Teachers TryScience

Awareness is the best cure!

May 24 2016

Source: LLF India

Summary Information

Topic:

Biology

Workplace Skills:

Discussion

Teamwork

Target Grade (Ages):

Grade 9 (Ages 14-15)

Diversity Indicators:

Grade 9- Students

Tab Wrapper

LESSON

Goals and Prerequisites

Goals:

To understand the symptoms of a diseased body.
To understand the need for a disease free body.
To learn the causes of different diseases.(specifically respiratory)
To understand the importance of keeping the environment pollution free for a healthy life.

Prerequisites:

Knowledge of the various organs of the human body.
Knowledge of the different systems of the human body (e.g. respiratory system, digestive system etc)
Knowledge of some common diseases.
Knowledge of some national awareness programs on health. E.g. Polio eradication drive

Instructional Objective(s)

At the end of the lesson, students should be able to:

Identify the parts involved in a respiratory system and simulate the spread of respiratory diseases.
Define the different pathogens that cause diseases.
Describe some factors essential in the prevention of an infectious disease.
Identify health challenges and solutions in various case studies (Lesson 2).
Apply their understanding of the spread of disease and prevention methods to health problems relevant to themselves or their communities.

Instructional Resources

Background:

Instructional Resources

Introduction –

Ascertain students’ prior knowledge about the importance and ways of being free from diseases for healthy living. Kindle their minds by encouraging a large group discussion about the need to know the working of the body thoroughly to be able to recognise the symptoms of various diseases and further research and find the cure. Put forward some questions like:

Why has the human life span increased manifold since 1900?
When do you feel the need to visit a doctor? How are the medicines listed in the doctor’s prescription made?
Without looking inside the body how is it possible to know the cause of the disease?
Explain how these two are related to our health; the environment and an engineer?

Conclude the discussion by showing them the video with link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gLa5EWn9OI

which will also recapitulate the required prerequisite knowledge and introduce them to the term microorganisms. If time permits take them through the PPT using link

http://www.shsu.edu/~agr_www/documents/Pathogens.ppt

to educate on the types of microbes/ Pathogens that cause different diseases. This will give an overview of the chapter and an opening to the activities.

Divide the class in groups of 6 and give each group a K-W-H-L chart. Have each group fill ‘K, ‘W’ and ‘H’ columns about symptoms and causes of diseases and how to prevent them. Check and discuss K-W-H-L charts with each group.

Inform the students that they are going to designartificial lungs, diaphragm and trachea to simulate our respiratory system and demonstrating the same, they also need to develop a documentary explaining the how and why(pollution, smoking etc) of the common respiratory diseases and what steps, if taken together, can make a difference and prevent these diseases.The documentary also needs to unfold the various microbes that cause many diseases highlighting their symptoms and prevention.

Pass the set of material to each group.
Instruct the students that they have to createartificial lungs to simulate the respiratory system. They can refer to their handbooks for the step by step procedure of the same.
Students will spend time in investigating, planning, designing, creating, and evaluating a model simulating breathing and an awareness campaign with the help of a documentary.

Integration of the concept with other STEM Subjects:

Topic as integrated with Engineering - Biomedical engineers work with doctors and surgeons to design medical technologies, tools, equipment and procedures, chemical engineers design medicines, and civil and environmental engineers create infrastructure that provides drinking water treatment, waste water treatment and air quality.

Topic as integrated with ELA (English language art) -Improving vocabulary by learning new terms and meanings, making inferences, noting analysis and summarizing.

Topic as integrated with Computer Science- Creating a documentary using video editing computer and video editing software.

Materials:

Material Needed (Please provide worksheets, rubrics, charts to be used for this lesson here – embed the files)

For each student:

Engineering Design Process Workbook.

Handout for students needing assistance while building the model and creating the documentary.

KWHL Chart: http://coolaustralia.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/KWHL1.jpg

For each group:

Scissors
3 Large balloons
2 small balloons
2-3 Rubber bands
Electrical tape
Plastic 2 litre bottle/ 20 litre plastic bottle (Balloon sizes depends on the size of the bottle you choose.
Strong straws of different thickness (bendable)/ Flexible plastic tubing’s around 8-10 inches
Y-shaped hose connector
A computer with video editing software and net facility.

