SAPPHIRE Project

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.