Nanotechnology and Human Health

CONTENTS OF CURRICULUM UNIT 10.05.01

  1. Unit Guide
  1. Introduction
  2. Student Background
  3. Rationale
  4. Unit Course Objectives
  5. Unit Background Part One- What is the significance of size?
  6. Background Information Part 2- Nanotechnology and its applications
  7. Unit Implementation Strategies
  8. Lesson #1 Measurement and Size Relativity
  9. Lesson #2 Biology and Scaling
  10. Summary
  11. Bibliography
  12. Appendix A- Materials for Lesson #1
  13. Appendix B- Materials for Lesson #2 - 1.The Biology of B- Movie Monsters Questions
  14. 2. Build a Monster Activity
  15. Appendix C- Nanotechnology and its Applications Resources
  16. Appendix D- Suggested media relating to size, if time permits in your lesson planning:

The Relative Nature of Size in Biological Sciences: Let's Start Small and Work Our Way Up

Conchita LaShay Austin

Published September 2010

Tools for this Unit:

Lesson #1 Measurement and Size Relativity

Materials:

  • Refer to Appendix A for student materials.
  • Copy of J.B.S. Haldane's essay On Being the Right Size

Objectives:

  • Students will be able to measure using the SI Metric system
  • Students will develop a frame of reference for size from meters to nanometers
  • Students will be able to relate the significance of size to the structure and function of living organisms.

Procedures:

I will introduce the metric system and its units of measurement. I want them to recognize that this system is based on the power of 10 and be able to relate objects that are visible (meters, centimeters, and millimeters) to objects that are not visible to the naked eye (micrometers and nanometers). The students will then apply what they have learned by completing the measurement activity. The next part of this lesson will consist of presenting and discussing the two websites, Cells alive! How Big and Size and Scale; the sites are listed in Appendix A. These sites will give my students a point of reference concerning the relativity of size and various items which we will be covering throughout the course. In the final part of this lesson, I will provide my students with a copy of Haldane's On Being the Right Size. I have chosen specific excerpts from this essay as it relates to items we will be covering in this course and am going to divide these excerpts into six sections because I usually have six lab groups in my class. Students could be allowed to view the entire essay individually, but this would be more time consuming depending on the level of student, reading ability, and class size. The students are going to do a modified jig-saw; they will read their assigned sections and then share each section with the class as a whole. The purpose of this exercise is to help the students focus on one aspect of the essay and provide a better discussion in a more reasonable amount of time; each group can share that discussion with the class as a whole. The discussion questions are also provided in Appendix A.

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