Are you dead yet? - Help me kill students!

[lollardfish]

When I go interview at Willamette, I need to teach a 1 hour class. I'm going to do it on the Black Death, but first I want to play a game with the students. I call it, "If you were alive back then, would you be dead!" Better title suggestions gladly accepted.

I ask all the students to stand up, then I ask them questions about their lives, and tell them if they are dead or alive had they lived in the Middle Ages and make them sit down. This time it'll be for 1300, when actually nascent medical developments had improved certain things, like midwifery, to some extent. I try to end up with a few women and a few men left at the end, so I can kill some of the women in childbirth and some of the men in battle, and then tell the remaining ones that they could live to be 90!

It's unscientific. It's not based in hard medieval population data. It's an icebreaker. I need more questions though, and so I turn to you.

I ask:

1 - Who had a very serious childhood illness, so serious you've been told about it by your folks? Mumps, measles, bad chickenpox, etc. I kill about 25% off, but not too many. A nice chunk of people though.
2 - Who has broken a leg or an arm? I kill a few off from infection.
3 - Who has had appendicitis? I kill myself off (age 12! Oh, the humanity!)
4 - Who's been in a serious accident (car, bike, whatever)?
5 - Who has had a bad case of the flu lately?

I'd like a few more questions. Any advice?

Comments

Re: Mostly controllable now:

[lollardfish.livejournal.com]

mmmm. Allergies are a good one. I'm looking for evocative questions that can get me a kill without getting too many.

Re: Mostly controllable now:

[alisgray.livejournal.com]

yeah. (should have read farther before commenting.) My maternal grandfather died suddenly of what was likely a food allergy at the age of 32. He had a younger brother who also likely died of a food allergy as a child.

Re: Mostly controllable now:

[buttonlass.livejournal.com]

Bees are evil. Mold is evil. Those can easily affect a couple of people but not too many. However in the case of bees the allergy is usually very lethal and mold can and does cause respritory problems which lead to not breathing without medication.