v v · EPIDEMIOLOGY v v TEACHER GUIDE AND CURRICULUM HANDBOOKStemnova is a 501(c)(3) nonproﬁt founded in California with the mission to increase educational equity across the community

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TEACHER GUIDE AND CURRICULUM HANDBOOK

CREATED BY: ISHA SANGHVI | ALICE MA | RYAN LEE

v vEPIDEMIOLOGYTEACHER GUIDE AND CURRICULUM HANDBOOKStemnova is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit founded in California with the mission to increase educational equity across the community. Our fundamental belief is that every child is deserving of a hands-on, experimental, enriching curriculum to help immerse them into the vast field of STEM. Stemnova has volunteered at local elementary schools and low-income housing centers, mentored middle school budding Science OlympiadTM teams, hosted science competitions drawing students from all across the state of California, and created an open-source curriculum to ensure our mission of educational equity will be achieved. With this curriculum, we hope teachers will be empowered with ample resources to inspire the next generation of scientists.

The teaching guide is filled with lesson transcripts that coincide with corresponding presentations for teachers to use with their students. The lesson transcript has been perfected after years of actual implementation in classrooms and schools. This handbook is also filled with activities, experiments, and worksheets to ensure that students are able to apply the knowledge learnt in lessons into actual real-world simulations.

We thank you for your vested interest in sparking a love for science in the next generation.

v vEPIDEMIOLOGYTEACHER GUIDE AND CURRICULUM HANDBOOKTABLE OF CONTENTSASTRONOMY

The Scale of Space 4

Our Solar System 10

Star Formation 18

Hertzsprung Russell Diagram 23

Life of a Star 31

Space Exploration 35

BIOLOGY

Macromolecules 46

Cells and Organization 57

Photosynthesis 67

Cellular Respiration 78

The Cell Cycle 84

Cancer and Biomarkers 90

Genetics 93

v vEPIDEMIOLOGYTEACHER GUIDE AND CURRICULUM HANDBOOKTABLE OF CONTENTSEPIDEMIOLOGY

Introduction to Epidemiology 101

Types of Epidemics 108

Spectrum of Disease 116

The Immune System 125

Immune System Disorder 131

Analyzing Case Studies 138

Conclusion to Epidemiology 148

GEOLOGY

Geology 156

Ocean Movements 166

Ocean Currents 171

Marine Life 175

Humans & the Ocean 180

v vEPIDEMIOLOGYTEACHER GUIDE AND CURRICULUM HANDBOOK

ASTRONOMYThe following curriculum section is for Astronomy. It introduces students to the workings of the outer world including stars, the solar system, and galaxies. Students also apply concepts of math and unit conversion into problem-solving. With lessons on understanding the relationship between luminosity and temperature and the different characteristics of plants, students will have a solid understanding of astronomy. They will be able to also apply this knowledge to understand and decode the biggest question of all: Are other planets hospitable to life?

Lesson 1 The Scale of Space

Summary

1. Subject(s): units, measuring space, unit conversions

2. Topic or Unit of Study: using units in science

3. Grade/Level: all grades

4. Objective: teach students how to understand the scale of space and unit relations

Key Skills: Students should be able to define what units are, visualize the size of

space, and convert measurements in one unit to another.

5. Time Allotment: Minimum 30 minutes.

Powerpoint

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1ek8c0x5GHSyoJibcBALbtRoJfsKIdY9n6Hw5UG0-B9U/e

dit?usp=sharing

Vocabulary and Important Concepts

Important Vocabulary

Unit: a quantity chosen as a standard in terms of which other quantities may be expressed

● an inch is a unit of length; seconds and hours are units of time; pounds is a unit of

weight

● ask students what other units they know to measure length, time, and temperature? -

sample answer: centimeters/yards/miles, days/weeks/years, Celsius/Fahrenheit

This w ork is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives

4.0 International License.

4

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1ek8c0x5GHSyoJibcBALbtRoJfsKIdY9n6Hw5UG0-B9U/edit?usp=sharing

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1ek8c0x5GHSyoJibcBALbtRoJfsKIdY9n6Hw5UG0-B9U/edit?usp=sharing

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/


Unit conversion: conversion process between different units to express the same measurement

● give students this example: there are 60 minutes in an hour; given this how many minutes

are in two hours? - answer: there are 120 minutes in 2 hours

● emphasize that 2 hours and 120 minutes are in different units but they are the same

quantity (equal to each other)

● example: there are 12 inches in a feet; given this, a tree that is 10 feet tall is how many

inches tall? - answer: inches0 2 201 × 1 = 1

● example: there are 2.54 centimeters in an inch; given this, how many centimeters long is a

3 inch pencil? - ○ answer: centimeters.54 .623 × 2 = 7

Important Concepts

Light is the fastest thing in the universe: Light is actually made of tiny particles that move so fast

we cannot see them. For example, when we turn on a light, the room lights up instantly - so fast

we can’t see the light particles spread out from the lamp.

● in 1 second, light travels 186,282 miles or 299,792 kilometers - that’s 7.5 times around the

Earth in one second

Space is measured with different units: Because space is so big, using miles or kilometers to

measure distances just isn’t reasonable. Can you imagine measuring the distance to Japan using

centimeters or inches? That’d take forever!

For distances to stars and galaxies, objects outside the solar system, we use light years. One light

year is about 6 trillion miles (9.5 trillion km), or 5,878,625,373,183.6 miles to be exact. Light years

are called light years because light travels about 6 trillion miles in one year.

For distances between planets and the Sun, or objects inside the solar system, we use

astronomical units (au). One astronomical unit is about 93 million miles, which is the distance

between the Earth and the Sun. It takes light only 8 minutes and 20 seconds to travel from the

Sun to Earth.

● Critical Thinking Question: What’s bigger - one light year or one astronomical unit? Why

might scientists not use astronomical units to measure distances between the Sun and

another star?



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○ Answer: Light years are greater than astronomical units. Scientists wouldn’t use

astronomical units to measure the distance between the Sun and another star

because that distance is too large to be reasonably measured with au. Simply put,

that distance in terms of astronomical units would be a huge number, maybe too

big to fit on the page!

● Critical Thinking Question: We know light travels one astronomical unit in 8 minutes and

20 seconds. it takes sunlight about 17 minutes to reach an asteroid in the solar system;

what’s the distance between the sun and the asteroid in au?

○ Answer: If we know light travels 1 au in 8 minutes and 20 seconds, then it will take

light 16 minutes and 40 seconds to travel 2 au. 16 minutes and 40 seconds is

about 17 minutes, so the distance between the sun and asteroid is about 2

astronomical units.

The same distance can be expressed with different units: There are many different units to

measure the same thing. We use miles, centimeters, inches, and feet to measure length. We use

minutes, seconds, days, and years to measure time. Different units can be used to refer to the

same length; for example a 1 inch long stick is also 2.54 cm long and 1/12 feet long.

Lecture Transcript Slide 1: Unit Conversions

● emphasize that the same amount can be defined with different units

○ for example, one week of time is equal to seven days of time; one foot of length is

equal to 12 inches of length or ⅓ a yard of length

○ a unit conversion is a mathematical process in which you change one form of

measurement to another

■ you are not changing the measurement, you are just changing the unit;

example: when I convert two feet to 24 inches, the two lengths are still the

same (24 inches is neither longer nor shorter than 2 feet)

Slide 2: Simple Conversions

● fractions have a numerator and denominator

● a number without a denominator is still a fraction: the denominator is 1 (4 = )14



6



● when you multiply fractions, you:

○ multiply the numerator and numerator, and the new numerator is the product

○ multiply the denominator and denominator, and the new denominator is the

product

○ ex: ⅓ x ⅓ = 91

● when you multiply fractions, you can also cancel out the same numbers or units if they are

on the opposite sides of the fraction bar

○ ex: x = ; the 2 in the denominator of one-half and the 2 in the numerator of21

52

51

two-fifths cancel out to one, so the resulting fraction is one-fifth

Slide 3: Simple Conversions

● emphasize how the unit conversion must be put as a fraction

● the final unit you want to convert to should be the numerator; that way, the starting unit is

canceled out since it appears in the original measurement and the denominator

● How many centimeters are in 3 inches?

○ the unit conversion of centimeters to inches is put as a fraction ○ inches and inch cancel out since one is in the denominator and one is in the

numerator

○ ● How many inches are in 67.82 centimeters?

○ write the unit conversation of inches to centimeters as a fraction

■ make sure that the starting unit (centimeters) cancels out, so that the target

unit (inches) remains

○

Slide 4: Multi Step Conversions

● sometimes more than one fraction is needed

Slide 5: Converting Light Years to Astronomical Units

● in the conversion of light years to astronomical units, we run into a problem: there is no

direct unit conversion for light years to astronomical units



7



○ for feet to inches, we know one foot equals 12 inches; for liters to quarts, we know

one liter is equal to 4 quarts: these are direct conversions since we can convert

from our starting unit to our end unit with one fraction

○ for light years to astronomical units, we aren’t given a direct conversion; however,

we know 1 au is 93 million miles and 1 light year is 5.9 trillion miles

■ with these two conversions, we can set up 2 fractions and1 light year5,900,000,000,000 miles

; when we multiply these two fractions together, the “miles”93,000,000 miles1 astronomical unit

unit cancels out since it can be found in the numerator of the first fraction

and denominator of the second fraction

● now, let’s look at the problem given on the slide

○ there are 2 equations to represent 2 ways to approach the problem

■ Approach 1 (faster): We can set up individual fraction bars and cancel out

units before multiplying everything together.

■ Approach 2 (easier): We multiply all the numerators and multiply all the

denominators to make one big fraction. Then we cancel out units that are

in both the numerator and denominator, and in the end, we are left with

only “astronomical units”

Slide 6: Converting Astronomical Units to Light Years

● the process is the same - we need multiple fractions, and we’ll be cancelling out units

● ask students to spot the difference in the overall equation

○ answer: the fractions converting light years to miles and converting au to miles are

flipped: light years is in the numerator, miles is in the denominator; au is in the

denominator and miles is in the numerator

○ explanation: in this problem, we want light years to be in our numerator because

it’s our final unit. we want au to be in our denominator because we want the au in

80,200 au and the au in the denominator to cancel out. miles still cancel out

because they are on opposite sides of the fraction bar.

Activity Slide 7: More Practice

● for the easier problems, ask students to practice doing the problem with fractions: ask

students to come up to the board/front of class to write the fractions



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● Answers

○ How many days are in 4 weeks?

■ 1 week = 7 days

● 4 weeks = 28 days× 7 days1 week

○ How many seconds are in half an hour?

■ 1 hour = 60 minutes, 1 minute = 60 seconds

● 0.5 hour = 180 seconds× 1 hour 60 minutes × 1 minute

60 seconds

○ How many inches are in 20 feet?

■ 1 foot = 12 inches

● 20 feet = 240 inches× 1 foot 12 inches

○ How many centimeters are in 20 feet?

■ 1 foot = 12 inches, 1 inch = 2.54 centimeters

● 20 feet = 609.6 centimeters× 1 foot 12 inches × 1 inch

2.54 centimeters

○ How many astronomical units are in 3 light years?

■ 1 astronomical units (au) = 93 million miles, 1 light year = 5.9 trillion miles

● 3 light years = 198,723 au× 1 light year 5.9 trillion miles × 1 au

93 million miles



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Lesson 2 Our Solar System

Summary

1. Subject(s): inner/terrestrial planets, outer/gas planets, the sun, moon, tides,

asteroids, meteors, and comets

2. Topic or Unit of Study: Astronomy

3. Grade/Level: 4-6

4. Objective: Students will learn to understand our solar system and the celestial

bodies it contains.

Key Skills: Students should be able to describe the different bodies in the solar

system.

5. Time Allotment: 2-4 hours

Powerpoint

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1eLoe4x6K3iZ21N0CDnHo26-9mvMumuQcC9hL6ym2rr

Q/edit?usp=sharing

Lecture Transcript

Our Solar System

Slide 2

The image on slide 2 is not to scale, but it shows the planets in order from how far each is from

the Sun. Our Solar System has 8 planets and several dwarf planets, with the most notable being



10

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1eLoe4x6K3iZ21N0CDnHo26-9mvMumuQcC9hL6ym2rrQ/edit?usp=sharing

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1eLoe4x6K3iZ21N0CDnHo26-9mvMumuQcC9hL6ym2rrQ/edit?usp=sharing



Pluto. Pluto’s planetary status has been in discussion since its discovery, but as of currently, it is

classified as a dwarf planet.

Slide 3

What is a solar system?

A solar system consists of a sun and the celestial bodies that orbit it; either directly, such

as planets around the sun, or indirectly, such as moons that orbit around planets

There are many solar systems in the universe, not just the one that the Earth inhabits.

