Activities
Overview of Daily Schedule
Day 1
The students will work in cooperative groups to brainstorm different ways that medication enters the human body. The results will be compiled into group posters.
Day 2
The teacher will provide the students with a handout of the different ways drugs are delivered. The students will record notes about the pros and cons for each type of delivery.
Day 3
The students will work in cooperative groups to brainstorm different ways an Alka Seltzer tablet can penetrate a stocking membrane, without removing the membrane.
Day 4
Students will be provided with several cups with stocking membranes. They will also be given supplies based on their brainstorm list. Then the students will test out their methods to see if they can successfully pass through the membrane. The small groups will share their results with the class.
Day 5
A brief overview of cells, tissues, and organs will be delivered. The students will make a diagram of an animal cell.
Day 6, 7 & 8
The students will learn about the circulatory, digestive, and excretory system. The students will complete coloring activities using pages from a human anatomy coloring book.
Days 9–11(activity 1)
The class will have a mini lesson on diffusion and equilibrium. Then the students will conduct experiments to determine how the temperature and particle size affect diffusion. First, the students will alter and record the temperature of the water to determine the effect it has on the time it takes for food coloring to diffuse and reach equilibrium. Next, the students will experiment with the time it takes for an Alka Seltzer tablet to diffuse and reach equilibrium if it is whole, cut into fourths, or ground into a powder. The students will record the results. The last set of experiments will have the students assist the teacher to make sodium alginate beads. There are websites with videos that demonstrate this process (see resources appendix). Then the alginate polymers will be used to conduct a third experiment where the students will observe the diffusion process. If food coloring is added to the alginate when making the polymers, then the coloring will diffuse out of the polymers when placed in water. The students can observe this process until equilibrium is reached. However, if poster paint is added to the alginate when making polymers, then the molecules are too large and will not diffuse out into the water. Thus, providing a model of how some molecules can move through membranes and others cannot. The experiments will conclude with the teacher informing the students of the processes of absorption and distribution and the role diffusion and equilibrium play.
Day 12
The teacher will introduce information about metabolism and excretion.
Day 13 (activity 2)
The teacher will teach the students background information about enzymes and how the active site binds to a substrate or an inhibitor. Then the class will partake in a game to demonstrate how the active site works in the case of aspirin. In preparation for the game, the teacher will purchase several blank (all white) jigsaw puzzles. The teacher will color the outer edge pieces of both puzzles yellow. Then color the adjacent interior row of one puzzle red and the adjacent interior row of the second puzzle blue. To play the game, the teacher will give each student either a yellow, red, or blue piece of the puzzle, making sure that every red or blue piece has a yellow with which to interlock. Each yellow piece in the game should have a red and a blue match. When the game begins the students have to find their match. Since a red and a blue piece match each yellow piece, some students will be unable to find their match or get into the "active site". Once all yellow pieces have a match, the teacher will pull a color, red or blue, out of a hat. The color that is called is the "inhibitor" that prevented the pain. All matches made with the inhibitor get a point. For example, if blue was the inhibitor, then all of the students that are involved in the blue and yellow matches earns a point or a token. The pieces would be collected and passed out again. The game can proceed for a given amount of time or until a certain number of points or tokens are attained. At the conclusion of the game the teacher should review the concept of active site, substrate and inhibitor.
Day 14 (activity 3 begins)
The class will string a bead from a candy necklace through a piece of thread. Then the students will dip the bead into the beaker of lollipop mix. Each group will make three beads for the designated number of lollipop dips. The students will make three beads with one, two, three, and four coatings. The coated beads will be placed on labeled parchment paper to indicate the amount of dips. The students will also determine the mass in grams of each bead and record the data.
Day 15–18 (activity 3 continues)
The experiments will begin to determine the elapsed time for the lollipop coating to dissolve. Each group will conduct three trials and record the results. On day 15 the students will conduct the experiment for the candy beads that were dipped once. Following the experiment, the students will hypothesize the amount of time it will take for the beads with two coats to dissolve. On day 16 the students will conduct this experiment and record their results. After the experiment, students will again make hypotheses about the time it will take for the beads with three coats to dissolve. This process will continue on Day 17 and Day 18 for the beads with three and four coats respectively. The students will share the results and the teacher will help the students to analyze the relationships particularly between one and two coats and two and four coats to determine if double coating results in double the dissolve time.
Day 19–21(activity 3 concludes)
The students will work in the same cooperative groups. On day 19, they will analyze their data and develop a plan to create a "drug" that will dissolve in 15 minutes. The group will write a paragraph to explain their rationale. On day 20, they will once again create their beads. Each group will apply the lollipop coating to three beads according to their plan. On day 21, the big competition will take place to determine which group has the smallest margin of error based on elapsed time.
Day 22
The teacher will provide each group of students with a series of interview questions about what they learned. Each group will divide the questions up amongst the group and prepare their answers.
Day 23
The students will be interviewed and their responses will be videotaped.
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