How Drugs Work

Activities

Initially I will use short presentations and activities for understanding of cellular processes and toxic effects. I will create short presentations for each of the units in the background knowledge sections listed earlier. Every teacher knows what information their students possess coming into the class. Everyone might not need to introduce or review these concepts, and each individual teacher should examine if all or more might be needed to discuss toxic effects to organisms of the three toxins listed above. This program is designed for my science class which meets every day Monday - Friday for a fifty minute period.

Introduction

This unit will last about two class periods (50 minutes each) and have the objective of reviewing a basic understanding of living things and how they fit on a continuum from very small to very large organisms and systems.

Examples include using KWL charts to determine what students consider as living things. I will continue with examples of things that were clearly living, and other things that had some of the characteristics of living organisms. We will then follow up with groups to establish a more comprehensive list of the characteristics of living organisms. For the unit on hierarchy of living parts, I will invite the students to order cells, tissue, organs, etc. by using set diagrams of 12-13 concentric circles. The students should start with atoms, molecules and move into cells, and tissue, and conclude with ecosystems and the world. This will reinforce the organism as part of a smaller and larger world. There will be an article that students will round robin read from Britannica Kids. ⁴⁰

The Cell

This unit will last two to three days and its objective will include basic identification of cell parts and function with special emphasis placed on chemical functions occurring within the cell.

Working with cells structure and organelles, we will examine a two and three dimensional representation of a cell and students learn about the parts and develop a two dimensional representation for an assessment. The 3-D aspect of the model will include characteristics such as DNA in the nucleus that demonstrate knowledge on function of the organelles and the cell.

Movement of Molecules in Tissue and the Cell

This unit will last three days and its objective will be to review concentration and look at diffusion. There will also be examples of different kinds of intra-cellular and extra-cellular molecular movement. We will examine differences between passive and active transport, and receptors in the surface of cells.

We will look at diffusion. We will review previous lessons on concentration and creating a serial dilution. We will examine the math for each step of the serial dilution, and follow up with selective mixture of the solutions and calculation of new solution composition. We will also focus on changes in appearance in each step in the serial dilution. In examination of passive and active transport, the students will design a shape for a cell receptor and design a ligand and potential drug to replace the ligand and provide a different function for the receptor.

Cell Communication

This unit will last two days and its objective will include communication with neurons and muscle cells. We will also combine information from the previous unit about receptors to explain re-uptake transporters and effects of ligands on these transporters. We will use this information to help introduce the concept of tolerance of a drug and withdrawal symptoms.

I will cover neuron communication. We will cover the chemical and physical properties of a chain of neurons communicating a signal. We will then create a type of "telephone" game to pass messages through the chain. We will begin with a linear communication chain, where one student passes the message to another students, then we will create a two dimensional model of nerve tissue and create thresholds to witness a signal going through, but using alternate paths for the communication. We will add blockers to the process to see if the message still gets through. Finally we will increase the amount of blockers to determine if increase dosage will improve the outcome. We will use cards to act as neurotransmitters and blockers to help with the simulation.

Filtering Toxins Out

This unit will take about two days and review previous lessons on filtration to introduce and identify the main organs in the body responsible for cleaning toxins out of the body.

I will review previous lessons on filtration, and filtration with a binding agent to simulate organ processes of the kidney and liver where the binding agent is similar to an enzyme and allows the better processing of toxic material. We will also discuss where in the body these filtering mechanisms are and how they work to eliminate toxins from the body. We will conclude the unit with diagrams of liver, kidneys, skin and stomach to label characteristics needed for each function of each organ.

Introductions of the Toxins

This unit will take about a week. The objective will be to provide students with basic facts about the function and toxicity of the four substances (alcohol, cannabis, lead and mercury).

I will return to KWL charts for study of our four main toxins. We will keep track of what the students know or think they know, what they want to know, and at the conclusion of the unit, they will list what they have learned. We will begin these charts as we introduce each of the four toxins, alcohol, cannabis, lead and mercury. We will look at these substances as trade-offs. We will examine the benefits, dangers and abuses of each substance in preparation of the larger unit. There will be opportunity to watch and discuss video on addiction and drug costs from various sources (National Geographic, Youtube -see bibliography for examples). We will also use jigsaw strategies to read several articles and report to the class about the findings. We will have groups of students read parts of the same article and report to the group. They in turn will report a summary of the article to the class. This will allow several points of view on the topics to be introduced and discussed. We will record some of the findings into the KWL charts to be included in items that we have learned.

Project

This part of the unit will begin with the introduction of the toxins and continue for about four days after the completion of the Toxin Introduction. This will allow students sufficient time to access outside sources and computer time. The last two days will be used for presentations. The objective of the project is to provide for differentiated evaluation of the students' understanding of the material, while presenting information to fellow students about different toxins and their issues.

While I complete introductions on the background material, I will allow the students to select their own inquiry circle group. My class size is about 30 students, so this will naturally allow for seven to eight groups of four. The way the groups select each other is that I will prepare eight to ten articles on alcohol, cannabis, lead and mercury, each of the students is allowed one minute to browse the article, and after they browse the ten articles they will vote on choices one to three. I will then organize the groups by their choices. I have used this method in the past and it has proved successful. This will be the structure for group inquiry projects on different perspectives of alcohol, cannabis, lead and mercury. The questions will surround pro and con for alcohol and cannabis, but focus more on cost and benefit of lead and mercury, which are both industrial products and toxins.

The groups will be responsible for two presentations. One presentation will be five to seven minutes, while the other will be one to three minutes. One presentation will need to be informative focusing on the article, and on other source material that will be researched to support or refute the position of the article chosen. The students will need to research at least 5 additional sources to support their position, and will need a color presentation board to assist in the oral presentation. The other presentation will need to be artistic in nature. They will need to perform a skit, a poem, an artistic (drawing), or song. The groups will select which length of time they will present. The better presentations will participate at our school science assembly or if the timing does not allow that at a regular school assembly after this unit is completed.

Assessments

Assessments of these units will vary. In some activities I will assess the worksheet or assignment for effort and participation. Others will require an exit slip that will demonstrate understanding of an important concept. There will be vocabulary practice, where the students will write sentences using multiple words in a sentence to demonstrate understanding of the words in addition to remembering which will be evaluated with a quiz. Each of the presentations will be graded on content, presentation style, participation, preparation of display materials and behavior during the presentation. I have had success with giving each student a presentation worksheet, which helps them list and organize sources, but also a place for me to record participation in groups. Participation points are issued through periodic observation of the students and interviews with other group members. If a student loses his/her sheet they forfeit participation points.

I plan on implementing this unit for my 8 ^th grade class the first week in January, right after winter break. I think this will help review concepts introduced earlier in the year on concentration, chemical reactions, and diffusion. I feel that this unit supports the Illinois State Standards and it will provide practice in reading non-fiction scientific sources, so it will prepare my students for testing in March. I am confident that support for the non-fiction sources and a more rigorous overview of cell and chemical functions will offer a bridge for my school in implementing the Common Core State Standards.