Centre Biology Class Puts Viruses on the Web RELEASED: Feb. 8, 2001 Centre Biology Class Puts Viruses on the Web DANVILLE, KY-Instead of microscopes, a Centre College biology class is using the World Wide Web for its study of viruses. The professor, Peggy Richey, had upper-level students in her "Biology of Viruses" class create Web pages on selected viruses or virus families. "The Web page requirement is new for the course," says Richey, who adds that she wanted "to steer the students toward the computer/technology competency goals of [Centre's] curriculum." To that end, she also uses Powerpoint presentations, Web tutorials, animated graphics, and other technological elements in her class. Bryan Rich, a senior from Louisville, appreciates the experience. "Designing the Web page was an extremely useful tool. It is a skill I have wanted to learn since I arrived at Centre," he says. (He adds that it might have been "too useful," since his parents now hope he'll design a Web page for them.) Rich did his Web page on the flaviviruses, a family that includes the viruses behind yellow fever, dengue fever and West Nile disease. He notes that the name comes from the Latin word flavus, which means yellow. His page includes photographs and a history of flavivirus-caused outbreaks, beginning with the first recorded outbreak of yellow fever, in Mexico, in 1648. Anne Estevez, a senior from Bradenton, Fla., picked the filoviruses because she wanted to learn more about Ebola. One of the Ebola viruses, found in Zaire, causes a 90 percent death rate among people who get the disease. Estevez found creating a Web page "was really valuable in the presentation-of-information aspect of science." "By the time I put my page together, I knew most of the information cold, it was just a matter of making it accessible to others. In the words of Anne Roe, 'Nothing in science has any value to society if it is not communicated.'" Scott Hunt agrees that accessibility is an important aspect of science. "I found making a Web page to be a good way to gain computer skills and think about different ways that information can/must be presented," he says. A senior from Louisville, Hunt admits he picked his virus- the rhinovirus-for selfish reasons. "I knew it caused the common cold and I was interested in finding out more about it, particularly treatments useful to me. -end- For more information: Bio 45 Web page: http://web.centre.edu/~bio/richey/Bio25.htm Bryan Rich: http://students.centre.edu/bsrich00/ Anne Estevez: http://web.centre.ed6Ä)¿7B–o45pages/fil6åuses.htm Scott Hunt: http://web.centre.edu/~bio/richey/bio45pages/rhinoviruses.htm   Communications Office Centre College 600 W. Walnut Street Danville, KY 40422