• Malaria, Sickle Cell Anaemia and Natural Selection

• Location: Lifelab
• Duration: 1 hour
• Availability: On demand
• Age Ranges(s):
• Minimum Number: 12
• Maximum Number: 24

Students are thrust into the role of volunteers for Medecins sans frontiers to identify malaria sufferers at a refugee camp. When the blood tests come through they start to notice the negative correlation between sickle cell trait and malaria. The students explore the way malaria is transmitted and why it is such an important disease through hands-on activities and discussion. Students find out about the malaria life cycle and use this knowledge to identify the strategies that they believe should be adopt to minimise the level of infection. They discover the link between malaria and sickle cell anaemia and find out how natural selection can preserve characteristics that are not obviously beneficial.

• Malaria Risk Assessment