● Ask Students — Do you know where our Solar System is located?

○ Answer — our Solar System is in the Milky Way galaxy. Galaxies are a

group of stars, planets, and other stellar matter gravitationally bound

together. There are billions of galaxies in the universe, and scientists aren’t

even sure of exactly how many there are.

Slide 4

Our Solar System

Our solar system has a history of over 4.5 billion years and includes the Sun, 8 planets

and their moons, dwarf planets, asteroids, meteors, comets, and various other celestial

bodies.

For a long time, scientists only studied our solar system and didn’t even know that others

existed. But now, scientists know that there are many, many other solar systems out in the

universe. Each star could have a solar system and we just don’t know yet.

Slide 5 and 6

Inner Planets

The inner planets occupy the space from the Sun to about 700 million kilometers

outwards. The space that they occupy is actually very little compared to the rest of the

solar system, in fact the total distance from the sun to the last of the inner planets is less

than the distance between Jupiter and Saturn.



11



The inner planets are also called the terrestrial planets because they are dense and rocky

in composition, also because they are Earth-like. They are composed mostly of minerals

with crusts, mantles, and cores. The inner planets are much smaller than the outer, with

Earth being the largest inner planet. They also have very few moons.

● Ask Students: Why do you think the inner planets don’t have many moons?

○ Answer - Inner planets are very small compared to the other planets in our

solar system. The smaller a planet, the weaker its gravitational pull is, so

because the inner planets are small and have weak pulls, they don’t have

many moons.

Slide 7

Mercury

Mercury is the planet that is closest to the Sun and the smallest planet in the solar system.

It has no moons or natural satellites.

Mercury doesn’t have any moons because it is too small and also because it is too close

to the Sun. If Mercury were to have a moon, its moon would most likely be pulled away

from it by the force of the Sun’s much more powerful gravitational pull.

Slide 8

Venus

Venus is the second planet from the Sun and the closest in size to the Earth (Venus to

Earth is about 0.85 to 1). It is the hottest planet in the Solar System. Venus’s surface has

reached temperatures of 400 degrees C. Venus also has no moons.

● Ask Students: If Mercury is closer to the Sun than Venus is, then how come Venus

is hotter than Mercury?

○ Answer — Venus’s atmosphere is much thicker than Mercury’s. Venus’s

atmosphere also has gases that are called greenhouse gases, like

methane. Greenhouse gases are very good at trapping heat in and

keeping it from escaping. So, any heat that reaches Venus is kept in by

those gases in the atmosphere, raising the temperature of the planet.

Slide 9



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Earth

Earth is the only planet with life that we know of. It also has an atmosphere made up of

nitrogen, oxygen, and other gases. It is also the only planet with plate tectonics. It has one

natural satellite, the Moon.

Slide 10

Mars

Mars, the fourth planet from the Sun, is known for its red color that comes from iron oxide,

rust, in its soil. Its atmosphere is mostly made of carbon dioxide and its surface has

volcanoes and valleys. Mars has two tiny natural satellites, or moons.

Mars’ two satellites are named Phobos and Deimos.

Mars has been the target of many space missions and continues to be a destination for

many missions to come.

Slide 11 and 12

Outer Planets

The outer planets, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, occupy the outer solar system.

They are also known as gas giants because they are all composed of gases like helium

and hydrogen. All of the outer planets have rings, however only Saturn’s are easily seen

from Earth.

The outer planets are very large, with Jupiter and Saturn combined being 400 times the

size of Earth. Uranus and Neptune are not as large, about 20 times the size of Earth.

Slide 13

Jupiter

The largest planet in the solar system is Jupiter, and it has 69 known natural satellites and

moons, the largest of which are named Ganymede, Callisto, Io, and Europa. Jupiter is

composed of mainly helium and hydrogen and has very strong thermal heat. It’s thermal



13



heat is responsible for much of its weather patterns, causing storm bands and its iconic

Great Red Spot.

Nine spacecrafts have visited Jupiter. Although Jupiter itself is not able to support life as

we know it, some of its moons have been predicted to possibly support life.

Slide 14

Saturn

Saturn is unique because of its rings. Saturn is very similar to Jupiter although only about

60% of its volume. Saturn is the only planet that is less dense than water and its rings are

made up of ice and rock particles. It has 62 known moons.

Saturn is the farthest planet to be discovered with just the naked human eye, so its been

known to humans since ancient times of the Greeks.

Slide 15

Uranus

Uranus is the lightest of all the outer planets and it is unique because it orbits the Sun on

its side. Its sideways rotation causes the planet to experience strange seasons, with

nights lasting up to 21 years in the winter and days lasting up to 21 years in the summer. It

is much colder than the other planets and emits very little heat. It has 27 known satellites.

Uranus was the first planet to be discovered using a telescope. In April 2017, scientists

discovered that the clouds surrounding Uranus contain hydrogen sulfide, a smelly gas

that has the odor of rotten eggs.

Slide 16

Neptune

Neptune is the furthest planet from the Sun, it is the only planet that is not visible to the

naked eye. It has 14 known satellites and its largest is Triton. Triton is geologically active

and has geysers of liquid nitrogen.

Neptune is the Solar System’s windiest planet, with winds that can reach up to 2000

km/hr. In comparison, winds on Earth have only reached up to 400 km/hr. Neptune’s



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atmosphere has been confirmed to contain a dark vortex, high pressure systems that can

cause gases to freeze into ice crystals.

Slide 17

Pluto — The Dwarf Planet

Pluto has been infamous for its reclassification as a dwarf planet rather than the ninth

planet of our Solar System. It was discovered in 1930, and was first determined to be the

ninth planet. However, recent findings have declared it to be a dwarf planet.

Pluto is about 1400 miles wide, which is about half the distance from Los Angeles to New

York City. Pluto’s orbit around the Sun is elliptical, so it is not always the same distance

away from the Sun. At certain points of its orbit, it comes much closer to the Sun, causing

its atmosphere to thaw. When it moves away from the Sun, its atmosphere refreezes.

The International Astronomical Union has three criteria for planetary status: it must orbit

the sun, be spherical, and clear its own orbit. According to the International Astronomical

Union, a planet must be large enough to clear its own orbit, which Pluto cannot do.

Because Pluto cannot clear its own orbit, it was reclassified as a dwarf planet in 2006.

Slide 18

The Sun, Moon, and Tides

Slide 19

The Sun

The Sun is the largest component in the solar system. It is the solar system’s star and is

made up of mainly helium. The heat that is Sun provides is made from nuclear fusion of

hydrogen to helium. The Sun gravitational pull keeps the planets and other celestial

bodies orbiting around it.

Slide 20

The Earth’s Moon

The Moon is the only permanent natural satellite of the Earth. It is believed that the Moon

formed when the Earth and another body collided, the debris compressed into the Moon.



15



It takes a month’s time for the Moon to orbit around the Earth and that orbit affects the

Earth’s ocean tides.

Slide 21 and 22

How Does the Moon Affect the Earth’s Ocean Tides?

The ocean’s tides are pulled and pushed by the Moon’s gravitational pull against the

Earth. The Moon’s gravitational pull is only strong enough to pull the water on Earth’s

surface, so it creates tides. Water on the side of the Earth that faces the moon is pulled

the most, and causes a bulge that is high tide.

Earth itself is pulled harder by moon’s gravity than is the ocean on the side of Earth

opposite the moon. As a result, there is a bulge of water on the opposite side of Earth

which creates another high tide. With water bulging on two sides of Earth, there is less

water in between. This creates low tides on the other two sides of the planet.

Slide 23

Asteroids, Meteors, and Comets

Slide 24 and 25

Asteroids and Meteors

Asteroids are classified as small solar system bodies and are composed of rocky and

metallic minerals and some ice. Most asteroids range from a few meters to hundreds of

kilometers in size. Asteroids that are smaller than one meter are typically classified as

meteoroids. When a meteoroid or asteroid enters the Earth’s atmosphere, it becomes a

meteor.

Many asteroids in the solar system are found in the asteroid belt that separates the inner

and outer planets.

Slide 26

Comets



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Comets are small solar system bodies and are typically a few kilometers in size. Comets

are made up of volatile ice and when they enter the Solar System, its icy surface

sublimizes and forms a tail, a coma, that is visible to the naked eye.

Most short-lived comets only live for about two hundred years, while long-lived comets

can survive for up to thousands of years. When comets lose their ice, they eventually

become asteroids.

Activity

Have students imagine that two new planets have been discovered — one that is an inner planet,

and one that is an outer planet. Let students partner up, and each pair will pick one of the two

planets. They will need to come up with a realistic name, similar to how the existing planets are

named after ancient gods of Roman mythology. They will be making a “profile” for their planet,

including the number moons, the planet’s characteristics, its atmosphere, and any other

information. Make sure the students are brainstorming ideas that are feasible, and they should be

able to defend their ideas with facts and information they know about the other planets.

For example, students should be able to explain that their inner planet has only 1 moon because

other inner planets have little to no moons as well.



17



Lesson 3 Star Formation

Summary

1. Subject(s): The process of star formation, protostars, differences in the formations

of low mass and high mass stars


3. Grade/Level: All grades levels, suggested for 4-6 grades

4. Objective: Teach students about star formation and the different variations of

formation

Key Skills: Students should be able to describe the process of star formation and

know the differences between low and high mass star formations


Powerpoint

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1XCk5qP01RssAfHxc3JfdeEkdJWSORNWIMLRncqSco9k/

edit?usp=sharing

Lecture Transcript

Slide 2

Stars

A star is a large ball of gas held together by gravity, with the center being extremely hot. The

center of a star produces energy which is emitted as visible light, which is why we see stars as



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https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1XCk5qP01RssAfHxc3JfdeEkdJWSORNWIMLRncqSco9k/edit?usp=sharing

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1XCk5qP01RssAfHxc3JfdeEkdJWSORNWIMLRncqSco9k/edit?usp=sharing



glowing at night. The sun is the star in our solar system — a sun is a star with planets orbiting

around it.

Teacher’s Note — Make sure students understand the difference between a star and a planet -

planets are smaller than stars and are too small to emit energy to produce visible light

Slide 3 and 4

Star Formation

From Space Dust into Stars

Imagine a huge collection of dust and particles floating in outer space. Gravity will attempt to pull

the pieces close to each other and eventually, enough gas and dust has collected in the center of

the cloud. That center is under a lot of pressure from the gravity and all the particles pressing

together; the temperature steadily increases and nuclear fusion begins, forming a new star.

This new star goes through a series of stages as it becomes a full-fledged star.

Slide 5

Cloud Collapse

Cloud collapse is the first step in forming a star. A large cloud of gas, dust, and particles will

experience gravitational collapse, where the cloud becomes too big and condenses into a giant

dense ball.

However, not all the dust and particles in the cloud will become part of the star. Some may form

planets or asteroids, or even remain as dust.

Also, cloud collapse does not always occur at a steady pace, sometimes the collapse will be

stronger or weaker, as seen in 2004, with the a nebula discovered in the constellation Orion. A

nebula is a collection of dust and particles. Scientists noticed that the brightness of the nebula

seemed to increase and decrease occasionally, leading them to believe that it was undergoing

cloud collapse in an erratic fashion.

Slide 6 and 7

Protostar



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As the temperature and the pressure of the cloud becomes too great, the cloud will eventually

become a protostar. A protostar is the intermediate step before the star becomes a

main-sequence star. Main-sequence stars are the stars that are stable and what we see at night. As the temperature and pressure further increases, the core of the protostar begins to

experience hydrogen turning into helium in a process called nuclear fusion. This is when the

protostar becomes a main-sequence star.

Slide 8

Low Mass and High Mass Stars

Low mass stars are smaller than high mass stars. Because these stars have different sizes,

scientists believe that they are formed differently.

Slide 9

Low Mass Stars

Low mass stars are smaller and may be formed via cloud collapse, just like was what mentioned

above.

Slide 10

High Mass Stars

High mass stars, because they are much larger, are thought to be made from several low

mass stars collapsing at the same time. However, because it is difficult to observe such a

formation, many scientists are unable to do more research regarding the formation of

these stars. In fact, much of what is known today about star formation is speculation and

hard to predict.

Article

The following article is about a recent observation made by scientists that may point to

how high-mass stars are formed. The article was originally published by The Independent

on April 30, 2018, written by Andrew Griffin about a study published in Nature Astronomy.



20



Stars aren’t formed in the way we thought, scientists reveal

Huge stars are forming in completely unexpected ways in our own galaxy and beyond, new

research suggests.

Scientists have long expected that larger stars form in much the same way as smaller ones. But a

new study suggests that something unexplained is happening to those high-mass stars, and they

are forming in a way that is vastly different to how we expected.

