The activities and strategies listed here are an example of what I plan to use in my classroom during this unit. Each of these activities can be modified to increase the rigor or to provide more scaffolding for students. In addition to the activities that I have listed below, I will support student learning through the use of jig-saw reading activities, guided lectures, quizzes and tests.
Disease Word Sort
One activity that will be helpful for students is to provide a series of 20 cards with various diseases that they have hypothetically been exposed to, such as Ebola, hypocholesteremia, Alzheimer’s, cancer, and the flu. Students can sort these diseases into different categories of their choosing according to the following criteria: there must be more than 2 words in each grouping to qualify and they must be able to explain their rationale behind the category. The students should then be asked to discuss their different category choices with the class and identify common trends. Did students choose to sort them according to whether they are communicable or not? Did they sort diseases by those that are easy to treat and those that aren’t? This activity can lead into a discussion for how different diseases are classified or, as a further extension, how certain diseases can be treated.
Symptoms, Two Different Ways
Symptoms, Two Different Ways is an activity I developed to help students think critically about the differences between diseases and injuries. A secondary objective for this assignment is to illustrate that many diseases may have similar symptoms. In this activity, students will be paired up and provided a list of several symptoms. They will be asked to work with a partner to create two different scenarios for their symptoms—one that illustrates a disease and one that demonstrates an injury. These scenarios will be presented in a patient case history report, where they (the patient) is describing the onset, duration, and severity of their symptoms. Patient histories may also include other pieces of information, including family history. After student groups have created these casefiles, they will exchange folders with a neighboring group and decide which story demonstrates an injury and which case file represents a disease.
This activity can also be expanded in several ways, depending on the ability levels of the students and the depth with which this information is covered. One modification to this activity is to have students go a step further with their identification. If they have decided that the patient is demonstrating a disease and not an injury, based on the patient casefile history, they should attempt a diagnosis. After diagnosis, students can then take it one step further and identify the type of disease it is: communicable or non-communicable.
Model Building
In order to help my students understand the complex interactions between molecules, I plan on using modeling. There are a few types of modeling that I would like to use-- physical models and virtual models. One model activity that I plan to use was created by Brian White at University of Massachusetts to demonstrate protein folding. I have modified this activity below for a high school class, but the full resource with activity documents is listed under Teacher Resources.
Students will be given about 3 feet of 18 gauge armature wire and asked to create a 6 amino acid chain.
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Students will be asked to fold side chains into their model by twisting the wire. Hydrophobic side chains, those that are do not like to be surrounded by water, are large loops that can fit 2 fingers while hydrophilic side chains can be represented by 4 twists (positive charge) or 2 twists (negative charge).
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Students will be asked to make at least one of each in their chain.
Students will then be asked to ‘fold their protein’, keeping in mind the particular nature of their protein. After students have folded their own individual chains and draw or photograph the shape, I will have them denature, or stretch out the backbone of their model. They will exchange their chain with a partner who will then see if their folding is similar to the initial one created by the student. Finally, students can link their protein together with a partner’s by twisting the wire at the ends together to make one long strand.
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Together with their partner, they will be asked to refold their protein and see if the overall shape changes. As an end result, each group will work together to answer several key questions including a discussion of how side chains affect the shape of a folded protein.
Demonstrating Surveillance Errors
In class, we will be examining how surveillance is turned off in old age. For this demonstration, I will make a large string spider web in the back of the room. Four students will be provided with scissors and instructed to cut the strings in the web. The rest of the class will be asked to tie the strings back together as the cuts are being made. Make a string network half of the class is cutting things half of them are tying them together all the time. At first, the “surveillance” and repair team will be able to keep up with the damage being done. However, as time goes by, I will tap students to sit down. . Soon the “surveillance and repair” system becomes overwhelmed and cannot keep up with the amount of “damage” accumulating in the system causing system failure. This activity is analogous to the turning off surveillance of old age.
This same model can also be altered to demonstrate an overwhelming of surveillance. In this case, there are 5 students who are asked to serve as the surveillance and repair system of the body. One student acts as “damage” and cuts the strings. As in the previous model, the surveillance team is able to prevent damage from being done to the overall system. After a minute or so of this, add a large number (no more than 14) of students to the one already acting as act as damage to the system. This will result in an overburdening of the surveillance system who, after time, will not be able to keep up with the damage.
Discussing Disease
For a final project, students will be responsible for creating a presentation about how an error in surveillance is responsible for a specific disease. In order to facilitate students with this project, I will create a list of diseases that fit neatly into one of the four categories. Each group of four will choose one of the diseases from the list and they will need to explain which surveillance error it fits into and why.
First, students will describe the symptoms and epidemiology of the disease, including any common demographics where it can be found. After describing the disease itself, each group will look deeper and discus the specific mechanism that causes the disease. Once they have described this mechanism, they will need to provide evidence that supports this disease as an example of one of the four surveillance errors.
This assignment allows me to evaluate students in three areas—two pedagogical and one content knowledge, which I have already described. One of the pedagogical skills that I emphasize in my classes are verbal and non-verbal speaking skills. As each group presents, I do not grade them on their written work during the presentation—that comes after when I look through it after class. Instead, I watch the body language and listen to how each student speaks and grade them based on a verbal-nonverbal rubric. Some of the skills that I focus on are speaking out towards the audience instead of reading, speaking loudly, and using good body language.
The second pedagogical area that I will be focusing is argumentation. In their presentation, students are asked to justify their selection for the type of surveillance mechanism and support their reasoning using evidence from the method behind the disease.
