Activity 3: Testing Medicines: A Clinical Trial

Key Vocab: Clinical Trial, Control, Evidence, Placebo, Sample Size, Simulate/Simulation, Trade-Off

Copy Data Table from Pg. A-13 under “data” section

Lesson Objective

•You will simulate a clinical trial to investigate how medicines are tested.

•* A simulation is an experience that is meant to mimic, or be like, another experience.

Procedures for Activity

• Let’s Discuss. Imagine the following: You work for a company that develops medicines. You have developed a medication for severe headaches and have tested it on rats and mice to see if it has any negative effects. The tests on animals showed no harmful effects, even at much higher doses than you plan to use on humans. Now it is time to test the medicine on human volunteers in a clinical trial. What could happen to these volunteers after they take the medicine?

• How would you test the medicine to be sure it is safe and improves the health of headache patients?

Procedure for Activity cont.

• Read Intro and Challenge Question. What is this activity about?

• Read the Procedure. What do you have to do during this activity?

• Please be sure to fill in your data as you work.

• When you are finished, share your results with the group. When I direct you, please share your results with the class.

• Work on Analysis 1, 2, and 3

Class DataCup # Same as yellow

drinkBetter than yellow drink

Worse than yellow drink

1 3

2 3

3 3 1

4 1 3

5 1 3

6 2 1 1

7 2 1

8 4

Total 11 13 5

Data for our class

Same as Yellow Lemon Drink (Headache the same)

Better than Yellow Lemon Drink (Headache Better)

Worse than Yellow Lemon Drink (Headache Better)

Control Group (received placebo)

8 2 4

Treatment Group (Received Medicine)

3 11 1

Data for All Classes

Same as Yellow Lemon Drink (Headache the same)

Better than Yellow Lemon Drink (Headache Better)

Worse than Yellow Lemon Drink (Headache better, but side effects)

Control Group (received placebo)

26 22 5

Treatment Group (Received Medicine)

8 52 3

Graphing your data• Complete the graphs on the bottom of student sheet 3.1

• Create a graph for ALL CLASSES on a separate sheet of graph paper

• Be sure to follow APPENDIX A: ELEMENTS OF A GOOD GRAPH

• For your explanation, compare the data between your class (you can even talk about your specific group) and all classes. How are they similar? How are they different?

• If this were a real medication, would you recommend someone using it? Use the data to help you answer this question.