Introduction
This project and resulting
book was funded by a Teacher Fellowship Award from De
Montfort University (
DMU).
The aims were:
1. To
study how primary school teachers convey complex scientific theory and then to
take the best practice into higher education.
2. Evaluate
the use of tablet computers in these settings
3. Build
on existing scientific partnerships with the school
4. For
a scientist to part deliver the curriculum around the effects of drugs, alcohol
and smoking on the body.
5. To
produce a sustainable resource for use in primary school and HE science
teaching
Resources
Staffing: The sessions were five half day sessions
School: The school provided the paper based materials,
laptop and projector
DMU Scientist (GB): Anatomical model of the body, clinical sticks and
urine (coffee and water), peak flow meters, USB microscope, sponge, treacle,
pickled onions, blood pressure machine, iPad. Most of which can be sourced from
local government suppliers, amazon and local NHS general practice / school
nurse contacts.
Applications: We used Prezi, Penultimate and Visible Body to
explain the science, and we used Scribble to allow the children to make the
book.
Alcohol
1. Speak
to your talking partner for 2 minutes about everything you know about alcohol
and the effects on the body.
2. How
will alcohol affect your money, family and health?
3. Look
at the model of the human body on the iPad (Living Body App) and 3D model
a. Where
are the brain, liver, stomach and kidneys?
b. Look
at the structure of the brain and liver, what do they do?
4. The
brain’s job is to control movement, breathing and heart rate, personality,
eating, sleeping and finding a partner. It does this by nerves (electricity),
hormones (chemicals) and neurotransmitters (chemicals). Alcohol works on the
brain by stopping the nerves and chemicals from working, this will therefore
effect movement, breathing and heart rate, personality, eating, sleeping and
finding a partner.
5. So
how will alcohol make you FEEL?
6. The
liver’s job is to clean the blood, take out poisons and make good chemicals to
keep up fit and strong. The liver turns the alcohol into vinegar, too much
alcohol will mean too much vinegar and our livers will be PICKLED, like an
onion, is that good or bad?
7. Add
the facts you’ve learnt into the book. The following pages are the thoughts and
observations of the primary school children written directly onto the iPad
application Scribble.
8. The
narrative and process above is best practice from a primary school setting blended
with in-depth science from the partner scientist. This technique of exploring will
be used in the BIOM1006, 2002 and 3001 clinical biochemistry modules on the BSc
Biomedical Programme and the thoughts of the university students will also be
added to the book. In these modules the structure and function of organs,
disease changes and diagnosing and treatment are learnt
Smoking
1. Speak
to your talking partner for 2 minutes about everything you know about smoking
and the effects on the body.
2. How
will alcohol affect your money, family and health?
3. Look
at the model of the human body on the iPad (Living Body App) and 3D model
a. Where
are the heart and lungs?
b. Look
at the structure of the heart and lungs, what do they do?
c. Watch
the video (visible body app) of the heart and lung blood flow and think about
oxygen coming in to the lungs (red) and carbon dioxide going out (blue). Is it
good or bad that smoking has a lot of carbon dioxide in and how that makes you
FEEL?
d. This
technique will be used to teach complex acid base as seen in patients with COPD
at DMU.
4. The
lung’s job is to help us breathe and put oxygen in and take carbon dioxide out
of our bodies. We need oxygen to give us energy.
5. Try
testing your “peak flow” using the machine. This measures how good your lungs
are? What did you score? The average for the class was 280; look at whether
boys or girls have the highest scores?
The average for the adult teachers was 700, why? Do you think smoking
will make your score higher or lower?
6. Guess
what is in a cigarette and the smoke for a few minutes. There are over 200 bad
chemicals which are also found in
a. Toilet
cleaner
b. BBQ
lighter fluid
c. Petrol
d. Bonfires
e. Insecticides
(what is this?)
f. Tar
– a sticky substance used to make roads!
7. Now
look at the sponge under the microscope, what can you see? This is what healthy
lungs look like.
8. Now
look at the lungs after treacle has been poured in them, what can you see? This
is what smoker’s lungs look like. Would it be easy or hard to get oxygen into
this? Will this make you cough or short of breathe? Some of this tar will also
clog up your heart.
9. Now
look at the sponges after a quick wash, this shows that the effects can be
reversed if you stop smoking, but some damage still remains, although it is
better not to start.
10. Look
at the discs to show the colour of the tar, what are your thoughts about this,
is this why fingers and teeth turn yellow?
11. Add
the facts you’ve learnt into the book. The following pages are the thoughts and
observations of the primary school children.
Drugs
1. Speak
to your talking partner for 2 minutes about everything you know about drugs and
the effects on the body.
2. How
will alcohol affect your money, family and health?
3. Drugs
affect the brain by speeding up (stimulants) the electricity and chemicals in
brains or by slowing them down (depressants).
4. Measure
the heart rate and blood pressure of the teacher using the machine, if the
teacher was to start running about will the rate go up or down? Why? The heart
rate increases because the brain has more electricity and chemicals
(stimulants). This increase is linked to the teacher running about; to get the
bus or to escape a lion, but what if a drug did this, this could be very
addictive.
5. Drugs
affect the liver by poisoning it.
6. We
don’t know what is in the drugs because they are illegal and so are not made in
clean factories or on a farm. Things found in drugs include rat droppings,
urine, poo, talcum powder, flour and toilet cleaner; we also do not know how
strong or poisonous the drug will be.
7. Would you eat something if you had no idea
what was in it or who had cooked it?
8. We
can use clinical sticks to test if your liver is healthy. Dip the clinical
stick into the urine, this shows that bilirubin is raised. This would mean that
your liver is unwell. People who take drugs often have poorly livers because the
drugs are too poisonous.
9. This
technique will be used to teach the drug toxicity and liver function tests in
BIOM3001 at DMU.
Evaluation
We successfully used the iPad to demonstrate complex visuals
using the visible body app and the Prezi app.
The children said they enjoyed the iPad and the anatomy models, brilliant, amazing!
The teacher said "The children really enjoyed these sessions. They have enjoyed the equipment, equipment we don't have in School. Graham has the knowledge that we as primary school teachers don't have. They have really enjoyed using the iPad. Every child has wanted to take part in discussions at the end of the sessions and share their ideas and what they have learnt. they have loved using the iPad to record their learning.
The Scientist (me) said: Clearly the iPad was a great hit, and not just a novelty but a serious pedagogic tool. This complements my findings of using it in the HE University sector. I'd like to thank the school teachers for giving me the opportunity to observe the techniques used, techniques I will be using to great effect in the university.
