The History of Disease

The History of Disease is a Science course in the CTY program with no prerequisites. However, it is a cross-studies course and requires eligibility in both Science and Humanities courses. Its course code is HDIS, and it is offered only at Lancaster. History of Disease traditionally does a comical presentation of disease at Closing Ceremonies at Lancaster, usually a song or skit.

Course Description

History of Disease covers both the biological and societal effects of outbreaks of disease in historical, literary, mathematical, and scientific contexts. Though there is no prerequisite, as a former HDIS student, I would recommend taking History of Disease after taking a first year biology course, or else the material could get quite overwhelming.

Class History

History of Disease is only available at Lancaster. It was famously taught by Dr. Ted many years until 2005. He then returned in 2010.

Amazing course, by the way.

DR.MCGOWAN!! JACKIE MAUSER!!

In 2009.1, the teacher for HDIS A was fired due students feeling uncomfortable with the instructor, and her saying things such as "You are average people with special brains" or saying that public schools are bad, and never actually mentioning disease once.. Temporarily HDIS A and HDIS B were merged and the TA called it HDISAB. When a new instructor was hired, each class essentially had 2 instructors, one to talk about diseases, the other to talk about the history of public health, sunscreen, vitamins, plastic surgery, etc. Many students disliked this new teacher as she did not talk about disease. At the end of the course, the kids of HDIS A wrote terrible evaluations for their new instructor, who they decided was even worse than the first one.

Also in 2009.1, the HDIS-B TA was the most awesome TA ever. Her name was Jory and she was funny and nice and actually liked working with teenagers. She had pink streaks in her hair and told us about the time she spent in Tanzania. She showed us the documentary "Invisible Children" so we would understand why many countries in Africa are ill equipped to handle disease because of other major problems, and it moved everyone in the class so much that they just sat outside during their break in disbelief and shock. She came to the last dance and danced with us like a crazy person. She told us about hilarious pranks her friends played in college. And on top of her obvious awesomeness, Jory was an amazing teacher and an incredibly smart person. HDIS-B loves Jory! She was also the HDIS.A TA in 07.2.

In 2010.1, the instructors (dr. Ted and Mr. Mountrakis) tried to mount a musical performance based off of "The sound of music", to the delight of HDIS A and the dismay of HDIS B. the performance was supposed to happen at the end of the session, but the whole thing fell apart when half the kids coudn't attend closing ceremonies. the HDIS B class made several parody songs instead, which are based off of various diseases learned about in the course. needless to say, both classes were quite musical.

In both sessions of 2011, the classes took a field trip to the Mütter Museum in Philadelphia and Longwood Gardens. In 2011.1, HDIS.B was instructed by the 2009.1 TA, Jory. She also told us some stories about her time in Africa and showed us the sequel documentary to "Invisible Children." The class was awesome and we had many debates. For closing ceremonies, we did a parody of Friday about the Black Plague and a Shakespearian parody about other diseases that we studied. Our TA, Christian rapped about vaccines to the tune of "Ice Ice Baby" to end our closing ceremonies performance. The idea for the Shakespearian parody was brought about by Tom's amazing puns ("T.B. or not T.B., that is the question.")

The course is a very high paced and intense class with a lot of note-taking but it is an amazing class, especially for those who are interested in both the history and the science of it all. The 2011 class of HDIS B with Jory and Christian was one of the best classes that I have ever taken at CTY, simply because of the teachers. Jory is an amazing teacher who makes class fun and has lots of personal stories. The leprosy experiment is something to look forward to, if you want to take HDIS. Students go to the cafeteria looking like they have leprosy, to see how people react! Its great fun!...