I teach Biology at an urban magnet high school. The high school draws from the city as well as from surrounding towns. The central theme of the high school is the performing arts, though this unit is relevant to any high school biology curriculum. While positioned for an advanced biology class, this unit is certainly adaptable to any level biology class. The importance of vaccinations as part of the biology and health curriculum cannot be understated.
Teaching about vaccines is a critical part of any biology curriculum, be it an entry level class or advanced placement (AP Biology) class. It is fundamentally necessary that students are exposed to vaccine centric content. Vaccines are of a paramount importance to human health, comparable to clean drinking water. Furthermore, it is fantastic fodder to deliver other biology content, for example the immune system, cell to cell recognition, viruses, bacteria, funguses, and drug delivery. One can easily intertwine lessons on any of the aforementioned topics with teachings about vaccines to create a robust and rigorous lesson.
This unit focuses on the blending of vaccine focused content with basic biology content. The blending of content primarily concerns the human immune system. Allowing students to explore human vaccine technology through fundamental immune system knowledge and providing a tangible and relatable way to engage with these two complex topics to aid student understanding of how a vaccine works on the individual level. Prior to addressing the science behind how a vaccine leverages the immune system some vaccine focused content will provide a brief history of vaccines and explanation of vaccine types. Herd immunity will also be discussed within the unit. Herd immunity refers to the percentage of immune population threshold that is necessary to avoid an epidemic. Herd immunity is about understanding how vaccines work on a population level. It is relevant that students understand that vaccines are not just an individual health issue and are perhaps more importantly a community health issue. These topic areas will also allow the unit to explore the pressing and relevant vaccine related issue of barriers to vaccine adoption and public adoption of vaccine protocols. Finally, the likely future of vaccine technology, DNA vaccines, will be discussed. DNA vaccines offer much promise in eliminating some inherent vaccination issues such as transport, storage, ease of production, and safety.
Vaccines protect us from diseases caused by viruses, bacteria, and funguses. Future applications of vaccines will be discussed at the end of this unit, including the development of vaccines to fight cancer. Cancers, such as melanoma, are caused by mutations and not pathogens thus vaccines as preventative therapeutic is a new realm of vaccine utilization. Typically students will attribute vaccines as protection against viral infections. This is simply not the case and should be addressed within any comprehensive lesson. Though not imperative to understanding how a vaccine works, it is necessary to mention non-viral applications to dispel the common myth. Vaccines help us to protect against bacterial infections such as tuberculosis, diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, Haemophilus influenzae type B, cholera, typhoid, and Streptococcus pneumoniae. Bacterial diseases may be remedied with antibiotics but it is more effective to be proactive in some cases and use vaccines. Vaccines are also used to combat aggressive and life-threatening fungal infections such as candida infections.