In lower-mass stars – which make up most of those we can see in detail – there seems to be a

simple relationship between the mass of the star-forming clouds of dust and gas, and the mass of

the star itself once it is born.

But the new study suggests that high-mass stars do not behave in that way. The findings add an

extra layer of mystery to the conundrum of what it is that makes stars grow to a certain mass.

The new findings will force researchers to rethink their understanding of how high-mass stars are

formed in the universe.

All across the known universe, huge molecular clouds made of dust and gas collapse and then

stick together in dense blobs. Those cores then collapse and heat up at temperatures so high

that they form into stars.

In our own galaxy, the mass of those cores seems to decide the mass of the stars that come out

of them. There seems to be a common pattern that can be seen in all such regions.

But scientists have now looked into a different region of clusters elsewhere in the universe, in an

attempt to find whether that relationship works in other places too.

They found that the simple relationship they had presumed would hold throughout the universe

appears to be wrong, and that the cores are behaving differently elsewhere.



21



Using extremely sensitive telescopes, they gained an unprecedented insight into a distant

star-forming region named W43-MM1, that lies 18,000 light years away.

The team was able to observe star-forming cores with an extraordinary range, from those similar

to the mass of the Sun to ones 100 times more massive.

To their surprise, the distribution of star-forming cores was completely different to what had

previously been observed in nearby regions of the Milky Way.

In particular, they observed an abundance of extremely big stars with huge masses, but fewer

smaller stars that are more common within our galaxy.

Co-author of the study Dr Kenneth Marsh, from Cardiff University, said: "These findings were a

complete surprise and call into question the intricate relationship between the masses of

star-forming cores and the masses of the stars themselves, which has long been assumed.

"As a consequence, the community may need to revisit its calculations regarding the complex

processes that dictate how stars are born.

"The evolution of a core into a star involves many different physical interactions, and the results

of studies such as this should help us better understand how it all happens."



22



Lesson 4 Hertzsprung Russell Diagram

Summary

1. Subject(s): Hertzsprung Russell diagram and luminosity


3. Grade/Level: 5th-6th grades

4. Objective: Understand the mechanism behind the Hertzsprung Russell diagram,

luminosity, and know how to read a Hertzsprung Russell Diagram

Key Skills: Students should be able to explain the reasoning behind the HR

diagram and be able to understand luminosity and read an HR diagram.

5. Time Allotment: 1 hour

Powerpoint

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1cI-Fk4cJj1ZAqDmf1XmTAKYgnRmmROlH5RgD845tzRA/

edit?usp=sharing

Vocabulary and Previous Concepts

Learning Context

Students should have a general idea of how to plot points on a graph of standard

Cartesian plane. Make sure students understand how to scale the axis of a plane and

understand how to graph and read a graph.



23

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1cI-Fk4cJj1ZAqDmf1XmTAKYgnRmmROlH5RgD845tzRA/edit?usp=sharing

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1cI-Fk4cJj1ZAqDmf1XmTAKYgnRmmROlH5RgD845tzRA/edit?usp=sharing



Students should have a general idea of what a scatter plot is. A scatter plot is a graph

that shows the relationship between two different variables. The graph has points that

are not connected with others, such as line graphs.

Lecture Transcript

Slide 3

Luminosity

In astronomy, luminosity is the total amount of energy emitted by a star or other

astronomical object per unit of time. It is related to the brightness, which is the luminosity

of an object in a given region.

Hertzsprung Russell Diagram

Slide 5

What is a Hertzsprung Russell Diagram?

A Hertzsprung Russell Diagram, also called an H-R diagram or HRD, is a scatter plot that

shows the relationship between a star’s luminosity and its temperature.



24



Teacher’s Note — Have students think of the H-R diagram as similar to the Periodic Table

to Elements. The Periodic Table shows all the known elements, organized in a way that is

easy for scientists to read and use. An H-R diagram is the same thing, just for stars instead

of elements.

An H-R diagram shows the luminosity of the stars on the vertical axis and the temperature

of the stars is on the horizontal axis.

Stars in the same general region of each other share similar characteristics. An H-R

diagram typically has four regions of stars — main sequence stars, white dwarfs, giants,

and supergiants. However, stars move from region to region as they change over time, so

an H-R diagram is not fixed, it’s more like a graph that shows the evolution of different

stars.

If scientists know the location of a star on the H-R diagram, they would be able to know

the type, color, mass, temperature, luminosity, chemical composition, age, and evolution

history of the star.

Slide 6

Main Sequence Stars

About 90 percent of all stars found in the universe are currently main sequence stars.

Main sequence stars are found in the center of the HRD, in a relatively linear formation.

These stars fuse hydrogen at their core and have a balance of outward pressure and

gravity pushing inwards. Our Sun is a main sequence star.

The amount of time a star spends in its main sequence phase depends on how big the

star is. The larger the star, the faster it burns out and becomes less stable. Smaller stars

can stay stable for much longer. Main sequence stars also vary in size, with larger nebulae

forming larger stars.

Slide 7

White Dwarfs

A white dwarf is what stars like our sun will eventually become. White dwarfs are

extremely dense, they can have half the mass of the sun, but only be as large as the



25



Earth. The atmosphere of a white dwarf is thought to be strange because its surface

gravity can be up to 100,000 times that of Earth’s.

Slide 8

Giants

Giant stars are stars that are much brighter and larger than main sequence or dwarf stars,

however, they are about the same surface temperature. Most stars that are in the giant

star phase are nearing the end of their stellar existence.

Slide 9

Supergiants

Supergiants are a subcategory of giant stars, and they are larger and brighter, but still

have lower surface temperatures. On an H-R diagram, they are found in the upper central

region, being the brightest, but not the hottest.

Activity

Students will construct their own H-R diagrams with the information they learned in the

lesson. Students can work alone or in pairs. Their diagrams should have labels for where

the main sequence, white dwarf, giant, and supergiant stars are found. Also, have

students label the areas of the diagram with the following temperature and brightness

combinations — hot/bright, hot/dim, cool/bright. cool/dim, average temperature/average

brightness. Students should also be able to relate the types of stars to the types of

temperature/brightness combinations.

Article

The following article is about how scientists can determine the age of the universe using

technology like the Hertzsprung Russell Diagram. The article was originally published on

Scientific American, citing interviews from two distinguished scientists.



26



How do scientists determine the ages of stars? Is the technique really accurate enough to use it

to verify the age of the universe?

Stephen A. Naftilan, professor of physics in the Joint Science Department of the Claremont

Colleges, responds:

"Astronomers usually cannot tell the age of an individual star. There are certain stars that we

know are very young, and others that are very old, but for most stars we cannot tell. When we

have a large group of stars, however, we can tell its age. This is possible because all of the stars

in a cluster are presumed to have begun their life at approximately the same time. After a

relatively brief time (in 'star time,' that is--we are talking thousands to millions of years here) stars

reach the adult phase of their life, which we call the main sequence phase. The length of time a

star spends in the main sequence phase depends on its mass.

"Constructing a plot, called the HR diagram, of the stars in the cluster, scientists can determine

the mass of the stars that are just ending this phase and moving on to the next phase of their life,

the red giant phase. Computer models allow us to predict how old a star of that mass must be to

be at that juncture of its life, and hence to estimate the age of the cluster. Recently, this

procedure has come under close scrutiny because that age it gives for the oldest star clusters in

our Milky Way seems to be older than the age of the universe derived from the most recent

Hubble Space Telescope data."

Peter B. Stetson, senior research officer at the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory in

Victoria, British Columbia, provides a more detailed reply:

"It is impossible to determine the age of a single star all by itself. The only real means we have to

determine stellar ages is through the study of star clusters. In our galaxy, the Milky Way, there are

two basic types of star cluster. Clusters of the first type are called 'globular clusters' because they

appear as huge, round globs containing anywhere from a few thousand to a few million stars.

Globular clusters are very old, and they are scattered around (not just within) the Milky Way;

these clusters seem to have originated near the time our galaxy started to form, when the

universe was quite young. Clusters of the second type used to be called 'galactic clusters'



27



because we see them inside the body of our galaxy, but now it is more common to refer to them

as 'open clusters' because they are much looser and their stars more spread out on the sky than

are those in globular clusters. Open clusters can contain anywhere from a few dozen to a few

thousand stars, and they come in a wide range of ages. Apparently our galaxy started making

open clusters soon after it settled down to its present size and continues making them even

today.

"The stars in either type of star cluster were all formed at the same time and out of the same

material. The essential feature of a star cluster that lets us estimate its age is that each cluster

contains stars with a range of masses. When a cluster is born, it will contain many stars of about

the same size and mass as our sun, but there will also be numerous stars more massive than our

sun and many other stars less massive than our sun. For about 90 percent of its lifetime, a star

shines because nuclear reactions are converting hydrogen to helium in the star's center,

releasing vast amounts of energy. This energy works its way from the center of the star to the

surface and escapes the star in the form of light. The more massive a star is, the bigger the

furnace in the center, and the brighter and the hotter the star is in this stable stage of its life. The

most massive stars are very bright and blue-hot; a less massive star is somewhat fainter and

white-hot; a star like our sun is a bit fainter still and is yellow-hot; and the least massive stars are

very faint and merely red-hot. During this period of its life, a star hardly changes either in

brightness or in temperature.

"The duration of the stable, or 'main sequence,' phase depends on a star's mass. A star 10 times

as massive as the sun contains, clearly, 10 times as much fuel. It consumes that fuel roughly

10,000 times faster than the sun, however. As a result, it has a total lifetime 1,000 times shorter

than that of our sun. When the hydrogen fuel in the center of a massive star is exhausted--'the

center' representing about 10 percent of the star's total mass--it becomes increasingly unstable.

The star remains bright, but it quickly switches from being comparatively small and hot to being

huge and red for a while, then it briefly becomes smaller and bluer, then even larger and even

redder, and finally explodes as a supernova, spewing its nuclear ashes as well as its unburned

fuel back into space. Similarly, a star five times more massive than the sun has a lifetime roughly

100 times shorter than the sun before it becomes unstable and ends its active life. A star like our

sun is calculated to have a total stable life-span of around 10 billion years; the sun is now a bit

less than half that age (this age is very accurately determined from radioactive elements in



28



meteorites), so we have another five billion years or so before we have to start looking for a new

home.

"In the case of a single star, its brightness and temperature don't tell us much. Because these

properties stay fairly constant for 90 percent of its lifetime, the star could be fairly young or fairly

old, and we wouldn't be able to tell the difference. In a star cluster, we have the advantage that

stars of all masses formed at about the same time. So all we have to do is look at the cluster and

determine how hot and how massive is the hottest, bluest, most massive star that has not yet

entered the late, unstable period of its life. The star's mass tells us how much fuel the star had

when it was born, and the star's brightness tells us how fast it is burning that fuel. We know that

the star is just about to start becoming unstable--after all, the stars that are more massive have

already started to become unstable. We also know that its fuel is just about exhausted. The ratio

of how much fuel the star had in the beginning to how fast it has been burning that fuel tells us

how long the star has been alive. (By analogy, if we know how much kerosene our hurricane

lamp contained when we lit it and how fast it consumes the kerosene, and if the lamp is just now

starting to go out, then we can deduce how long it has been lit.) Because all the stars in the

cluster are the same age, the age of that one star tells us the age of the entire cluster.

"The basic physics of how hydrogen is converted to helium in the centers of stars and the amount

of energy generated by this process is comparatively simple and well understood. For much of

the 20th century, the main limitation to our knowledge of stellar ages has been due to the

difficulty of measuring the distances to the clusters--especially the distances to the oldest

clusters, the globulars, which are comparatively far away. (We know how bright a star looks, but

to know how bright it really is, you have to know how far away it is: is it like a headlight a mile

away or an airport beacon 10 miles away? In the dark of the nighttime sky with no reference

points, it's pretty hard to tell.) Technical advances, such as the introduction of charge-coupled

devices to replace photographic plates for the measuring of stellar distances and brightnesses,

are making our observations more secure.

"Distance measurements have improved to the point at which other details needed to determine

the ages of star clusters--such as the fine details of how a star converts nuclear energy to visible

light--can no longer be ignored. How exactly does the energy get from the center of the star,

where it is generated, to the surface, where it becomes the light that we see? How important is



29



convection as a means of transporting energy, and how efficient is the convection? The answer

to these questions has some effect on the inferred relationship between mass and surface

temperature. Just how much oxygen is in the stars, along with the hydrogen and helium? The

relative amount of oxygen present has a modest effect on the efficiency of the central furnace,

affecting the relation between mass and brightness and, hence, age.

