Parasite transmission is a fascinating process that can motivate students to learn biological mechanisms and analytical thinking. In my upper level Disease Ecology class, I implement 11 weekly “theory labs” in which students evaluate support for hypotheses that they generate about content or scenarios covered in class lectures. I will illustrate one theory lab in which 30 undergraduates work together to build a hypothetical contact network, based on shared academic and extracurricular activities, to simulate stochastic outbreaks. In doing so, students make and test hypotheses about how connectivity of individuals in networks shapes their contribution to transmission.
