BRAKE the OUTBREAK: a free online simulation helps students learn about vaccination, social distancing, R, and herd immunity
ABSTRACT Brake the Outbreak (BTO) is a free, online simulation of infectious outbreaks designed for educational use. A student using the simulation chooses a disease, vaccination percentage, social distancing rates, and other inputs. BTO then visually displays the resulting outbreak as it proceeds,...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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American Society for Microbiology
2025-08-01
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| Series: | Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education |
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| Online Access: | https://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/jmbe.00062-25 |
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| _version_ | 1849230006488662016 |
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| author | Jessica Albert Amanda Nouwens Rena Ahn Anna Muller Kait Raffensperger Grace Nguyen Tristan Wisont Anastasia McConachie Parveet Mundi Margaret Fitzgibbon Nathaniel Kremer-Herman Robert Rutherford |
| author_facet | Jessica Albert Amanda Nouwens Rena Ahn Anna Muller Kait Raffensperger Grace Nguyen Tristan Wisont Anastasia McConachie Parveet Mundi Margaret Fitzgibbon Nathaniel Kremer-Herman Robert Rutherford |
| author_sort | Jessica Albert |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | ABSTRACT Brake the Outbreak (BTO) is a free, online simulation of infectious outbreaks designed for educational use. A student using the simulation chooses a disease, vaccination percentage, social distancing rates, and other inputs. BTO then visually displays the resulting outbreak as it proceeds, including summary data, such as incidence and prevalence. BTO also shows emergent results like reproductive rate (R), which can be used to determine and test the herd immunity threshold (HIT) of the outbreak. BTO has been tested in the undergraduate microbiology classroom, where results suggest its use can enhance the learning of epidemiological content. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-4e668990378648139dfc6b3eb6f439d8 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1935-7877 1935-7885 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-08-01 |
| publisher | American Society for Microbiology |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education |
| spelling | doaj-art-4e668990378648139dfc6b3eb6f439d82025-08-21T13:02:19ZengAmerican Society for MicrobiologyJournal of Microbiology & Biology Education1935-78771935-78852025-08-0126210.1128/jmbe.00062-25BRAKE the OUTBREAK: a free online simulation helps students learn about vaccination, social distancing, R, and herd immunityJessica Albert0Amanda Nouwens1Rena Ahn2Anna Muller3Kait Raffensperger4Grace Nguyen5Tristan Wisont6Anastasia McConachie7Parveet Mundi8Margaret Fitzgibbon9Nathaniel Kremer-Herman10Robert Rutherford11Department of Cellular and Molecular Biology, Seattle University, Seattle, Washington, USADepartment of Cellular and Molecular Biology, Seattle University, Seattle, Washington, USADepartment of Computer Science, Seattle University, Seattle, Washington, USADepartment of Computer Science, Seattle University, Seattle, Washington, USADepartment of Cellular and Molecular Biology, Seattle University, Seattle, Washington, USADepartment of Cellular and Molecular Biology, Seattle University, Seattle, Washington, USADepartment of Cellular and Molecular Biology, Seattle University, Seattle, Washington, USADepartment of Cellular and Molecular Biology, Seattle University, Seattle, Washington, USADepartment of Cellular and Molecular Biology, Seattle University, Seattle, Washington, USADepartment of Biology, Seattle University, Seattle, Washington, USADepartment of Computer Science, Seattle University, Seattle, Washington, USADepartment of Biology, Seattle University, Seattle, Washington, USAABSTRACT Brake the Outbreak (BTO) is a free, online simulation of infectious outbreaks designed for educational use. A student using the simulation chooses a disease, vaccination percentage, social distancing rates, and other inputs. BTO then visually displays the resulting outbreak as it proceeds, including summary data, such as incidence and prevalence. BTO also shows emergent results like reproductive rate (R), which can be used to determine and test the herd immunity threshold (HIT) of the outbreak. BTO has been tested in the undergraduate microbiology classroom, where results suggest its use can enhance the learning of epidemiological content.https://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/jmbe.00062-25active learningstudent projectopen sourceSIR modelepidemiology |
| spellingShingle | Jessica Albert Amanda Nouwens Rena Ahn Anna Muller Kait Raffensperger Grace Nguyen Tristan Wisont Anastasia McConachie Parveet Mundi Margaret Fitzgibbon Nathaniel Kremer-Herman Robert Rutherford BRAKE the OUTBREAK: a free online simulation helps students learn about vaccination, social distancing, R, and herd immunity Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education active learning student project open source SIR model epidemiology |
| title | BRAKE the OUTBREAK: a free online simulation helps students learn about vaccination, social distancing, R, and herd immunity |
| title_full | BRAKE the OUTBREAK: a free online simulation helps students learn about vaccination, social distancing, R, and herd immunity |
| title_fullStr | BRAKE the OUTBREAK: a free online simulation helps students learn about vaccination, social distancing, R, and herd immunity |
| title_full_unstemmed | BRAKE the OUTBREAK: a free online simulation helps students learn about vaccination, social distancing, R, and herd immunity |
| title_short | BRAKE the OUTBREAK: a free online simulation helps students learn about vaccination, social distancing, R, and herd immunity |
| title_sort | brake the outbreak a free online simulation helps students learn about vaccination social distancing r and herd immunity |
| topic | active learning student project open source SIR model epidemiology |
| url | https://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/jmbe.00062-25 |
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