"Taken together, the uncertainty in the observations and the uncertainty in the relevant

theoretical physics probably lead to an uncertainty of 10 percent to 20 percent in our estimate of

the absolute ages of the globular clusters. According to our best available estimates, stars having

about 90 percent of the sun's mass are just now starting to die in the globulars. These stars are

most probably around 15 billion years old, but they could conceivably be as young as 12 billion

years or as old as 18 billion years. It is very unlikely that most of them could be either younger or

older than this range. This estimate is already accurate enough to place some very interesting

limits on the age and life history of the universe."



30



Lesson 5 Life of a Star

Summary

1. Subject(s): life of a star


3. Grade/Level: 3-6 grades

4. Objective: Students will learn about the lifespan of a star and how they change.

Key Skills: Students should to able to describe what a black hole is and how they

are formed.

5. Time Allotment: 2 hours

Powerpoint

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1_VtfoIH5ysG-fIVB9otN36eSU1eL20XaZ7PPXIS1IzE/edit?

usp=sharing

Lecture Transcript

Slide 3

Main Sequence to White Dwarfs

Average stars become white dwarfs over time. Our sun will eventually become a white dwarf.

White dwarfs are about the size of Earth but can contain the mass of half the Sun. Gradually,



31

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1_VtfoIH5ysG-fIVB9otN36eSU1eL20XaZ7PPXIS1IzE/edit?usp=sharing

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1_VtfoIH5ysG-fIVB9otN36eSU1eL20XaZ7PPXIS1IzE/edit?usp=sharing



some will cool down and fade away, however for white dwarfs that are extremely large, they may

become supernovas.

Slide 5

What is a Supernova?

A supernova is the explosion of a star. It is the largest explosion that takes place in space.

Slide 6

Where Do Supernovas Take Place?

Supernovas are often seen in other galaxies. But supernovas are difficult to see in our own Milky

Way galaxy because dust blocks our view. In 1604, Johannes Kepler discovered the last

observed supernova in the Milky Way. NASA’s Chandra telescope discovered the remains of a

more recent supernova. It exploded in the Milky Way more than a hundred years ago.

Slide 7 and 8

What Causes a Supernova?

A supernova happens where there is a change in the core, or center, of a star. A change can

occur in two different ways, with both resulting in a supernova.

The first type of supernova happens in binary star systems. Binary stars are two stars that orbit

the same point. One of the stars, a carbon-oxygen white dwarf, steals matter from its companion

star. Eventually, the white dwarf accumulates too much matter. Having too much matter causes

the star to explode, resulting in a supernova.

The second type of supernova occurs at the end of a single star’s lifetime, after it becomes a

white dwarf. As the star runs out of nuclear fuel, some of its mass flows into its core. Eventually,

the core is so heavy that it cannot withstand its own gravitational force. The core collapses, which

results in the giant explosion of a supernova. The sun is a single star, but it does not have enough

mass to become a supernova.

Slide 10



32



Neutron Stars

If the supernova is extremely large, it may become a neutron star. A neutron star is extremely

dense because it has so much volume packed into such a small space. It also has magnetic fields

that can accelerate the particles near it to become rays of radiation.

Slide 11

The largest supernovas will eventually become black holes.

Slide 12

Black Holes

A black hole is a place in space where gravity pulls so much that even light can not get out. The

gravity is so strong because matter has been squeezed into a tiny space. This can happen when

a star is dying.

Because no light can get out, people can't see black holes. They are invisible. Space telescopes

with special tools can help find black holes. The special tools can see how stars that are very

close to black holes act differently than other stars.

Slide 13

How Big Are Black Holes?

Black holes can be big or small. Scientists think the smallest black holes are as small as just one

atom. These black holes are very tiny but have the mass of a large mountain.

The largest black holes are called "supermassive." These black holes have masses that are more

than 1 million suns together. Scientists have found proof that every large galaxy contains a

supermassive black hole at its center. The supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky

Way galaxy is called Sagittarius A. It has a mass equal to about 4 million suns and would fit inside

a very large ball that could hold a few million Earths.

Slide 14



33



How Do Black Holes Form?

Scientists think the smallest black holes formed when the universe began. Some black holes may

have formed when stars collapsed and died. Some think supermassive black holes were made at

the same time as the galaxy they are in.

Slide 15

If Black Holes Are "Black," How Do Scientists Know They Are There?

A black hole can not be seen because strong gravity pulls all of the light into the middle of the

black hole. But scientists can see how the strong gravity affects the stars and gas around the

black hole. Scientists can study stars to find out if they are flying around, or orbiting, a black hole.

When a black hole and a star are close together, high-energy light is made. This kind of light can

not be seen with human eyes. Scientists use satellites and telescopes in space to see the

high-energy light.

Activity

Have students pair up or form groups of three. Give each group/pair a scenario of a star and have

them map out the remaining steps of the star’s life.

For example, if a pair was given the scenario of a medium sized main sequence star, they would

map out the star’s life as going from main sequence to white dwarf to eventually fading away. If

the scenario were an extremely large main sequence star, students could respond by saying that

the star will become a large white dwarf, which could become a supernova, that would become

either a neutron star or black hole.

Make sure students can support their decisions with information learned from the lesson about

the life of stars.



34



Lesson 7 Space Exploration

Summary

1. Subject(s): History of space exploration



4. Objective: Students will learn about the history of space exploration.

Key Skills: Students should be able to briefly explain the history of space

exploration and research.


Powerpoint

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1mLlJVFfXj517fNAiK7kb_z8UqJl24hwVshE56GzByz4/edit

?usp=sharing

Lecture Transcript

History of Space Exploration

Space exploration began in the 20th century, with scientists from the United States, Russia, and

Germany seeking to advance science and competing with each other to be the first ones in

space.

During World War II, countries began to entertain ideas of using long-range rockets to attack

belligerent countries and Nazi Germany was one of the first to attempt making such rockets.



35

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1mLlJVFfXj517fNAiK7kb_z8UqJl24hwVshE56GzByz4/edit?usp=sharing

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1mLlJVFfXj517fNAiK7kb_z8UqJl24hwVshE56GzByz4/edit?usp=sharing



However, after the Nazi defeat in WWII, Germany fell out of the race to space, leaving only the

United States and Russia.

After World War II, both the United States and the Soviet Union created their own missile

programs. In the midst of the Cold War between the US and USSR, both countries sought to be

the first to accomplish space exploration for reasons of military advancement and national pride.

On October 4, 1957, the Soviets launched the first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1, into space. The first

U.S. satellite, Explorer 1, went into orbit on January 30, 1958. On April 12, 1969, Russian astronaut

Yuri Gagarin became the first human to orbit the Earth.

On July 20, 1969, American astronaut Neil Armstrong stepped onto the moon on the mission

Apollo 11. Following that success, six more Apollo missions were made to explore the moon.

In the 1960s, unmanned spacecrafts photographed and probed the moon before astronauts like

Armstrong ever set foot on the moon. By the early 1970s, orbiting communications and navigation

satellites were in use and NASA’s Mariner spacecraft was orbiting and examining Mars’ surface.

By the end of the decade, the Voyager spacecraft sent back detailed images of Jupiter and

Saturn.

Skylab, America’s first space station, was a human-spaceflight highlight of the 1970s. The Apollo

Soyuz Test Project became the world’s first internally crewed space mission with American and

Russian scientists.

Space systems will continue to become more and more integral to homeland defense, weather

surveillance, communication, navigation, imaging, and remote sensing for chemicals, fires, and

other disasters.

The International Space Station is a research laboratory in low Earth orbit. With many different

partners contributing to its design and construction, this laboratory has become a symbol of

cooperation in space exploration, with former competitors now working together.

Articles

The following article is part of the NASA Knows! Series about the Apollo space program.

What Was the Apollo Program?



36



Apollo was the NASA program that resulted in American astronauts' making a total of 11

spaceflights and walking on the moon.

The first four flights tested the equipment used in the Apollo Program. Six of the other seven flights

landed on the moon. The first Apollo flight happened in 1968. The first moon landing took place in

1969. The last moon landing was in 1972.

A total of 12 astronauts walked on the moon. The astronauts conducted scientific research there.

They studied the lunar surface. They collected moon rocks to bring back to Earth.

What Spacecraft Were Used for the Apollo Program?

NASA designed the Apollo Command Module for this program. It was a capsule with room for three

astronauts. The astronauts rode in the Command Module on the way to the moon and back. It was

larger than the spacecraft used in the Mercury and Gemini programs. The astronauts had room to

move around inside the spacecraft. The crew area had about as much room as a car.

Another spacecraft, the Lunar Module, was used for landing on the moon. This spacecraft carried

astronauts from orbit around the moon to the moon's surface, then back into orbit. It could carry

two astronauts.

Two types of rockets were used for the Apollo program. The first flights used the smaller Saturn I (1)

B rocket. It was about as tall as a 22-story building. This rocket had two stages. That means it was

made of two parts. When the first part ran out of fuel, it dropped away from the other and burned

up in Earth's atmosphere. The second part continued flying. The Saturn IB rocket was used to test

the new Apollo capsule in Earth orbit.

The other flights used the more powerful Saturn V (5) rocket. This three-stage rocket sent the Apollo

spacecraft to the moon. It was about as tall as a 36-story building.

When Did Humans First Visit the Moon?

The first manned mission to the moon was Apollo 8. It circled around the moon on Christmas Eve in

1968. However, Apollo 8 did not land on the moon. It orbited the moon, then came back to Earth.

The crew was Frank Borman, Bill Anders and Jim Lovell.



37



The first moon landing occurred on July 20, 1969, on the Apollo 11 mission. The crew of Apollo 11

was Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Buzz Aldrin. Armstrong and Aldrin walked on the lunar

surface while Collins remained in orbit around the moon. When Neil Armstrong became the first

person to walk on the moon, he said, "That's one small step for (a) man; one giant leap for

mankind."

The following missions flew humans during Apollo:

Apollo Flight 7

Date: Oct. 11-22, 1968

Mission: Tested the Command Module

Crew: Schirra, Eisele, Cunningham

Apollo Flight 8

Date: Dec. 21-27, 1968

Mission: First to orbit the moon

Crew: Borman, Lovell, Anders

Apollo Flight 9

Date: March 3-13, 1969

Mission: Tested the Lunar Module

Crew: McDivitt, Scott, Schweickart

Apollo Flight 10

Date: May 18-26, 1969

Mission: Tested the Lunar Module around the moon

Crew: Cernan, Young, Stafford



38



Apollo Flight 11

Date: July 16-24, 1969

Mission: First to land on the moon

Crew: Armstrong, Aldrin, Collins

Apollo Flight 12

Date: Nov. 14-24, 1969

Mission: Landed on the moon

Crew: Conrad, Bean, Gordon

Apollo Flight 13

Date: April 11-17, 1970

Mission: Was supposed to land on the moon but had a malfunction

Crew: Lovell, Swigert, Haise

Apollo Flight 14

Date: Jan. 31-Feb. 9, 1971


Crew: Shepard, Mitchell, Roosa

Apollo Flight 15

Date: July 26-Aug. 7, 1971


Crew: Scott, Irwin, Worden



39



Apollo Flight 16

Date: April 16-27, 1972


Crew: Young, Duke, Mattingly

Apollo Flight 17

Date: Dec. 7-19, 1972


Crew: Cernan, Schmitt, Evans

Apollo 13 is one of the more famous lunar missions. A movie was made about this flight. Apollo 13

was supposed to land on the moon. On the way there, the spacecraft had a problem. NASA had to

figure out how to bring the astronauts home safely. Apollo 13 flew all the way around the moon

before returning home. Despite the problem, they were able to land safely on Earth.

How Did Astronauts Land on the Moon?

The Apollo spacecraft were launched on top of the Saturn V rocket. The Saturn V was made of

three stages. The first two stages used up their fuel reaching orbit. The third stage was used to

push the Apollo Command Module and Lunar Module to the moon. Once the spacecraft reached

the moon, the two modules separated from each other. Two astronauts in the Lunar Module landed

on the lunar surface. The third astronaut stayed in the Command Module in orbit around the moon.

On the last three missions, astronauts drove on the moon with the lunar rover. Astronauts drove the

lunar rover to explore more of the moon's surface. The lunar rovers were made so they could be

folded to fit in a storage area on the Lunar Module. The lunar rovers were left on the moon.

When the two astronauts were finished working on the surface, they got back in the Lunar Module

and launched. It went back into orbit around the moon and connected with the Command Module.

The two astronauts got back into the Command Module. They left the Lunar Module behind and



40



flew back to Earth. The Lunar Module crashed into the moon. The Command Module landed in the

ocean, and a ship picked up the astronauts.

Why Was the Apollo Program Important?

In 1961, President John F. Kennedy challenged the nation to land astronauts on the moon by the

end of the decade. NASA met that challenge with the Apollo program. It was the first time human

beings left Earth orbit and visited another world. These missions made it possible to explore more

distant worlds further in the future.

