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Disease
and Epidemics - Science Lessons
|
 In
the science lessons of the "Diseases and Epidemics" unit,
students will explore how the study of diseases, epidemics and
disease management offers opportunities for exploration of biological
evolution, immune systems, interaction between humans and their
environment, and interaction among organisms. They will become
acquainted with public health professionals who work toward protecting
the health of the community. The
Threaded Big Idea below occurrs over the length of the unit, from
week 3 to week 10. It prepares the student to be able to complete
the major project. Students
will explore seven big ideas in this unit and be able to answer
the following questions
that address those big ideas:
- What local public health issues associated with disease and
epidemics do we have in our community and how can we deal with
them?
- Why are aseptic techniques so important in the biology
classroom?
- What is disease? What characterizes an infectious disease?
- How does the body defend itself? What is immunity?
- Bugs are bugs right? How different are different microorganisms
and how does that affect the damage they inflict and how are
they dealt with?
- How do medications work? How are specific pathogens
dealt with?
- Where
do new diseases come from and how do they ‘beat the
system’ we have in place to defend against
them?
Each big
idea is addressed by a learning
cycle. At
the completion of each big idea’s learning cycle students
should be able to answer the corresponding question. At the
end of the
unit, the students
will be able to apply their new scientific understanding
to the Major Project where they provide a public
service message
that
is checked in advance by local public health officials for
accuracy. |
Threaded
Big Idea
|
Disease
and epidemics are not things that happen to other people
in other lands, but are issues within our own community.
|
Driving
Question
|
What local public health issues
associated with disease and epidemics do we have in our community
and how can we deal with them? |
Learning
Cycle
|
Lesson
Title & Description
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Objective
Students will:
|
Class
period & week
|
Engage
|
Major Project:
Public Health Visitor
Using their background from the previous week’s lessons,
students develop questions to ask a local public health or
medical professional about local public health issues. |
1. develop questions for a public health visitor
2. list local public health issues
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|
Explore
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Major Project: Public Health Visitor
continued..
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Identify
public health issues of interest
|
|
Explain
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Developing
a Public Health Service Message
Using research as well as laboratory experiments, students
will begin developing a public service message that addresses
a public health issue faced by the local community |
Develop a public service message that explains the science
behind a public health issue faced by the local community
|
|
Apply
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Taking
it to the Community
Once given the go ahead by local community partners, students
share the message with a target audience.
|
Communicate with the local community the science
of the public health issue. |
Week
10
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--Top--
Big Idea
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The
ubiquitous presence of microbes necessitates the use
of aseptic techniques in the biology laboratory.
|
Driving
Question
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Why
are aseptic techniques so important in the biology classroom? |
Learning
Cycle
|
Lesson
Title & Description
|
Objective
Students will:
|
Class
period & week
|
Engage
|
Introduction
to Aseptic Techniques
(Part of an Access Excelence Lesson)
Students begin to explore the need for aseptic techniques
in the biology classroom. |
1. assess
pre-knowledge of bacteria and aseptic techniques
2. prepare a work area
|
|
Explore/Explain
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On
the Microbe Trail: Bacteria and Aseptic Technique
(Part
of an Access Excellence Lesson)
Students practically explore and explain why they need to use
aseptic techniques as they learn those techniques
|
1. streaking plates
2. pour, label, seal and store plates in an incubator
|
Week 1
2 days
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Apply
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Laboratory
Procedures: Poster and Rubric
Students produce a poster that explains some aspect of aseptic
techniques and develop a rubric that the teacher uses to
assess their techniques. |
1. articulate aseptic laboratory procedures in a poster
2. articulate aseptic laboratory procedures in a rubric that
the teacher can use
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--Top--
Big
Idea
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If
you have a disease, some aspect or aspects of the body’s
normal state is disturbed and homeostasis is not maintained.
Most of the diseases we are familiar with are the result
of impacts from external factors, (biological and chemical),
genetic, or developmental. Infectious diseases are transmitted
person to person, via contaminated food & water, and/or
via animal vectors
|
Driving Question |
What is disease? What
characterizes an infectious disease? |
Learning
Cycle
|
Lesson
Title & Description
|
Objective
Students will:
|
Class
period & week
|
Engage
|
Medic!!!
