Detailed lesson plans
I am planning to use approximately eight lessons, including watching Sicko, a movie I have been showing and discussing, which is about the state of health care in the United States. Eight days for us is approximately three and a half weeks. We are on block scheduling. We alternate two or three classes of one hundred minutes each week.
The first day, we will begin with me showing them my plastic liver, which looks realistic and bloody. Then we will do a brainstorm, writing everything they know about the liver. I may need to prompt them. We will discuss why liver would be an important topic for health. Hopefully, it will be known to some of them that the liver is important in alcohol detoxification, at least. I will explain where the unit is going and what projects they will be expected to complete. I will explain and diagram the cellular structure and circulation of the liver. We will start our hexagon project.
The second day, we will try to brainstorm liver function, which will probably end up as a short lecture by me. I want them to understand how important it is. I will assign the power point presentation on the effects of various drugs, as detailed above. We will go to the computer lab to work on it.
The third day, we will start with a review of structure and function. Then we will move onto our power points. We will move on to a discussion on how the research is going, making sure they are using valid sites, asking what help they need. After this, we will return to the computer lab.
Day four, I will start with a brief lecture and hopefully discussion on organ transplantation. We will start our power point presentations. If they finish early, we will go back to work on our hexagons.
Day five, we will start our Billie Bile storybook. I want to spend at least forty-five minutes on our first Socratic seminar as well. The essential question we will address is "Who should pay for organs and for transplants?"
The sixth day we will again work on the storybook. We will also do our second Socratic seminar, with the essential question, "Who should be first and last on a donor recipient list?" I may do a round robin with large sheets of paper for each student to write their opinions on and then for their classmates to respond silently if two days of Socratic seminar seems too much for the freshmen in the class.
On day seven, we will finish the storybooks, and then share them with the class. I will share with them some of the things I learned about new technology for artificial organs. I will introduce the movie "Sicko". I generally do a disclaimer on Michael Moore and the fact that the documentary we are about to watch shows one man's opinions. He does base those opinions on well-researched facts, however. I have double-checked some of his statistics on the World Health Organization web site. I will give them questions to answer as we watch.
On the eighth day, we will finish "Sicko". We will either do a small group discussion on it or possibly a round robin. I want them to answer several questions.
Who should pay for medical care?
Should we have a single payer system? Are health insurance companies necessary?
Should we spend more on research or on preventative care?
What would you need in an artificial liver?
How are the ethical issues about artificial organs different from the issues involved in transplanted organs?
We will finish with final thoughts and a whip (where each participant makes a brief statement on what they learned or what interests them). I have another movie I would like to show if I have time, called "D-Tour". It is a documentary about a young man on dialysis who does a tour with a rock band. It talks about the difficulties of living a normal life and brings up many of the challenges of transplantation when a living donor offers him a kidney.
Comments: