Schools & Teachers

Children are among the highest-risk populations for contracting a tick-borne disease. This is because they spend more time outdoors playing in areas where ticks may be. To prevent tick bites, children need to learn how to identify a tick, and how to prevent tick bites. Ticks in Virginia is working to develop evidence-based tick-borne disease prevention education resources for children, teachers, and schools. We have partnered to conduct studies with health and physical education teachers, create a Fight the Bite, Virginia curriculum for elementary students, and implement a theory-based Teaching Tick-borne Disease Prevention training. We also just released a new Tick Safety Activity Book.

New Resource for Teaching Tick Safety!

We created a new and approved Tick Safety Adventures Activity Book with over 40 fun-filled activities that teachers can use in the classroom to teach tick safety in a fun, hands-on way. New features include a table of contents by topic area, more safety tips, and recommended resources for learning more. Activities include mazes, I-See-a-Tick games, Tick-Not-a-Tick challenges, coloring pages, word puzzles, and more. Through the activities, children learn how to identify a tick, where ticks like to hide, what to include in a tick safety kit, and other clever ways to prevent tick bites. Purchase a copy here!

Health & Physical Education Teacher Study & Fight the Bite, Virginia Prevention Curriculum

In the fall of 2022, 40 Central Virginia health and physical education (HPE) teachers participated in a survey about their knowledge and awareness of tick-borne diseases and their willingness to implement a curriculum in the future. Results showed that 90% of participants had never incorporated tick-borne disease information into their curriculum. Two-thirds stated they would be willing to implement a TBD curriculum, and preferred a website with downloadable resources for accessing a curriculum. In response, a Fight the Bite, Virginia curriculum was developed for 3rd-5th graders and is available for free download through GoOpenVA.

This study was led by Co-Principal Investigators Dr. Jenny Hall and Dr. Katherine Bowman (pictured), Assistant Professor of Health & Physical Education from the University of Lynchburg. Dr. Bowman led the curricular design and alignment of the Fight the Bite, Virginia curriculum with Virginia's Standards of Learning in Health Education.

We are currently assessing the effectiveness and implementation of a two-hour Teaching Tick-borne Disease Prevention Training and a three-activity Fight the Bite, Virginia lesson.

Our efforts to advance evidence-based tick-borne disease prevention education support Virginia House Bill HB 850, passed by the Virginia Legislature in 2022. This bill requires the Secretary of Education, in collaboration with the Secretary of Health and Human Resources and the Secretary of Natural Resources, to help school boards and local and regional public libraries establish an education and awareness program to protect children from Lyme disease and other tick-borne diseases by 2028.

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