Introduction
During the writing of this unit, we are all sitting at home in a global wide lockdown due to the SARS-Cov2 pandemic. At the time of writing on July 7th, 2020, America was 10th in global ranking in both number of cases (2,888,461) and deaths (127,498). In a time where the spread of misinformation is abhorrently high and far reaching thanks to social media and the lack of leadership at government levels, it is of utmost importance to increase the scientific knowledge of our students, or at the very least, their belief in science. We need students to see more aspects of the human impact to biodiversity and not just us as the main source of climate change. Therefore, there is no doubt in my mind that humans are changing the Earth at an unprecedented rate and many scientists agree. “75% the planet’s land surface is experiencing measurable human pressures.” 1 Since the dawn of humans, we have spread out and taken over various regions, eliminating animals, people, and plants. “Since humans appeared on Earth, 77% of all wilderness has been destroyed, 10% of that loss has occurred since 1990.” 2 “The human-mediated translocation of species poses a distinct threat to nature, human health, and economy.” 3 As our technology has improved over time, so has our ability to transfer people, plants, and animals. In fact, the website Amphibia Web states “50,000 frogs per year are accidentally carried in produce.” 4
From this unit, students will learn background knowledge on the spread of the chytrid fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) and look at scientific research on SARS and SARS-Cov2 viruses with the hope that they will be able to synthesize the information and then apply that knowledge to a different scenario in order to make a prediction on how the environment could change as a result of human interaction.
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