Todd Brown, Mark Fulghum, Lynore Fontec, Ryan Lee, Ashley Moody, Laura Munson and Pardis Sabeti

The team’s innovative teaching idea, “Outbreak!,” focuses on challenging students to solve a real-world simulated infectious disease outbreak – to understand the impact it has on a global community. Sarasota Military Academy cadets will partner with other schools and be immersed in a multiple campus-wide infectious disease outbreak in which students will serve as different affected populations, including government officials, triage doctors and the media. The scenario will mimic the historical and contemporary spread of an infectious disease in which the various groups will have to work together against the clock to stop the contagion before it kills the general population of the school campuses. Brown and his team believe that by exposing students to the worldwide problems associated with coping with infectious disease outbreaks, it will heighten society's ability to effectively manage future outbreaks – while developing students’ investigative, communication and risk taking skills.