__

This following article is from the NASA Knows! series about the Hubble Space Telescope.

What Is the Hubble Space Telescope?

The Hubble Space Telescope is a large telescope in space. It was launched into orbit by space

shuttle Discovery on April 24, 1990. Hubble orbits about 547 kilometers (340 miles) above Earth. It

is the length of a large school bus and weighs as much as two adult elephants. Hubble travels

about 5 miles per second: That is like traveling from the eastern coast of the United States to the

western coast in 10 minutes. Hubble is solar-powered.

Hubble takes sharp pictures of objects in the sky such as planets, stars and galaxies. Hubble has

made more than one million observations. These include detailed pictures of the birth and death of

stars, galaxies billions of light years away, and comet pieces crashing into Jupiter's atmosphere.

Scientists have learned a lot about the universe from these pictures. Many of them are beautiful to

look at.

What Makes Hubble Different From Telescopes on Earth?

Earth’s atmosphere alters and blocks the light that comes from space. Hubble orbits above Earth’s

atmosphere, which gives it a better view of the universe than telescopes have at ground level.

Where Did the Name Hubble Come From?

Hubble is named after an American astronomer, Edwin P. Hubble. He made important discoveries

in the early 1900s. He showed that the galaxy containing the solar system -- the Milky Way -- was



41



only one of many galaxies. His work helped show that the universe is expanding. This led to the

big-bang theory, which says that the universe began with an intense burst of energy and has been

expanding ever since.

What Instruments Are on Hubble?

As Hubble orbits Earth, the Fine Guidance Sensors lock onto stars. The Fine Guidance Sensors are

part of the Pointing Control System and aim Hubble in the right direction. The telescope can lock

onto a target that is one mile away without moving more than the width of a human hair.

Once the target is acquired, Hubble's primary mirror collects light. The mirror can collect about

40,000 times more light than the human eye. The light bounces off the primary mirror to the

secondary mirror. The secondary mirror focuses the light back through a hole in the primary mirror.

From there, the light shines to Hubble's scientific instruments. Each instrument has a different way

of interpreting the light.

Hubble has five scientific instruments which include cameras and spectrographs. A spectrograph is

an instrument that splits light into its individual wavelengths .

The Wide Field Camera 3 is Hubble’s main camera. It studies everything from the formation of

distant galaxies to the planets in the solar system. The camera can see three different kinds of light:

near-ultraviolet, visible and near-infrared. But Hubble can only see each kind of light one at a time.

Human eyes can see visible light. Near-ultraviolet and near-infrared are just beyond what our eyes

can see.

The Advanced Camera for Surveys captures images of large areas of space. These images have

helped scientists study some of the earliest activity in the universe.

The Cosmic Origins Spectrograph reads ultraviolet light. This spectrograph studies how galaxies,

stars and planets formed and changed.

The Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph helps scientists determine the temperature, chemical

composition, density and motion of objects in space. It also has been used to detect black holes.



42



The Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer, or NICMOS, sees objects in deep space

by sensing the heat they emit. It captures images and it is also a spectrograph. NICMOS helps

scientists study how stars, galaxies and planetary systems form.

What Are Hubble's Most Important Discoveries?

Images taken by Hubble have helped scientists estimate the age and size of the universe. Scientists

believe the universe is almost 14 billion years old. Hubble has helped scientists understand how

planets and galaxies form. An image called "Hubble Ultra Deep Field" shows the farthest galaxies

ever seen.

Hubble has detected black holes, which suck in everything around them, including light. The

telescope has played a key role in the discovery of dark energy, a mysterious force that causes the

universe to expand faster and faster as time goes on. And it has revealed details of gamma-ray

bursts -- powerful explosions of energy that occur when massive stars collapse.

Hubble has also studied the atmospheres of planets revolving around stars similar to Earth’s sun.

Where Do the Colors in Hubble's Images Come From?

Hubble transmits about 140 gigabytes of science data every week back to Earth. That's equal to

about 45 two-hour, HD-quality movies or about 30,000 mp3 songs. The digital signals are relayed

to satellites, then to a ground station, then to NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, and finally to

the Space Telescope Science Institute. The STScI translates the data into images and information

we can understand.

Hubble pictures start out as shades of black and white. The Space Telescope Science Institute

adds colors to the pictures for different reasons. Sometimes colors are chosen to show how an

object might look to the human eye. Other times colors are used to highlight an important detail. Or

they can be used to show details that would otherwise be invisible to the human eye.

What Is the Future of Hubble?

Hubble is more than 25 years old! Engineers designed Hubble so that it could be repaired and

upgraded as needed. Since the telescope's launch, five space shuttle missions have carried

astronauts to Hubble to repair and upgrade it. The last mission was in 2009. Hubble was upgraded



43



so that it is better than ever. The telescope will not be repaired or upgraded again. But it is

expected to continue to work until 2020 and beyond.

Meanwhile, NASA and its international partners are preparing the James Webb Space Telescope to

launch in early 2021. The Webb is an infrared telescope that will be larger than Hubble and will be

able to see through clouds and dust in space. Instead of orbiting Earth, this telescope will orbit the

Sun from a point beyond the Moon. Webb will send back amazing images like Hubble does, and it

will help astronomers unlock more of the biggest mysteries of the universe.



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BIOLOGYThe following curriculum section is for Biology. It introduces students to the small cellular mechanisms working on our bodies everyday. In addition to understanding metabolic processes and organelles, students are able to learn about some of the most researched diseases, such as cancer. The curriculum guide includes activities which allow students to research different cancer therapies. Through this event, students will be able to apply their knowledge of the cell to understand how this knowledge can be used to create future treatments.

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Lesson 1 Macromolecules

Summary

1. Subject(s): Polymers, monomers, four main macromolecules - carbohydrates, lipids,

proteins, nucleic acids

2. Topic or Unit of Study: Biology


4. Objective: teach students about the four main groups of organic macromolecules

Key Skills: Students should be able to explain what makes up a macromolecule and be

able to describe the function and structure of carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, and nucleic

acids. Students should also be to classify macromolecules into their correct categories.


Powerpoint

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1nwuya2Vl_pCFxfaJi80rZiXKhG2oNaqmptjCOGefZsc

Lecture Transcript

Macromolecules

Slide 2 — What Are Macromolecules?

Macromolecules are very large molecules that are made up of numerous smaller units. The word

“macromolecule” hints at its definition, as “macro” means large in Greek. Macromolecules can

also be called polymers, and the smaller units that make them up are called monomers.

This w ork is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0

International License .

46

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1nwuya2Vl_pCFxfaJi80rZiXKhG2oNaqmptjCOGefZsc



Teacher’s Note: To explain to students what a molecule is or what a macromolecule is, draw the

following conceptual diagram on the board:

Each individual bead/circle is a monomer meaning one molecule. The polymer is a string of all of

the monomers connected to make one HUGE chain or a polymer.

In this lesson, we will be looking at the four main groups of macromolecules, carbohydrates,

lipids, proteins, and nucleic acids. However, of the four, lipids are not considered to be true

polymers because it is not made up of the same small unit combined into one larger molecule.

Ask Students — why might lipids be classified into the same category as the others if they are

not the same. The answer is that lipids, like the other three macromolecules, are essential to all

life and scientists classify them together to make for simplicity.

These four macromolecules are organic and are absolutely essential for all living things to have.

Without them, living things could not survive.

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Slide 4

Slide 3 shows examples of the four types of molecules.

Teacher’s Note: Draw the above diagram on the board (preferably the carbohydrate and lipid

diagrams to show the difference between polymers and non-polymers. Circle the individual

monomers to show how the different subunits contribute to the larger chain: polymer. Together,

the individual circles add up to be one big polymer. But for the lipids, there’s only one circle

because it is not made up of individual subunits.

Slides 5-11: Carbohydrates

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Carbohydrates are biological molecules that are made up of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen

atoms joined together. They are a main source of energy and are also known as saccharides,

which means “sugars.” Some examples of carbohydrates include: grains, pasta, bread, rice etc.

Ask Students — What are some examples of carbohydrates you ate today?

Slide 6

The main function of carbohydrates is to provide energy. They are the main source of fuel,

necessary for physical functions, brain operations, and organ function. All cells in the body

require carbohydrates.

Slide 7-8

Carbohydrates are polymers that are made up of monomers of sugar. There are three main

categories of carbohydrates — monosaccharides, disaccharides, and polysaccharides.

Slides 9-11

Monosaccharides only contain one unit of sugar. Common monosaccharides include glucose,

fructose, and galactose. Glucose is an extremely important monosaccharide and carbohydrate

because it is the main carbohydrate that the human body processes. It is also the sugar that is

referred to when you hear “blood sugar”

Disaccharides are made up of two monosaccharides linked together. Di, the prefix, often means

two. Common disaccharides include maltose (made up of two glucose molecules), sucrose (made

up of glucose and fructose), and lactose (made up of galactose and glucose).

Polysaccharides are made up of more than two monosaccharides of glucose. Most

polysaccharides contain hundreds or thousands of glucose units.

Slides 12-13

Lipids

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Lipids are the only molecule of the four we will talk about that is not considered to be a true

macromolecule or polymer. The reason that lipids are not true macromolecules or polymers is

because it is not made up of several smaller identical units. Carbohydrates are made up of units

of sugars that are identical, making them polymers. However lipids are not.

Ask Students — What are some examples of lipids you ate today?

Slide 14

Lipids are made up of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen atoms. Common lipids include

fats, waxes, and sterols. Lipids are unique in their inability to dissolve in water. If you put a lipid

into water and stir, no matter what happens, it will not dissolve. For example, if you mix oil, a lipid,

and water, the two will eventually separate into two individual layers.

Teacher’s Note: In order to cement the idea that lipids are unable to dissolve in water, show them

a demonstration of mixing oil in water or play this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neS6Tm_HXKE

The basic composition of a lipid consists of a glycerol molecule with fatty acid tails. A lipid

molecule with three fatty acid tails is called a triglyceride.

Teacher’s Note: The picture on slide 12 is an example of a triglyceride. Point out that the three

tails are not the same, which is part of the reason why lipids are not macromolecules. The only

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neS6Tm_HXKE



way lipids can be macromolecules is if the tails are always identical, but that’s not the case.

Slide 15

The main function of lipids is to store energy, act as signals between cells, and make up cellular

membranes. Lipids store energy that is unneeded so that the body can use this stored energy

when it needs to. Lipids are also messengers that move between cells and locations throughout

the body to act as signals. Lipids are also the main component of cell membranes. Cell

membrane lipids will be touched upon in future lessons.

Slides 16-17

Proteins

Proteins are polymers that are made up of monomers of amino acids. Proteins perform a huge

array of different function within the body, including those of catalyzing metabolic reactions,

transporting molecules, replicating DNA, and responding to stimuli.

Proteins differ from each other in their basic amino acid sequence. There are 20 amino acids in

total, and the combinations that they come together forms different proteins with different

functions. Proteins have varying lifespans, some ranging from a few minutes to several years.

Ask Students — what analogy can they think of for proteins and amino acids. Examples could

include letters that make up words. With only 26 letters, the way that we arrange them and how

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many we use allows us to make an infinite number of words, just like how amino acids arrange to

form different proteins.

Proteins, like all other macromolecules, are essential for the survival of cells. They participate in

almost all cellular activities and help to regulate bodily functions.

Slide 18

Protein structure is split into four distinct categories — primary, secondary, tertiary, and

quaternary structure. The primary structure of a protein is the line of the amino acids.

Primary protein structure is essentially a string of amino acids. Secondary structure contains

alpha-helix and beta-sheets and they are the regularly repeating local structures. Secondary

structures can be thought of as how the individual primary strands are connected. Tertiary

structure is the overall structure of the entire protein. Quaternary structure is a structure that is

made up of several proteins, unusually forming a single protein complex.

Teacher’s Note: Remind students that the amino acids are like letters from the the alphabet.

When we put the different letters together, they form millions of different words. In the same way,

when the line the different amino acids together, they form words. The primary structure is a

word made up letters. The secondary structure involves the chain of amino acids put together.

This is similar to putting together the words to make a phrase. The tertiary structure is when the

structure of the amino acid chains twist and fold together to make a protein, similar to phrases

coming together to make a sentence. The quaternary structure is when all of the different

proteins come together to make a protein complex. Think of a sentence as a protein and a

paragraph as a protein complex.

Draw the following diagram on the board to help the students relate this important concept:

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Slide 19

Diagrams of the four different protein structures.

Teacher’s Note: Ask students to identify which step is which.

Slide 20

The most common protein function is enzymes. Enzymes help to speed up chemical reactions.

