What category describes these groups of organisms?
They are all pathogens, organisms that cause disease.
What group of organisms is missing?
Multicellular parasites such as intestinal worms.
What kind of images are these?
These are false-color scanning electron micrographs.
What are the characteristic features that define each of these groups?
| Viruses | Non-living, can replicate only inside a cell |
| Bacteria | Prokaryotic, single-celled |
| Fungi | Eukaryotic, single-celled |
| Protozoans | Eukaryotic, single-celled |
| Parasites | Eukaryotic, multicellular |
What are the relative sizes of the organisms in these groups?
Virus < Bacteria < Fungi and Protozoans < Parasites
What are the 4 parts of each panel?
Each panel is organized in the following way:
- Name of disease
- Image of specific organism
- Category of pathogen
- Specific pathogen
What symptoms do each of these diseases cause?
| Strep throat | Sore throat, fever |
| Food poisoning | Vomiting, diarrhea |
| Common cold | Runny nose, sore throat, cough |
| Flu | Fever, body aches, cough, runny nose, headache |
| Athlete’s foot | Itchy rash between toes |
| Malaria | Fever, severe illness |
How are each of these diseases spread?
Each of these is spread from person-to-person contact or by person-to-object-to-person contact, except malaria, which is spread by mosquitoes.
What treatment is available for each of these?
| Strep throat | Antibiotics |
| Food poisoning | Antibiotics |
| Common cold | No specific treatment is available |
| Flu | Antiviral medication, vaccination |
| Athlete’s foot | Topical antifungal cream |
| Malaria | Antimalaria medication |
What is the major difference between Streptococcus and Salmonella?
Streptococcus is Gram-positive and spherical-shaped.
Salmonella is Gram-negative and rod-shaped.
What are the appendages shown on Salmonella?
The hair-like structures on the Salmonella are called flagella. They help the Salmonella move.
What are the appendages shown on Influenza?
These are proteins on the surface of the virus that help it attach to the host cell.
What is the shape of each of the panels? How many different regular polygons can tile a plane?
The panels are shaped as regular hexagons. A regular polygon is one in which all of its sides and all of its angles are equal.
There are only three regular polygons that can completely cover a plane: a triangle, a square, and a hexagon
CoMo Science 
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