking How the Flu Moves through a College
Campus.” Science News, 8 Feb. 2018,
This week I read Mia Gradelski’s current event review, “Scientists Are Tracking How the Flu Moves through a College Campus” by Science News.org. One thing that Mia does well consistently throughout her reviews is maintain a student targeted tone. Her review is written by a student for other students, which makes her message more effective to the specific audience she is is trying to target, specifically other Bronxville students. Secondly, she notably does a good job of summarizing information through short and effective quotations, for instance, the one in her third sentence, paragraph 1 that explains the C.A.T.C.H acronym. No extra information is added, which makes it easier for students to get through quickly. The third notable thing she achieves is her analysis of the original article. She maintains her student perspective while analyzing the piece, which makes it easy for the targeted audience to understand her points and determine if their opinions coincide with hers.
A few edits would definitely help improve the quality of the article. Her second paragraph doesn’t effectively meet the objective of comparing it to another aspect relevant to her audience of students, and it feels like an extension of the first paragraph. Changing the fact, for instance, the one about 2 days of spreading to a potential scenario that could affect student lives would result in a much more interesting read, as well as hit the objective of the paragraph in the rubric. Also, the flow between paragraphs could be improved by making more fluid topic sentences. The paragraphs and ideas in them flow nicely together, but the choppy topic sentences take away from the good writing.
I choose this article, as the flu mutation strand this year is pretty terrible, prompting more research into the virus as a result. I have found more interesting articles like this one as a reaction to the outbreak, which I have found informative and interesting. Being a rising college student next year, information from articles such as these will heighten my awareness on campus life and will prove useful.