For example, a chemical reaction may take days to take place without an enzyme, but with, the

reaction may only take a few hours. Enzymes are extremely specific, with each enzyme only

matching with one specific reaction. The enzyme is similar to a lock and key. You can only open a

door if you have the exact key for the door. In the same way, the reaction can only be sped up if

you have the exact enzyme for it. For that reason, the human body can make numerous different

enzymes to cater to each and every reaction that needs an enzyme.

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53



Teacher’s Note: Give this analogy to students. Imagine you need to run a mile/kilometer. It will

usually take you fifteen minutes to run the mile. But, if you are given a special set of sneakers,

you can run the mile in ten minutes. Ask students, what is sneaker represent in the analogy? It represents the enzyme because it speeds up reactions.

Slide 21-22

Nucleic Acids

Nucleic acids are composed of monomers called nucleotides. Nucleic acids have the function of

having to create, encode, and store the information that is found in the nuclei of all cells in every

organism.

The encoded information is made using different sequences of nucleotides. There are five

distinct nucleotides — adenine, thymine, guanine, cytosine, and uracil.

Teacher’s Note: In the same way monomer amino acids can string together to create very unique

proteins, different sequences of the nucleotides can come together to create very different DNA

strands. The DNA codes for traits like your hair color, your skin color, your earlobes, etc. Draw

this diagram on the board for them to understand the structure of DNA.

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BioNinja

Ask students to identify a pattern. Which bases pair with one another? Adenine (A) bonds with

Thymine (T) and Guanine (G) pairs with Cytosine (C). These are the rules of DNA in a way. A

bonds with T and C bonds with G.

Slide 23

There are two types of nucleic acids, DNA and RNA.

Slide 24

DNA has two strands and has a double helix structure. It is made up of four nucleotides, adenine,

thymine, cytosine, and guanine. DNA’s main purpose is to house specific coded information of

genes.

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55



Slide 25

RNA has only one strand and is made up of four nucleotides, with uracil taking the place of

thymine. The other three nucleotides are the same as DNA. RNA contains encoded information

for protein synthesis.

Emphasize to students: the central dogma of Biology or the basic theory of biology is that DNA is

turned into RNA. RNA is then turned into proteins through protein synthesis. The proteins help

determine what characteristics a person has. While DNA has the code for your traits, only the

protein can actually show your traits (hair color, skin color etc).

Activity

For an activity to best cement the idea of DNA base pairs, have the children play DNA basketball! Set up

four different baskets, each labeled A, C, T, or G. Each student has a letter tag on them as an identifier.

They can either be Adenine (A), Cytosine (C), Guanine (G), or Thymine (T).

All of the adenine and thymine children are on the same team, while all of the cytosine and guanine

children are on the same team. Each person has the objective of scoring a basket in the base pair that

matches theirs. For example, a student with a C tag should score in the G basket.

Every correct match earns 2 points to the respective team. Every incorrect match (for example a student

with a C tag shoots in the A basket) results in the loss of 4 points.

11



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Lesson 2 Cells and Organization

Summary

1. Subject(s): cells, tissues, organs, organ systems; animal and plant cells; cell organelles;

unique cell organelles to plant and animal cells


3. Grade/Level: 4-6

4. Objective: Teach students about the organizational system of cells, animal and plant cells,

and cell organelles

Key Skills: Explain the purpose and way of organization of cells; explain the differences in

plant and animal cells; identify and name the functions of basic organelles



Learning Context

Teacher’s Note: Remind students about the basic concept of macromolecules. In the same way

monomers build together to make polymers, often known as macromolecules (with the exception

of lipids), these macromolecules can also build upon one another to make bigger objects. One of

these examples are cells: macromolecules such as lipids, DNA, and protein combine to make

cells.

This w ork is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License .

57


Powerpoint

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1vuXoCfmkUWvomKr_RdKTRrTrg8Nekj-G89GIuaKnfxc/edit?usp=

sharing

Lecture Transcript

Cellular Organization

What Are Cells?

Cells are the basic units of life. The cell theory explains that cells are the basic building blocks of

life. Cell theory states three points:

1. All living organisms are composed of one or more cells. All of us, you and me, are made

of millions and billions of cells.

2. The cell is the basic unit of structure and organization in organisms. In the same way the

amino acid is the monomer of proteins, the cell is like a monomer of the body. It is the

small unit in which we study the body.

3. Cells come from already existing cells. Cells do not come from thin air. Instead, cells make

other cells through a process called cellular division.

How Are Tiny Cells Organized Into a Whole Organism?

Teacher’s Note: To give students a perspective for how small the cells are, show students this

online module which compares the cell to other commonly known items:

http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/cells/scale/

Cells are organized into organisms through a precise process. A group of similar cells with

common purposes form a tissue. For example, muscle tissue is formed by muscle cells. A group

of tissues then form a complete organ, like your heart. And finally, a several organs can come



58

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1vuXoCfmkUWvomKr_RdKTRrTrg8Nekj-G89GIuaKnfxc/edit?usp=sharing

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1vuXoCfmkUWvomKr_RdKTRrTrg8Nekj-G89GIuaKnfxc/edit?usp=sharing

http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/cells/scale/



together to form an organ system. For example, your stomach, intestines and other organs for

your digestive system. These systems can then form an entire organism.

Teacher’s Note: Have students simulate the process of organization in the body. Have each

student represent a tiny cell. Ask students to form tissues where students must link arms to make

a tissue. Three students represent one tissue because the cells have joined together. Then, ask

the students to form an organ. This involves 2 tissues coming together. The two groups of three

students come together and huddle to form an organ. To form an organ system all of the different

organs in the classroom (groups of six) must come together to arrange in a line with one another.

Eukaryotes and Prokaryotes

There are two types of cells — eukaryotes and prokaryotes. In the same way each of you

students is representing a cell, each cell is unique and has different characteristics. For example,

we can split all of the students into 2 groups: boy/girl, shorts/full-length pants etc. The two groups

represent prokaryotic versus eukaryotic cells. While all of you are cells, some of you have more

similarities with one another.

Prokaryotes

Prokaryotes are considered to be the more basic form of cells when compared to eukaryotes.

Prokaryotes are different from eukaryotes in the fact that they do not contain a nucleus or any

membrane-bound organelles. Prokaryotes are extremely simple and most often are found in

single celled organisms such as bacteria.

Teacher’s Note: A nucleus is the “brain” of the cell. It contains all of the DNA and genetic material

in the cell. Because the prokaryote does not carry a nucleus, it instead has the DNA floating

around inside the cell.

Eukaryotes

Eukaryotes have nuclei and contain membrane-bound organelles. They are much more

complicated and compartmentalized, which allows for each cell to have multiple activities going

on at once.



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Plant and Animal Cells

There are two types of eukaryotic cells that we will talk about in this lesson, plant and animal

cells. The two types of cells have some different organelles and different functions.

Teacher’s Note: An organelle is like a mini-organ for a cell. In the same way your body needs to

carry out certain processes using your organs like the heart or lungs, your cell also has

organelles that help the cell carry out certain processes.

Plant Cells

Plant cells are found in plants and are filled with the necessary means to perform photosynthesis,

which is the way that plants make food.



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Tell students - Remember, while you can go to the store or a restaurant to eat food, plants

cannot buy food. Instead, they have to make food themselves. And not like cook food, but

actually make all of the ingredients. The way the plant makes food is through photosynthesis.

Using sunlight, water and carbon dioxide, the plant makes a carbohydrate called glucose. Using

this glucose, the plant grows taller.

Animal Cells

Animal cells, found in animals, do not have the ability to photosynthesize; however, they do have

unique properties that are not found in plant cells. The animal does not make their own food.

Instead animals like lions catch food and then break it down. They do not need to use

photosynthesis to make food.

Organelles

What Are Organelles?

An organelle is a cellular structure, similar to an organ. It has a specific job and purpose and each

is differentiated to be able to perform its function. Organelles are found embedded in a cell’s

cytoplasm.

Organelles Found in All Eukaryotic Cells

Cytoplasm

The cytoplasm is not actually considered to be an organelle. It is a jelly-like substance that fills a

cell. The cytoplasm is found in all cells and it keeps each organelle in place and is also the place

for many cellular chemical reactions.

Nucleus

A cell’s nucleus contains the cell’s genetic information, in the form of DNA. The nucleus is

surrounded by the nuclear envelope, which contains small pores to allow materials to go in and

out of the nucleus. Every eukaryotic cell contains and nucleus and is essential for cells to



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function. In prokaryotic cells, the genetic material is found in the center of the cell and gathered

in a group, not a specific organelle.

Cell Membrane

The cell membrane is found in all cells as well. It surrounds the cell and is made up of lipids. The

cell membrane is considered to be selectively permeable, meaning that is only allows certain

materials in and out of the cell.

The cell membrane is made up of phospholipids. The phospholipids are composed in a way that

makes the portion of the membrane touching the outside and the inside of the cell to be

hydrophilic, meaning that it dissolves in water. The area of the cell membrane that is sandwiched

between the hydrophilic part is hydrophobic.

Cell Wall

The cell wall is something that is only found in plant cells. It is responsible for making the plant

cell seem rigid. The cell wall is found outside of the cell membrane and serves to keep plants

upright. The strength of tree trunks is because of numerous cell walls forming together to make

the tree so strong.

Ribosomes

Ribosomes are the site of protein synthesis and they are also found in both eukaryotes and

prokaryotes. Ribosomes use RNA to put together proteins for the cell to use or to transport to

other locations. Structurally, ribosomes are made up of several subunits that are put together to

form the entire organelle.

There are two types of ribosomes — free-floating ribosomes and attached ribosomes. Free

floating ribosomes typically make proteins that will remain within the cell, for the cell to use while

attached ribosomes typically make proteins that will be sent outside to cell to other parts of the

organism.

Vacuoles



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Vacuoles are found only in eukaryotes and are in both plant and animal cells. The main purpose

of vacuoles is to store water, food, waste, or any other materials. In plant cells, there is only one,

large, central vacuole; typically found in the center of the cell. In animal cells, there are several

smaller vacuoles found scattered throughout the cytoplasm.

Mitochondria

The mitochondria is found in both plant and animal cells, but not in prokaryotes because it

contains a membrane. The mitochondria is known to be the powerhouse of the cell. It is

responsible for the process of cellular respiration that breaks down glucose into energy for the

cell and the body. Mitochondria contain a double membrane that allows for cellular respiration to

occur within the organelle. Cellular respiration and more about the structure of the mitochondria

will be discussed in later lessons.

Chloroplast

The chloroplast is found only in plant cells, and it is the organelle that is responsible for a plant’s

ability to produce its own food using sunlight. The chloroplast is the location of photosynthesis

and is essential to a plant cell’s survival. Chloroplasts also contain chlorophyll, which is a green

pigment that allows the organelle to absorb sunlight for the chloroplast to use. More about the

chloroplast and photosynthesis in later lessons.

Endoplasmic Reticulum

The endoplasmic reticulum, ER, is split into two types — smooth ER and rough ER. The rough ER

is known as rough because it has ribosomes connected to it. The purpose of the rough ER si for

protein synthesis, which is also the reason why it has so many ribosomes connected to it.

However, unlike free floating ribosomes, the protein that is created on the rough ER is packaged

and sent to outside of the cell usually to another location in the body.

The smooth ER’s function is to detoxify and to regulate the production of lipids and hormones. It

also helps to transport materials in and out of the cell.

Golgi Apparatus



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The Golgi apparatus, sometimes called the Golgi body, is a collection of membranes that has the

purpose of taking the proteins created by the rough ER, modifying and packaging them for

transport outside of the cell.

Lysosomes

Lysosomes are found in all eukaryotic cells and they are the waste disposal centers of cells.

Lysosomes are small sacs that are capable of breaking down waste.

Centrioles

Centrioles are typically only found in animal cells, but can sometimes be in plant cells. The main

purpose of centrioles is for cell division. They assist in dividing the cell when it is time for it to

reproduce. More about centrioles and their function when talking about cell division.

Teacher’s Note: Because this lesson has so much information about the different types of

organelles and the cell itself, have students do the worksheet as a refresher for the next class or

as a reviewer for the end of the class. The best method is to have students watch a recap video

of all of the organelles and take notes on the organizational sheet to help students best

conceptualize the actual categorization of the organelles. Then, have students do the

project/activity to best cement their understanding. They should use the organizational sheet to

help guide them while doing the activity.

Show this video for a better understanding of all of the cell organelles:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URUJD5NEXC8 Have students fill out the organizational

sheet while watching the video/afterwards.

For a review and a more interactive way of looking at the construction of a cell, students can also

use this online simulator: http://sepuplhs.org/high/sgi/teachers/cell_sim.html.

Activity

For this activity, have students make an art project/analogy to the cell. Using poster paper, they can

make an analogy of the different organelles.