Student
groups are presented with a variety of case studies, each
describing the symptoms of a disease. The students must figure
out, through questioning, the root cause of the disease.
As students develop their questioning skills, they develop
an understanding of disease transmission and origin.
|
Use questions
to navigate and analyze information about the presentation
of a disease
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|
Explore
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Disease
Hits Home
In this lesson students are provided with the name of the
disease and, using library and internet facilities, are asked
to explore and explain the route of transmission of this disease
in their specific case study. |
Determine how a disease is transmitted
|
|
Explain
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What’s
that Brown Fuzzy Stuff on My Plum? (Diseases are the Pits)
Laboratory
exercise using Koch’s Postulates to explore Germ Theory |
Using Koch’s
postulates, students will isolate and identify pathogen.
|
|
Apply |
Mystery
Spot
(Access
Excellence) |
Students explore the information to figure out a disease. |
Week
3
2 days
|
--Top--
Big
Idea |
The
immune system is an interacting system of specific and
non-specific components that protects the body through
physical, chemical and cellular means. |
Driving
Question |
How does the body defend
itself? What is immunity? |
Learning
Cycle |
Lesson
Title & Description |
Objective
Students will: |
Class
period & week |
Engage |
Food
Forensics: A Case of Mistaken Identity
(An Access
Excellence Lesson)
Students are introduced to the immune system via a mystery that involves
the overreaction of the immune system. Engaged by this laboratory experience,
students begin to ask questions about what is it that defends self against
non-self |
1. Develop an experiment to test a hypothesis
2.Use their understanding of antigen-antibody specificity
to develop a hypothesis
3. Articulate that the antibody-antigen specificity is one
part of the immune system.
4. Develop questions around the components of the immune
system.
|
|
Explore |
Launching a Defense; Understanding the Human Immune
System
Students explore set websites to answer and develop questions
about the immune system and finally jigsaw the materials together.
|
1. Develop
and answer content specific questions about the immune
system.
2. Present information to peers in a power point presentation.
3. Assimilate information into a pictorial/ graphical description
of the immune system.
|
Week
4
3 days |
Explain |
Does
the Chicken have Anthrax?
The
purpose of this activity is for the students to develop
an understanding for the components of nonspecific immunity
by utilizing a scientific approach.
I
am a Pathogen (Adaptive Immunity)
Students analyze the results of a hands-on activity to explain one method
of defense. Then in kinesthetic activities, explore and explain how the
components of the immune system interact and function |
1. Explain how each of the components of innate immunity
function in the protection of the body.
2. Following an investigation, articulate how innate
immunity functions.
1. Explain how innate immunity functions to protect the
body. |
|
Apply |
Waterborne
Diseases
Students apply their knowledge of the immune system to explain the immune
response in a variety of cases. Students present their explanation to
the rest of the class. The more creative the method of explanation the
better.
|
Apply knowledge of the immune system to explain what
is happening on the cellular level as the body meets a variety
of foreign antigens
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--Top--
Big
Idea |
Pathogenic
microorganisms take a variety of forms and correspondingly
impact the body in different manners |
Driving
Question |
Bugs
are bugs right? How different are different microorganisms
and how does that affect the damage they inflict and how
they are dealt with? |
Learning
Cycle |
Lesson
Title & Description |
Objective
Students will: |
Class
period & week |
Engage |
What’s
living in My Mouth?
Student groups are presented with an opportunity to see bacteria
alive and feeding inside the human mouth. This lesson serves
as the engagement piece in a larger learning cycle about human
immunity.
|
1. Identify in written and oral formats that bacteria can be
found living everywhere.
2. Explain in written and oral formats why the immune system
is necessary. |
Week 6
3 days
|
Explore |
Catch
a Bug
Students
consider the multiple meanings of the word “bug” and
use it to describe both the diversity of organisms and
the connection between organisms and diseases. |
1.
create a classification scheme for brainstormed “bugs”
2. explore and place anecdotal accounts of organisms
into their classifications
3. identify the four major classes of microorganisms
by using diseases as a springboard
4. describe different classification schemes and describe
what each one is used for |
Week 6
1 day |
Explain |
Routes
of Entry
Student groups are given a set of stories describing different
diseases and they have to classify each disease as pathogenic,
non-pathogenic, beneficial, and put it into its’ proper
place on a chart of the four microorganism types.
|
1. Explain the difference between diseases with pathogenic
and non-pathogenic causes and classify diseases in
this manner on a chart.
