Prevalence of Sickness in Class

On Tuesday and Thursday of this week, I decided to observe some of the patterns of sickness that seem to be sweeping the campus this time of year. Over the length of each class (and the few minutes I was in the room before and after class), I recorded how many times I heard someone in the class:

• Cough
• Sneeze
• Sniffle
• Clear his/her throat
• Say the word “flu”
• Say the word “cold”
• Say the word “sick”

From the data below, we can see a few trends. One obvious trend is that the all “sickness-related actions” seem to decrease on Thursday. However, some of this data could be skewed, because of the fishbowl discussion. I did spend some time in the fishbowl, and I was not able to track these behaviors as closely as I hoped during that time. Even so, it seemed to me that the prevalence of “sickness-related actions” did indeed decrease during Thursday’s class.