Nanotechnology and Human Health

Lesson plans and activities

We are on a block schedule, so have one hundred minute periods every other day. Therefore, two weeks of lessons will occur over five days, rather than ten days.

Day 1

Introduction of topic, concept of size

The opening activity will be a quick write. Quick writes are a short writing done by the students, generally at the beginning of class. I use them as a transition, review or introduction. Students write for a set amount of time, I usually do five to ten minutes. I am usually looking for prior knowledge or for how well they understood a concept or giving them a chance to give me their opinions privately. Students will write a minimum of four full sentences on the topic of "Why do we have hand sanitizers in every room in the school?" As soon as they are finished writing, they will do a pair-share. I will put them into groups of two, they will quickly discuss what they wrote and each student will report on what his or her partner said.

Next, I will introduce the idea of communicable disease, a short lecture, with time for questions. If there is time, I will also have them read a short section in our health book and will randomly pick students to answer questions on the reading.

I will then show a power point about size. It will include a meter chart with sizes from kilometers to nanometers. We will put a category of plant or animal at some levels, such as redwood tree at about one hundred meters, a giraffe at three meters, and a fly at one centimeter. We will include a calculation on halving numbers, how many times would it take to go from 100 km to 100 m, from 100 m to 100 cm, from 100 cm to 100 nm.

We will take strips of paper, cut at 100 cm, and scissors and see how many times we can cut them in half. What size are the last cuts? How many cuts would it take to reach 100 nm?

To extend the concept, we will do some guesses about various things. How many soccer balls would fit in the earth, how many 100 nm particles would fit in a soccer ball? I will model the math and give a treat to the person with the closest guess. The final part of this activity will be calculating how many 20 nm virus particles will fit into a 10 micrometer cell.

We will end the day with a debrief. What did they learn? How different in size are objects on the earth, including bacteria and viruses? I may do a round robin with a chance to comment on sticky notes and put them on chart paper around the room, or just do a class discussion if we do not have enough time.

Materials needed: powerpoint with meter chart, size comparisons, pictures, last slide halving numbers; strips of paper 100 cm long, scissors

Day 2

Self-assembly

I will start with soap bubbles. Each group of four, which I will assign, will be given wands and a bucket of soap to make bubbles with. They are to note the shapes, sizes, colors and properties of the bubble and theorize on why the bubbles have those properties. Each group will then report to the class on their observations and theories.

I will then show another powerpoint on self-assembly, with soap bubbles and incorporating figure 1 above to explain in simplified terms what hydrophobic and hydrophilic mean in practical terms. I will also include an introduction to self-assembling nano particles and viruses.

We will do an activity on self-assembly at this point. I have a picture of an icosahedron that looks like it will never form a shape. I will copy it onto tag board and have the students make their own viral protein coat. We will also put a length of string inside to represent DNA.

We will preview day 3 by assigning groups and giving a handout on their disease to each group. I have several handouts on various diseases, what causes them, the symptoms, cure if there is any, as well as prevention. I have classes of thirty-four students, so will do eight groups of four to five, each with a communicable disease. I will give some viral, including flu and HIV. I may include one fungal disease, since they are quite common. I will include both sexually transmitted infections and non-STI's. They will be given some time to strategize their presentations.

Days 3 - 4

Disease presentations

Groups will be allowed to choose their format for presentations. They may do posters, they may do a skit or, if I have the computers available, they may do a powerpoint presentation. They will be given time in class to work on their chosen form of presentation. They will receive a rubric that includes what information must be given accurately in the presentation, length of time, participation, clarity of presentation, etc. Students forming the audience will complete a note taking form, also for a grade, that includes a place to write information, an evaluation of the group presenting and an evaluation of their own group, including what work was done by each person. These are also for a grade. If students choose to do powerpoint, they may have to research pictures and/or diagrams either in the computer lab or on their own time and bring the results in a flash drive.

Materials needed: handouts on various diseases, be sure to mix viral and bacterial, include 2 to 3 STI's, including HIV, rubric for group presentation (I generally grade the rubric during the presentaton), note taking worksheet for each student

Day 5

We will start with a quick write-up on presentations. What did they learn that was new? What surprised them? I will have them discuss their quick writes in groups of four and have each group report to the class.

I will hand out a bag with a mix of red and white beans for nine groups of three to four students. Buried inside each one is a piece of paper with further instructions. Three groups take nothing and just count their beans. Three groups take their antibiotics incorrectly and take out all the white beans, but leave and count the red beans. Three groups take their antibiotics correctly and take out all the beans. Each group will be asked to speculate on what the beans represent and why the antibiotic took out some and not others. The disease presentations should give them enough background to explain.

Each group will do a calculation on how many of each bean there will be in ten hours if the population doubles every thirty minutes. Since three of the groups will have zero beans, they can calculate the number of white beans for the three groups with mixed beans. Then, they will calculate how many bacteria there will be if there is a limited amount of resources. I will have them do a proportion of white beans to red beans to show that the groups with no antibiotic will have few white beans relative to the red beans, the groups who took their antibiotic incorrectly will have all white beans, and the groups that took their antibiotics correctly will have none. The groups will then discuss what if the white beans carry a resistance to the antibiotic. What happened to the group that took theirs incorrectly? Why is this not a good idea? We will end this activity with a class discussion on implications of taking medications incorrectly.

The final activity will be a round robin. There will be chart paper around the room and students will be given markers. Some of the headings will be bacteria, viruses, antibiotics, etc and students can make a note of something they learned. One of them will have a heading of what can we do to prevent the spread of antibiotic resistance. We will end with a class discussion on the charts and see if students are interested in doing a community activity to spread the word to others on how important it is to take medications correctly.