2. Name four different types of disease-causing pathogens
and related diseases on a chart.
3. Summarize commonalities between some diseases of
a specific pathogen. |
Weeks 6 & 7
3 days
|
Apply |
Describe
the Perfect Pathogen
Students are asked to consider the attributes of the four
main types of pathogens and describe what these attributes
mean for the invasion of the body. |
1.
Apply their background in pathogens and immune
systems to develop a model pathogen.
2. As a class articulate aspects of the immune system
that would combat various types of pathogens.
3. Identify possible physical or behavioral changes
in a pathogen that would be advantageous and possibly
selected for (natural selection). |
Week
7
3 days |
--Top--
Big
Idea
|
Building
upon our understanding of natural immunity has allowed
the development of vaccinations and antibiotics and a
greater understanding of disease.
|
Driving
Question |
How do medications
work? How are specific pathogens dealt with? |
Learning
Cycle
|
Lesson
Title & Description
|
Objective
Students will:
|
Class
period & week
|
Engage
|
Introduction
to Antibiotics
In this exercise students are briefly introduced to the
idea of antibiotic resistance as a way to focus on antibiotics
and the mechanisms by which they work.
|
1. Describe
the impact of antibiotics on diseases
2. Describe what infections antibiotics are useful for
|
Week
8
1 day |
Explore
|
Exploring
Vaccines
Students review the historical background and focus on one vaccine to explore
how vaccines work, then share their findings with the class. |
1. Explain
in a written format how vaccinations work and how they draw
upon the natural immunity.
2. Differentiate between vaccinations and immunizations.
3.
Identify a number of illnesses that can be prevented by the
use of immunizations. |
Week 8
3 days |
Explain/Apply
|
A
Pox no longer upon us
Historical documents allow for the student s to work with qualitative observations;
these documents contain several hypotheses that remain the working basis of immunizations. |
1. Articulate
the relationships of the vaccines to primary and secondary
immune responses of the body.
2. Explain how knowledge about vaccinations developed. |
Weeks
8 & 9
3 days |
--Top--
Big
Idea
|
Diseases
emerge & re-emerge over time. The emergence of a
disease can be impacted by behavioral practices.
|
Driving
Question
|
Where
do new diseases come from and how do they ‘beat the system’ we
have in place to defend against them? |
Learning
Cycle
|
Lesson
Title & Description
|
Objective
Students will:
|
Class
period & week
|
Engage
|
A
Deadly Disease Among Us
Students discover that some diseases are relatively new to
humankind (emerging diseases), while others that had been
nearly eliminated in developed countries are now beginning
to increase in incidence (re-emerging diseases).
|
1. Recognize
that infectious diseases are a continuing problem among
all human populations.
2.
Define and give examples of emerging infectious diseases.
3.
Define and give examples of re-emerging infectious diseases
|
Week 9
1 day
|
Explore
|
Protecting
the Herd
This
activity introduces students to modeling as a scientific exercise.
Students learn how models based on observations of disease transmission
can be used to predict the likelihood of epidemics and to help
public health officers recommend policies to protect the public
from infectious diseases. |
1. Explain how immunizing a significant proportion
of a population against a disease prevents epidemics of
that disease (herd immunity).
2.
Be able to list factors that affect the proportion of
a population that must be immunized in order to prevent
epidemics.
3.
Understand how large-scale vaccination programs help control
infectious diseases.
|
|
Explain
|
SuperBugs
and Antibiotic Resistance
Through laboratory experimentation, students test antibiotics
and/or antimicrobials to determine how quickly a given bacterium
develops resistance to antibiotics and/or antimicrobials. |
1. Explain how antibiotics affect the evolution
of microorganisms.
2. Explain
how misuse of antibiotics can lead to the evolution of
antibiotic resistant bacteria. |
|
Apply
|
SuperBugs
and Antibiotic Resistance continued |
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--Top--
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