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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URUJD5NEXC8

http://sepuplhs.org/high/sgi/teachers/cell_sim.html



For example, a student can compare the cell to a city, where the local government is the nucleus

because they direct all of the orders and is the brain of the cell. The mitochondria can be the energy

plant or coal plant which burns coal to create energy (even though that is not a sustainable energy

source and is bad for the environment). The lysosomes can be the disposal facility or the garbage trucks

and so on.

The students should have a written or verbal explanation of why each specific organelle is chosen to be

a specific object in the comparison. Have them present to the class so students better make connections

and are able to remember the role of each of the organelles.



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Lesson 3 Photosynthesis

Summary

1. Subject(s): Structure and function of parts of the chloroplast; light dependent and

independent reactions; photosynthesis adaptations



4. Objective: Students will learn about the specific processes of photosynthesis and

the structure of the chloroplast. Students will also be able to distinguish between

different adaptations of plants regarding photosynthesizing.

Key Skills: Students should be able to explain the processes of photosynthesis

and their relationships to the chloroplast. Students will also be able to explain

reasons and functions of different adaptations of photosynthesis.



Learning Context

Teacher’s Note: This lesson focuses mainly on a specific organelle introduced in the

previous lecture: the chloroplast. Before you go very in depth regarding the process of

photosynthesis, remind students about the chloroplast and its structure to better immerse

the students into it.

To go over the structure (which is not a focus of the previous lesson on organelle), draw

this image on the board:

This w ork is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

License .

67



This is a diagram of a chloroplast which like we know about most eukaryotic organelles, is

double-membraned. It has an outer and inner membrane, with the intermembrane space

being between the two membranes. Inside the chloroplast is jelly-like liquid (similar to the

cytoplasm), except is called the stroma. Inside the stroma are stacks of little disks known

as thylakoids.

Ask students to draw a chloroplast of their own in their notebooks/papers so they

understand the structure.


License .

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Powerpoint

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1LcRPqKsWL2YhiTQc9UqGSk0JfeZrUJumvQ4_0tMTGKY

/edit?usp=sharing

Lecture Transcript

Chloroplasts

Where Does Photosynthesis Take Place?

The process of photosynthesis takes place within the chloroplast. The chloroplast is an organelle

that is only found in plant cells. It has a double membrane that surrounds the interior of the

chloroplast. Inside, the chloroplast contains small, round, flat circles called thylakoids. Thylakoids

are stacked into groups called granums. The entire chloroplast contains an aqueous solution,

comparable to the cytoplasm in cells, called stroma.

Photosynthetic Pigments

In order for photosynthesis to occur, the chloroplast needs to have specific pigments that will

allow light to be absorbed.

A pigment is a color. Take for example, your clothes have certain pigments. If I’m wearing a red

shirt, my shirt has pigments that reflect the color red. The pigment absorbs visible light as well as

reflects visible light. The light that is not absorbed is reflected onto the viewer.

Teacher’s Note: To connect this concept of light and pigments to the students (this is a

fundamental concept of the entire process of photosynthesis), draw this diagram on the

board. The sun gives off white light (which is a combination of all of the light colors). The

light is full of different wavelengths. Each wavelength of light corresponds to a different

color. So, for example, we see the leaf as green because it reflects only green light and

absorbs all the other wavelengths of light.


License .

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https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1LcRPqKsWL2YhiTQc9UqGSk0JfeZrUJumvQ4_0tMTGKY/edit?usp=sharing

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1LcRPqKsWL2YhiTQc9UqGSk0JfeZrUJumvQ4_0tMTGKY/edit?usp=sharing



Ask students, what wavelength of light (color) is absorbed/reflected off of a red bug.

Fun Science

Have a group of three students stand up. Ask one to wave their hands in small waves,

medium waves, and large waves. Based on the visible light spectrum below, ask

students to determine which student would be which color. (The small waves would

represent the purple, medium waves would represent the green, and the large waves

would represent the red).


License .

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ORCA Grow Film

The most common pigment in the chloroplast is chlorophyll, which reflects green. Chlorophyll is

the reason for why plant leaves are typically green.

Photosynthesis

Photosynthesis is the process in which plants make their own food. Imagine a plant catching after

an insect for food! It is impossible (unless of course you have a Venus Flytrap) so instead plants

make their own food inside of themselves using certain ingredients. The ingredients are: sunlight,

carbon dioxide, and water to make sugar. The plant takes in water through the roots and carbon

dioxide through the stomata (little holes at the bottom of the leaves). A byproduct of this

production of food, in the form of sugar, is oxygen.


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Plant Stomata Encyclopedia

Teacher’s Note: For the students who are familiar with chemistry and understand

molecular formulas, you can show them this chemical formula for the reaction of

photosynthesis. But, if students have not learnt chemistry yet, we recommend not

showing them this formula as it might intimidate them.

ight 6CO 6H O H O Ol + 2 + 2 → C6 12 6 + 6 2

Photosynthesis can be split into two parts, light dependent reactions and light independent

reactions. As you can imagine, the light dependent reactions depend on light, while the light

independent reactions do not need light and instead can operate in the dark and light.

Light Dependent Reactions

Light dependent reactions are a part of photosynthesis that requires sunlight to occur. The

reaction requires sunlight and water to produce its products. It takes place in the thylakoid

membrane or the outside coverage of the thylakoid. When sunlight hits the chlorophyll in the

thylakoid, a chain reaction is triggered as electrons are passed from one molecule to another.

Think of it is a domino effect. Once the first molecule of chlorophyll is struck by sunlight,

water is split to create electrons are sent from one molecule to another. The light dependent

reactions result in the formation of ATP, a molecule called NADPH, and oxygen. ATP is an


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important molecule because it able to store energy. NADPH is also able to store energy but not

as much as ATP. The oxygen is released into the environment as a byproduct.

In simple terms, during the light dependent reaction, the light is used to split up up water. In

splitting up water, two energy forms are created which are later used to make sugar. When water

is split up, oxygen is released.

Light Independent Reaction - Calvin Cycle

The light independent reaction is also known as the Calvin cycle and it does not need sunlight to

be available to occur. The Calvin cycle takes place in the stroma of the chloroplast. The Calvin

cycle requires the products of the light dependent reaction (ATP and NADPH) and carbon

dioxide. The cycle results in the production of a sugar molecule, glucose, which is considered to

be the plant’s food.

Teacher’s note: For a more visual description of the Calvin cycle, show your students this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UzMaoaXKaM&vl=en. The actual names of enzymes and

proteins are not important, but it helps to connect the dots between ATP/NADPH and sugar!

Plant Adaptations of Photosynthesis

Certain plants the live in different environments have their own ways to optimize their production

of food. For example, some plants live in dry, hot environments with little rain such as deserts.

Other plants live in environments with too much rain. As a result, each plant species has different

adaptations.

Teacher’s note: Ask the class to brainstorm other adaptations for other animals to help them

connect the dots between evolution and adaptation of organisms. For example, giraffes have

evolved into having long necks to eat leaves at the top of trees no other animal can reach. Or,

think of chameleons which have developed chamoflague to avoid being eaten by predators.

C4 plants and CAM plants are two different adapted plants that have made changes to the typical

process of photosynthesis. C3 plants are plants that that are normal/regular plants.

C4 Plants


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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UzMaoaXKaM&vl=en



C4 plants have their Calvin cycle in a different part of the leaf compared to typical plants.

Sometimes there is a shortage of carbon dioxide in the environment, so the adapted plant must

find a way to “stick” to the carbon dioxide. In regular plants, the Calvin Cycle happens in a certain

cell called the mesophyll cell. For the C4 plant, a carbon intermediate is made in the mesophyll

cell and then shipped to the bundle sheath cell where the Calvin Cycle happens. The reason why

the Calvin Cycle happens in the bundle sheath cell is because it is easier to stick to the carbon

dioxide.

CAM Plants

CAM plants are typically found in deserts and they have the special adaptation of keeping carbon

dioxide in a different form during the day. They do not want to lose too much water in the

daytime. The plants wait until night time to turn the carbon dioxide into sugars, thus conserving

their water during the heat of the day.

Teacher’s note: Remind students that the process of photosynthesis requires water as a reactant

or an ingredient to make a sugar. But, when there is a lot less water in the environment, often

times the plant loses water to the environment when trying to take water in.

Article Teacher’s note: Highlighted information/sentences should be emphasized to students

while reading it as a class or asking students to read independently. Stemnova’s

comments are written in red and are not to be confused with the statement of Hannah

Devlin or The Guardian. This article has effectively shown the bridge between genetics

and photosynthesis.

Plants Modified to Boost Photosynthesis Produce Greater Yields, Study

Shows By Hannah Devlin

Genetically modified (GM) plants (Every organism has genetic material inside of them. Remember, in the earlier lesson, we explained that in eukaryotic cells, the genetic information or DNA is found in the nucleus. In a prokaryotic cell, the DNA is found floating in the cytoplasm. A


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genetically modified organism has its DNA modified to make the organism stronger or more adapted to the environment) designed to use light more efficiently produced a 20% greater yield in a study that could have significant implications for global food supplies.

The field trial, which used tobacco plants, is the first to show that GMtechniques can be used to boost the basic efficiency of photosynthesis, potentially offering substantial gains across almost all food crops in the future. Until now many scientists had doubted this would be possible.

The scientists believe the finding could help meet the global demand for food, which is projected by the UN to rise by 70% by 2050 (this statistic indicates that there is a need for more production of food/plants for the world).

Professor Stephen Long, who led the work at the University of Illinois, said: “We don’t know for certain this approach will work in other crops, but because we’re targeting a universal process that is the same in all crops, we’re pretty sure it will.” (Other genetically engineering tactics target unique characteristics in each organism such as the way they attract bees for pollination or absorb water through the roots. After all, there are different ways to execute such tasks. For example, if I ask two student to complete a project, they would both do it in drastically different ways. So, the genetic engineering targets a process EACH plant does.)

Previously, GM (genetic modified) techniques have been used to produce crops that are pest-resistant, disease-resistant or less sensitive to herbicides, but this is one of the first demonstrations of a crop’s basic efficiency being improved.

Professor Jonathan Jones, who works on GM crops at the Sainsbury Laboratory in Norwich and was not involved in the latest study, said the size of the gains reported were impressive. “That’s not the kind of thing you normally see,” he said.

Long’s team started out by simulating the entire process of photosynthesis, the process that converts sunlight into chemical energy, to identify where potential gains could be made. They decided to target a process that plants use to shield themselves from bright sunlight.

“Crop leaves exposed to full sunlight absorb more light than they can use,” Long said. “If they can’t get rid of this extra energy, it will actually bleach the leaf.”

Chemical changes within the leaf allow the excess energy to be dissipated as heat, in a process called nonphotochemical quenching (NPQ). (Explain to students that NPQ is a process by which plants turn the excess light into heat so that bleaching does not occur). While plants switch on the quenching mechanism almost instantaneously – similar to the way in which the pupil in the human eye contracts in bright light – it takes much longer for it to switch off again.

“When a cloud crosses the sun, or a leaf goes into the shade of another, it can take up to half an hour for that NPQ process to relax,” Long said. “In the shade, the lack of light limits


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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/gm

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/jun/25/gm-wheat-no-more-pest-resistant-than-ordinary-crops-trial-shows

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/apr/02/gm-potato-blight-ireland-famine

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2005/jul/25/gm.food



photosynthesis, and NPQ is also wasting light as heat.” (This is the specific problem. The “half an hour” in which we are losing light as heat).

Computer simulations suggested that the energy wasted after quenching reduces overall crop productivity drastically, by 7.5 to 30%, depending on the plant type and sunlight conditions. The scientists modified three genes with the aim of increasing the levels of three proteins that could help ramp up the efficiency of photosynthesis more quickly after exposure to bright sunlight.

They grew seedlings from multiple experiments and selected the three best strains, based on how they responded to changes in light conditions. These were then grown in several field plots alongside standard tobacco plants.

Two of the GM strains consistently showed 20% higher yields and the third was 14% higher, in terms of the weight of dry leaves harvested. The plants also had bigger leaves, were taller and had heavier roots. (Ask students why they think bigger leaves and heavier roots would increase the amount of sugar/growth for plants.)

The team have now been funded by the Gates Foundation to introduce similar modifications in major food crops, starting with rice, soya bean and cassava.

If a relatively simple gene modification can improve the efficiency of photosynthesis, it might appear surprising that plants have not just evolved this genetic trait by themselves. However, outside agricultural settings, photosynthesis is not the factor that limits plants growth, according to Jones. “Most plants grew in an environment where the limiting factor was nitrogen available, not photosynthesis,” he said.

Questions

1. What is the specific problem scientists are targeting in the plant through genetic

engineering?

