APIEClass activity: Harbour Fever Timeline
Pandemics and public health policy
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⚓ HARBOUR FEVER TIMELINE
Kellmouth Outbreak: Deduce the timeline, reconstruct public health policy, and narrate the outbreak.
Rules of the Game
👨🏫 For the Teacher
Facilitator- 1 Split the class into teams of 3 or 4 and designate one scorekeeper per team.
- 2 Hand out the 6 mixed Event Cards and 4 Clue Cards face-down on each table.
- 3 Tell the teams when each step starts, following the Timed Plan.
- 4 Have teams swap story sheets to peer-score event order, grammar, and unit vocabulary.
- 5 Show the right order and settle any arguments with the Teacher Key at the bottom.
🧑🎓 For the Students
Players- 1 Work together to put the events of Kellmouth's story in the right order.
- 2 Check all 6 events against the 4 clue cards before you decide on the order.
- 3 Write 6 narrative sentences on your Story Sheet using perfect/passive gerunds and infinitives.
- 4 Win 1 point for order, 1 point for accurate grammar, and 1 bonus point per Unit word.
- 5 Your scorekeeper adds up the points when another team checks your sheet. The team with the most points wins!
Timed Plan (20 Minutes Total)
6 Event Cards (Cut & Distribute in Mixed Order)
"Doctors warn the mayor."
"The council shuts the first school."
"A sailor falls ill."
"The mayor tells the town."
"A ship brings medicine to the harbour."
"The council closes the port to new ships."
4 Clue Cards (Chronology Solvers)
"A comes first."
"B comes right after A."
"F comes between B and C."
"D comes after C, and E comes last."
Kellmouth Outbreak Story Sheet
Write one full narrative sentence per line in deduced chronological order. Apply target grammar (having been told, to have been warned, being asked, to be seen to act) and Unit words.
Scoring Breakdown
Chronology Order
1 point for each event card placed in the exact right chronological position.
Target Grammar
1 point per story sentence with a perfect or passive gerund or infinitive used accurately.
Unit Policy Words
1 bonus point per Unit word used meaningfully: pathogen, transmission, asymptomatic, contagion, containment, stockpile, lockdown, preparedness, triage, epidemiology.
6 Sentence Starters (Grammar & Unit Words)
"Having stockpiled emergency serums, the relief crew arrived to begin dockside triage..."
Grammar: Perfect Gerund / Participial Clause (Having stockpiled)
"Having realized that maritime containment was imperative, the council..."
Grammar: Perfect Active Gerund (Having realized)
"Having been infected by an unknown pathogen, the quayside sailor..."
Grammar: Perfect Passive Gerund (Having been + V3)
"The first school seems to have been shut as part of a localized lockdown to curb asymptomatic spread..."
Grammar: Perfect Passive Infinitive (seems to have been shut)
"To have been warned earlier about human-to-human transmission would have..."
Grammar: Perfect Passive Infinitive (To have been + V3)
"Being anxious to be seen to act against the contagion, the mayor..."
Grammar: Passive Infinitive (to be seen to act) + Gerund
Teacher Key (Official Solution & Error Guide)
Verified Event Chronology
✅ Model Sentences to Praise
-
"Having been warned by the doctors, the mayor told the town."
Accurate perfect passive participle clause showing antecedent action.
-
"The council seems to have closed the port too late."
Correct perfect active infinitive expressing a retrospective evaluation.
⚠️ Common Mistakes to Listen For
-
"Having warned by the doctors"
Correction: Missing auxiliary 'been'. Must be Having been warned (passive).
-
"The mayor seems to have been tell"
Correction: Incorrect participle. Must be seems to have been told (past participle) or seems to have told.
Activity Variations
Pre-Sorted Anchors
Provide Clue 1 & Clue 2 first to immediately lock in A and B as events 1 and 2. Supply 3 starter verbs on the board (warn, close, supply).
Full Simulation
Run strictly as timed with all 4 clue cards revealed simultaneously. Teams must negotiate timeline deduction and independent peer-scoring.
Blind Card Share
Distribute 1–2 cards per student. Players cannot show their cards to teammates; they must read aloud and reconstruct the sequence purely by oral discussion.
Mayoral Press Release
Draft a 3-sentence official council bulletin explaining why the port was closed (C) only AFTER notifying the public (F), integrating at least two C1 unit words.
Closing Debrief Questions
Proactive or Reactive Containment?
Look at the final order (A ➔ B ➔ F ➔ C ➔ D ➔ E). Did the council act early or late? What delays made the crisis worse?
Asymptomatic Transmission & School Closures
Would asymptomatic transmission make closing schools (D) less useful after the port was closed (C)? Was the school closed too late?
Public Health Preparedness Reform
If your team were in charge of preparedness and triage in Kellmouth, which one decision in the timeline would you change to stop the contagion spreading?
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