Advanced High School Syllabus

Contents:

• How Biomedical Research Helps Humans
• Discoveries: Important or Deleterious? Social Implications of Research
• How Does Animal Research Benefit Animals?
• Illnesses Eliminated or Controlled Due To Biomedical Research

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The Scientific Mind "A mind nimble and versatile enough to catch the resemblances of things, which is the chief point, and at the same time steady enough to fit and discern their subtle differences; endowed by nature with the desire to seek, patience to doubt, fondness to meditate, slowness to assert, readiness to reconsider, carefulness to set in order, and neither affecting what is new nor admiring what is old and hating every kind of imposture." - Francis Bacon

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How Biomedical Research Helps Humans

GOALS:

• To explore the various discoveries from the past and see how they benefit our world today.
• To develop an appreciation for research and how one discovery builds on another; and to know some of the people behind scientific landmarks.
• To gain an appreciation for how long ago certain research was conducted, as well as the limitations which confronted the scientists of that time.

TOPICS:

• Circulation of blood - William Harvey
• Ether anaesthesia - William Morton
• Relation of bacteria and disease - Robert Koch - Nobel Prize
• Rabies immunization - Louis Pasteur
• Transmission of malaria by mosquitoes - Sir Ronald Ross
• Radioactivity - Marie Curie - Nobel Prize
• Discovery of insulin - Frederick Banting and Charles Best - Nobel Prize
• Industrial medicine - Alice Hamilton
• Clinical psychology - Leta S. Hollingworth
• Preventative medicine - Florence Rena Sabin
• Heart surgery - Myra Adele Logan
• Polio vaccine - Jonas Salk
• Anti-fungal drug, Nystatin - Rachel Fuller Brown
• Vitamin E - Gladys Anderson Emerson
• Body chemistry - Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin - Nobel Prize
• Chemotherapy - Jane C. Wright
• Radioimmunoassay - Rosalyn S. Yalow - Nobel Prize
• Cardiac transplant - Christiaan Barnard
• Artificial heart - William C. DeVries

EXERCISES:

Have students explore the topic and report on the following:

• The researcher
• Number of years devoted to this research
• Animal model used in the research
• How the research has led to better understanding of the illness
• Limitations that confronted the researcher in the laboratory
• Some of the common beliefs about disease and illness during the time of the research

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Discoveries: Important or Deleterious?

GOALS:

• To impress on the students that discoveries, although marvelous in one respect, could have other consequences; and that risks and benefits must be weighed.
• To develop a recognition of ethical aspects of contemporary scientific issues.

OBJECTIVE: The student will examine some scientific advances and identify the effects of that progress on individuals and/or society.

TOPICS:

• Genetic manipulation
• Pesticides
• Lasers
• Radioactivity
• Test tube babies
• Development of chemicals and new processing techniques (toxic waste)
• Preservatives
• Artificial sweeteners
• Artificial hearts
• Organ transplants
• Surrogate motherhood
• Space flight

EXERCISE:

The student, in a written or oral report, should:

• Define the advance.
• Identify the researcher(s) who have contributed to the advance.
• Explore the benefits of the advance: to the community, the country, the world. (You may want to explore the lives that have been saved, or may be saved, time saved, food that may be saved, etc.).
• List some consequences of this advancement and steps that have been taken to curb these consequences.

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Does Animal Research Benefit Animals?

OBJECTIVE: The student will describe the role of research in developing treatments for diseases in animals:

TOPICS:

Dogs Kidney & heart disease Epilepsy Artificial joints Insulin Primates AIDS Polio Horses Bone, joint & tendon Equine encephalitis

Wild Animals Rabies & Plague Encephalitis Atherosclerosis Cattle & pigs Cattle fever Brucellosis Cats Lungs, nose & throat Herpes Distemper Leukemia

EXERCISE: Have students explore the topic and report on the following:

• Cause of and cure for the disease in the animal.
• Persons involved in research into the disease, and the time frame over which the research was conducted.
• Progress made in understanding the disease. Benefits to animals derived from the research.
• Diseases which animals and humans have in common.

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Human Illnesses Eliminated or Controlled Through Medical Research

OBJECTIVES: At the completion of this exercise, the students will be able to:

• List some of the diseases eliminated or controlled through medical research.
• State that some of this progress was achieved in recent times; that individuals who had the illness are still around to tell their story.
• Describe some of the ways in which our society today can utilize techniques developed to control the spread of these illnesses (i.e., vaccines, chest x-rays, blood tests to determine genetic predisposition or disease detection).

TOPICS:

Polio Rheumatic Fever Congenital Heart Defects Cleft Palate Diphtheria Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) Malaria Arthritis Cataracts

High blood pressure Heart attacks Stroke Schistosomiasis Epilepsy Atherosclerosis Diabetes Kidney failure River Blindness Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C

EXERCISE: The student, in a written or oral report, should:

• Briefly describe the disease state.
• Identify the researcher(s) who helped to bring the disease under control.
• Determine how widespread the outbreak of the illness was. (If regionalized, where was the largest occurrence?)
• State the cause and how it was discovered.
• Name the animal model(s) used to study the disease state in humans.
• Describe the status of the disease now. (Does it still exist? How widespread is it? Where is it? How is it controlled today (vaccines, etc.)?)