RET at UC

Research Experience for Teachers (2014-2015)

Staying Alive….Life is Complicated

Eryn Ruder's Poster
Author: Eryn Ruder
Unit Title: Staying Alive….Life is Complicated
Grade Level: 10 - 12
Subject: Biology
Estimated Duration: 4 weeks
Unit Activities:

Pre/Post Test:
Pre-Test  

The Big Idea (including global relevance)

Life is complicated. Students will investigate the biology of school attendance in regards to the following question: Are students sick of school or does school make students sick? Improving school attendance by identifying variables that cause students to miss school. Attendance is a non-academic measure that schools are evaluated on by the state of Ohio. Students will examine data relating to number of school days missed and the reasons given and the number of students awarded perfect attendance. Students can analyze the data to determine the top causes for missed days.

Essential Questions

  • How can we improve school attendance by preventing the spread of illness among students?

The Hook

  • Students will be given petri dishes and sterile swabs to incubate cultures gathered on school grounds. Teams will each choose 4 locations, 2 predicted to not harbor bacteria and 2 predicted to have bacteria. Students will observe the dishes over a 1 week period.
  • News reel footage of norovirus outbreak on a Cruise Ship
  • News story of norovirus outbreak at a school, http://krqe.com/2014/05/01/school-closes-due-to-suspected-norovirus-outbreak/
  • Nathan Wolfe Virus Hunter Video, http://ted.com/talks/nathan_wolfe_hunts_for_the_next_aids
  • New attendance requirements from the state of Ohio.
  • Dehydrated Arizona teen dies during Mexico vacation after drinking Red Bull news story

The Challenge

Design a comprehensive method or procedure and/or structural changes to the physical environment and campaign for a method for reducing the spread of bacteria and viruses on school grounds.

Guiding Questions

  • What are the common causes of illness?
  • How does illness spread?
  • What causes diarrhea and vomiting?
  • What can we do to treat diarrhea and vomiting?
  • Why is dehydration a danger?
  • Why is water important to life?
  • How big are viruses and bacteria?
  • What does it mean to be alive?
  • Are viruses and bacteria alive?
  • How can we "kill" viruses and bacteria?
  • What is the difference between human cells and bacterial cells and viruses?


ACS (Real world applications; career connections; societal impact)

The benefits of implementing the students’ designs will result in the district meeting the State of Ohio attendance requirements by the reduction of illness among student population. The individual students will benefit from improved personal hygiene habits. The school community will benefit from increased public awareness of disease transmission.

Society will benefit from a population that practices improved personal hygiene which will result in improved public health. An increase in school attendance will result in improved academic performance and increase student achievement.

Engineering (Environmental, Genetic), Public Health Official, Scientist/Researcher, Microbiologist, Medical Careers, Public Relations

Misconceptions

  • All cells have a nucleus
  • All organisms reproduce sexually
  • 5 second rule
  • All living things breathe
  • Viruses are alive
  • Homeostasis is a type of mixture
  • Plants aren’t alive

Unit Lessons and Activities

  • Lesson 1: Importance of water to life. Lesson 1 will focus on the properties of water and the importance of the molecule to all living things. Students will have the opportunity to explore the properties of water and determine the best technique for hand washing.
    • Activity 1: Introduction of the Big Idea, Generating the Essential Question, Challenge and Guiding Questions.
    • Investigating the properties of water to build a better hand washing technique.
  • Lesson 2: How do you kill something that isn’t alive? Lesson 2 enables students to investigate the characteristics of life by comparing the reproduction/heredity, energy use, and maintenance of homeostasis by eukaryotes, prokaryotes, and viruses. They will be surveying school facilities and procedures to determine what can be changed to deter the spread of bacteria and viruses among the student population.
    • Activity 3: What is life?
    • Activity 4: Design a change to school facility or procedure to reduce the spread of bacteria and viruses among student population.
  • Evidence of CBL: Lesson 1 Activity 1 and Activity 2, and Lesson 2 Activity 2
  • Evidence of EDP: Lesson 1 Activity 1 and Activity 2, and Lesson 2 Activity 2


Additional Resources