For the entire class:

To create a documentary

Camera with video facility
Projector and screen
Speakers
Soft clay(if needed to make connections in the model airtight)
Marker pens
Chart paper
White board/ Easel board

Handout for students

Procedure:

Engineering Designing/STEM Based Project

Introduction

To start, introduce Biological engineering Bioengineering as the application of engineering principles to address challenges in the fields of biology and

Medicine. Bioengineering also encompasses engineering design to the full spectrum of living systems. You may want to watch the video below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZ5aj7vTl4o

And also share some detailed information on Bioengineering as you take them through the PPT

which relates the present topic to Engineering design.

Part – 1 – Planning and constructing false lungs and diaphragm

Tell your students that today they all are a team of bioengineers, environment activists, publishing and production experts and software experts who are working for the government of India and have a challenging project to produce an awareness documentary on “Habits, environment and our health” for the WHO to make the population aware of the causes of various dangerous diseases which need to be curbed for a safe future. The burning topic: save environment, save humanity needs to be the focus! Simulating the respiratory system is mandatory to explain the functioning before studying the malfunctioning. Show the students the video)

Let the students sit in the made teams and brain storm, plan and allot work among the members of the team.
Instruct and encourage each team to distribute their workload evenly among the members for timely completion of the project.
Provide them time to draw the design in their workbooks and work backwards on how to construct the model with the help of the instructions given in the handbook..
Bring back the class as a whole group and show the video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BET7PLrD4uQ

that gives an overview of the chapter and

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVDaqtgE6EU

that explainsthe method of constructing false lungs.

Students will construct in one period of 45 minutes but will need a week to collate, edit and present the documentary, working in the computer lab for 20 minutes for 7 classes under the guidance of the science and computer science teachers. ( In rest of the 20 minutes of the class, the syllabus can move ahead)

Part – 2 –Manipulating and re-engineering the model

Students manipulate components (straws or tubes of different thickness/ balloons of different sizes) of the simple device to improve itsPerformance.

Recognize why an object or choice is not working properly

Recognize how a defective simple object or device might be fixed(getting rid of any blockage or bend in the pipes or making all joints airtight)

Part – 3 – Panning, producing and editing the documentary

Gather the class together and discuss regarding the motive behind making a documentary. Initiate the discussion with some probing questions like:

What methods or means can you use to reach out to the huge masses across the world to generate awareness about the disasters of a polluted environment?
What do you think rates a documentary as good and successful?
What is the difference between a documentary and an advertisement?

Instruct the students that they need to produce a documentary highlighting causes of respiratory diseases due to air pollution. Show the students the following documentaries which will give them a fair idea of what is expected from them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZmwIaa_qbk and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IG3thzNUIdY

Also take them through the steps of making a documentary with the help of this link. http://www.desktop-documentaries.com/making-documentaries.html
Ask the students to group into the teams and plan out their creation: the story, videos, audio, interviews(if any). List out certain pointers for them which they need to keep in mind during their production

The duration of the documentary should not exceed 4 minutes
They need to necessarily incorporate the false lung model and its simulation and build a story around it.
The various tasks need to be distributed fairly among all the members of the team for timely completion.
Do thorough research work before stating facts
Don’t let technology get in the way of your story; ask for help and advice from concerned teachers.

The teams produce their documentary in the given time frame (teacher’s prerogative). Encourage the students to research on causes for other common diseases too (e.g. water pollution, smoking, industrialisation and urbanisation, fast foods etc.)

Part – 4 –The grand screening!

Have the students screen their documentaries on the screen in the school auditorium/ computer lab.

A question answer round is opened to the students which is led by the teacher (The team screening the documentary need to take a feedback from their peers to judge the success of their documentary). The team can further narrate their interesting experiences during the making of the documentary

Culminate the activity by asking students to reflect on the entire design process. Have students fill in the L column of the K-W-H-L

To conclude ask the students to fill the summative questions in the workbook

Rubric Presentation

Extensions

Students can create a working mechanical hand and research on artificial limbs as a field of bioengineering.
Students cancreate a documentary film on ‘My school is a Green school' highlighting the methods used to conserve the natural resources and keep the environment clean and safe.

Assessments and Rubrics

Pre-activity – Discussion questions

Do you think a dream to have a world free of diseases can come true? Why?
Why is it that since 1900 the global average life expectancy has more than doubled?
Do you think engineers play any role in our health? How?
What type of engineer might work hand in hand with a doctor to help a patient with heart disease

Activity Embedded – (Formative Assessment)