Jackson and Truman Middle Schools Investigative Report

Investigative Report for

Jackson and Truman Middle Schools

Andria Brown

Kaplan University

SC300 – Big Ideas in Science: From Methods to Mutation

Alan Preston, M.S.

June 23, 2010

Investigative Report

Introduction

On May 30, 2010, the Health Department was notified of a possible health problem among students attending Truman and Jackson Middle Schools. After the investigative team reviewed both cases, it was determined that a potential health problem did exist and that further investigation was warranted.

As a member of the investigative team, my job is to find out if there was an unusual spike in absences and what classes were affected. I reviewed attendance records from 4 middle schools and found significant increases in absences for 7th grade band students at Truman and Jackson middle schools. On May 20, 2010, 33.3% of the band students were absent at Truman and 25% at Jackson. On May 21, 2010, 23.3% were absent from Truman and 15.6% from Jackson.

Next, based on these findings and information obtained from parent interviews, attendance records, and school calendars I was able to develop a hypothesis. The hypothesis I came up with states that the absences were due to illness but do not pose a threat to the health of the community. The testable questions and data to support my hypothesis are outlined below.

Testable Question #1

Were the students’ symptoms similar for both schools? I determined that the majority of the students from both schools did experience some of the same symptoms. I obtained this information from the interviews with parents of absent students. The results indicate the absences were due to illness with 9 being from Truman and 7 from Jackson. The children experienced symptoms such as a stomach ache, headache, fever, diarrhea, and vomiting. The students from Truman had the following symptoms: 9 stomach ache, 3 headache, 5 fever, 6 diarrhea, and 3 with vomiting. Jackson had 7 stomach ache, 4 headaches, 3 fevers, 6 diarrheas, 2...