The specific problem is that there is a process in the plant which turns excess light into heat to

prevent bleaching. And while it is quick to turn on, it is hard to turn off. Which means during the

time it takes for the process to turn off, there is wasted sunlight that the plant could have used to

perform photosynthesis.

2. Have the experiments of genetic engineering shown signs of success in the plants?

Here are specific statistics/quotes stated by the article:


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● Computer simulations suggested that the energy wasted after quenching reduces overall

crop productivity drastically, by 7.5 to 30%

● Two of the GM strains consistently showed 20% higher yields and the third was 14%

higher, in terms of the weight of dry leaves harvested.

● The plants also had bigger leaves, were taller and had heavier roots.

3. Why is it important that the scientists try to create bigger leaves and heavier roots (as

mentioned by the article)?

Bigger leaves mean more surface area to take in carbon dioxide through. With more carbon

dioxide, there is more of a raw ingredient to make sugar and have plants that grow stronger.

Strong and heavier roots mean roots that are more capable of taking in and absorbing water,

another raw ingredient for a strong plant.


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Lesson 4 Cellular Respiration

Summary

1. Subject(s): Structure and function of the mitochondria; aerobic respiration —

glycolysis, Krebs cycle, electron transport chain; anaerobic respiration — lactic

acid and alcoholic fermentation



4. Objective: Students will learn about cellular respiration and the organelle in which

it takes place

Key Skills: Students should be able to describe a mitochondrion and its structure

and function. Students should also be able to distinguish between aerobic and

anaerobic respiration and the factors associated with both.



Learning Context

Teacher’s Note: It’s important to remind students that while only plants carry out

photosynthesis (because they are producers of food), every organism carries out

respiration in order to break down the food they have already ingested or eaten. Plants,

humans, lions, and bugs all carry out cellular respiration. While plants carry out cellular

respiration to break down the sugar they themselves made, animals carry out cellular

respiration to break down food they caught or bought (in the case of humans).


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Additionally, it is important to remind students that there is a difference between the term

“respiration” and “cellular respiration.” Respiration refers to the bodily process by which

humans and animals take in oxygen and release carbon dioxide through breathing.

Cellular respiration, instead, involves breaking down sugars. It does however require

oxygen so in a sense respiration gets the oxygen needed to start cellular respiration.

Powerpoint

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1zMmYyFzeM4zGznIgeZ1ol1dPMVeebItUFmQHQnh9PAM

/edit?usp=sharing

Lecture Transcript

Cellular Respiration Overview

Cellular respiration is the process of taking food in the form of sugar, glucose, and turning it into

energy, in the form of ATP. The process also uses water and oxygen and produces carbon

dioxide as a byproduct.

Teacher’s Note: Ask students, how is cellular respiration similar to the process of

photosynthesis? Cellular respiration is the opposite of photosynthesis in the sense that

the products of photosynthesis (oxygen and sugar) are the reactants or ingredients

needed to start cellular respiration. In the same way, the reactants of photosynthesis

(energy in the form of light, carbon dioxide, and water) are the products of cellular

respiration (except the energy is not in the form of light but instead allows you to carry out

bodily processes).

Mitochondria

Where Does Cellular Respiration Take Place?


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https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1zMmYyFzeM4zGznIgeZ1ol1dPMVeebItUFmQHQnh9PAM/edit?usp=sharing

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1zMmYyFzeM4zGznIgeZ1ol1dPMVeebItUFmQHQnh9PAM/edit?usp=sharing



Teacher’s Note: Before going into the specifics of what the actual process of cellular

respiration is, you should introduce to students the structure of the mitochondria, the

cellular organelle involved in producing energy. Draw the following structure on the board

to help students to get familiarized with the structure.

Cellular respiration takes place in the mitochondria and cytoplasm of the cell. The mitochondria is

an organelle with two membranes. The inner membrane contains folds called cristae. These folds

increase the amount of surface area of the mitochondria and allow for multiple different

processes to take place at once. The space enclosed by the inner membrane is called the matrix.


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Aerobic Respiration

What is Aerobic Respiration?

Aerobic respiration is the form of cellular respiration that requires oxygen to be present. It uses

oxygen to turn glucose into energy and carbon dioxide. Aerobic indicates that there is a need for

oxygen because in latin, aero- means air (often associated with oxygen). We as humans, along

with other organisms, mainly carry out aerobic respiration. There are other organisms who carry

out anaerobic respiration and we will talk about them later (they are the exception).

1. Glycolysis

Glycolysis is the first step of cellular respiration. It takes place in the cytoplasm of the cell. It

involves breaking down the sugar (mainly glucose) into smaller parts and molecules which can

then later on be broken down to release energy in the form of ATP. Glycolysis actually does not

need oxygen to occur, however, in the presence of oxygen, it will produce two pyruvate

(3-carbon molecules) and four molecules of ATP. These products will be moved into the

mitochondria, to the next step of aerobic respiration.

2. Krebs Cycle

The Krebs cycle takes place in the matrix of the mitochondria or the

space inside the inner membrane. The Krebs cycle, also called the

citric acid cycle, takes the pyruvate and ATP from glycolysis and uses it

to make NADH and FADH2. Remember from the photosynthesis

lesson, NADH is a type of energy intermediate. FADH2 is similar in this

sense in that it is an energy intermediate (it will later be used to turn

into ATP). The Krebs cycle is a series of 8 steps that turns the pyruvate

into NADH and FADH2. These molecules will be sent to the third and

final step of aerobic respiration. In the process of the Krebs cycle,

carbon dioxide gas is released as a waste product.

3. Electron Transport Chain


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The electron transport chain (ETC) takes place along the inner membrane of the mitochondria.

The ETC takes NADH and FADH2 from the Krebs cycle and turns it into the final product of ATP.

The NADH and FADH2 can be turned into less energy forms and in the process, this excess

energy can be used to turn the ATP synthase (making ATP). Wikipedia

Anaerobic Respiration

What is Anaerobic Respiration?

Anaerobic respiration is cellular respiration that takes place without oxygen. It occurs in some

bacteria cells. It also occurs in our cells and our bodies when we do not have enough oxygen at

the time.

Lactic Acid Fermentation

Our bodies will undergo lactic acid fermentation if there is not enough oxygen present. In lactic

acid fermentation, the product of glycolysis is not pyruvate, rather it is lactic acid. This process

can create a net production of 2 molecules of ATP for the body to use. However, the lactic acid

will build up within the cell.

Teacher’s Note: While lactic acid fermentation creates energy in the form of 2 ATP

molecules, compared to actual cellular respiration which produces 36 ATP molecules, it is

not energy efficient. This is because it does not have the oxygen needed for the electron

transport chain, so the pyruvate will not be broken down.

When you run, you often feel your legs burning. The burning sensation comes from lactic acid

fermentation, what you’re feeling is the lactic acid being built up within your muscles.

Alcoholic Fermentation

Yeast is a type of bacteria that undergoes alcoholic fermentation. This type of fermentation is the

reason for how bread rises when you add yeast to it. Alcoholic fermentation produces ethanol

and carbon dioxide; ethanol is the alcohol. Carbon dioxide is what allows bread to rise.


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Photosynthesis and Cellular Respiration Connection

Teacher’s Note: Draw this diagram on the board to connect photosynthesis and

respiration and explain why the processes are often called opposite reactions.


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Lesson 5 The Cell Cycle

Summary

1. Subject(s): cell cycle and its phases, including cell division; regulation of the cell cycle;

cancer cells and cyclin and CDK



4. Objective: Students will learn about the cell cycle and its different phases. They will also

learn about what happens when the cell cycle fails to operate properly.

Key Skills: Students should be able to explain the cell cycle and its phases, including

mitosis and cell division. Students should also be able to articulate what will happen when

the cycle fails to regulate itself and how cancer forms.


Powerpoint

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1210ucfm6Cuk1WB0E3Qzt8aDFjHEAgDY5Eg42Xe-5qjY

Lecture Transcript

Cell Cycle

What is the Cell Cycle?


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https://drive.google.com/open?id=1210ucfm6Cuk1WB0E3Qzt8aDFjHEAgDY5Eg42Xe-5qjY


Have you ever gotten a cut before? And then days later, you notice a scab forming over and finally, it is

good as new! Somehow, new cells appeared over the cut to heal. Where do these new cells come from?

These cells come from a process known as the cell cycle.

The cell cycle is essentially the life of a cell. It is a series of events that eventually lead up to the cell

reproducing by splitting into two identical cells. The only way living things can grow bigger is if they have

cell division and the cell cycle. Otherwise, if we have one cell that grows bigger and bigger, this would

create an ineffective and inefficient system of getting in nutrients and disposing of waste. The cycle is

split up into three main phases — interphase, mitosis, and cytokinesis.

Interphase

Interphase is the time of which the cell will grow and develop. It’s the time from when a new cell forms to

when that cell is ready to go through mitosis to produce new cells.

Interphase is further divided into three phases — , S, and .G1 G2

In the phase, the cell grows and develops. Think of representing growth 1 or the first phase ofG1 G1

growth. This is the time when the cell does its job, whatever it was meant to do. For example, a muscle

cell at phase will go through cellular respiration and create ATP.G1

The next phase is the S phase. During the S phase, the cell begins to prepare for cell division and will

replicate all of its DNA. The cell must replicate all of its DNA to create two copies such that there is the

same amount of DNA in each of the cells after they split into two.

Teacher’s Note: The process of cellular replication is complicated and should be taught to students who

in the upper age ranges. However, a simplified explanation using the image below can also be taught to

all age ranges of students. When teaching this process, draw the following diagram on the board and

draw the steps of replication to simplify the process.

First Step: The DNA strands should be separated from one another from a protein enzyme called:

helicase. While the name is unimportant, just now an enzyme breaks the strands apart. The enzyme

breaks all of the hydrogen bonds between the different bases so that the two strands can separate from

one another.


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Leaving Certificate Biology

Second Step: DNA polymerase, another enzyme, matches up the strand with the corresponding DNA

bases.

Teacher’s Note: Ask students to write the corresponding string of bases for both the left and right-hand

strands (for the left-hand strand, it would be: C-T-T-G-T-A, for the right-hand strand, it would be:

G-A-A-C-A-T). Guide students to what should be a revelation: the two new created strands are the exact

same to the parent strand. This is the process of DNA replication.

The last phase is , where the cell will undergo more growth and prepare further for division. TheseG2

are the final stages of preparation before the cell is ready to divide. This involves creating specific

organelles and microtubules necessary for the division of the cell.

Mitotic Phase

The mitotic phase is when the cell goes from a single cell, with one nucleus, to two conjoined cells each

with their own nucleus. However, the products of mitosis, the two daughter cells, are identical to that of

the parent cell. This means that the stomach cell daughter cell will be exactly identical to the parent

stomach cell.


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Teacher’s Note: Remind students that this process of cellular division can be a blessing and a curse.

Imagine if there is a cell in the body with a specific mutation. Because of cellular division, all of the cells

in the body would have that specific mutation or problem in the DNA. This means that the body as a

whole is unable to function properly.

Mitosis has a total of four steps that results in two identical daughter cells.

Teacher’s Note: Draw the following diagram on the board to explain to students how the cell is broken

into two identical cells.

Wikipedia

In summary, the DNA coils up from its chromatin form to become into condensed chromosome form. All

of the chromosomes line up at the center of the cell’s equator or metaphase plate. Then they are

separated from one another and moved to opposite sides of the cell in order to form two distinct cells.

Cytokinetic Phase

The last stage of mitosis occurs at around the same time as cytokinesis. Cytokinesis is the splitting of the

cell, when the two conjoined cells will separate into two separate cells.

In animal cells, cytokinesis occurs with a cleavage furrow, when the cell membrane will begin to pinch

around the middle and splits the cells. In plant cells, cytokinesis occurs with the growth of a cell plate

which is part of the cell wall. It will grow between the two nuclei and separate them, eventually causing

the single cell to become two individual cells.

Think of this process as creating a barrier around each of the new cells as a way to mark them as finally

an individual, completed daughter cell. Because animals do not have cell walls, the process of

cytokinesis is easier through the formation of a cleavage furrow. However, the plant cell has a cell wall


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and thus it takes more time for the wall to form around each daughter cell. Observe the following image

to see the difference between the cleavage furrow and the plant cell plate.

Dev.biologists.com (Cleavage Furrow) Visual’s Unlimited (Cell Plate)

Regulating the Cell Cycle

The cell cycle is complicated and must be regulated to ensure that the cell produces the correct

daughter cells. There are several different ways of regulating the cell cycle to ensure that it occurs

correctly and without any disruptions.

PhaseG0

phase is a resting phase. When the cell realizes that something within the cell cycle has gone wrong,G0

it automatically goes into phase. In phase, the cell does not divide and it will not create anyG0 G0

daughter cells. Think of the resting phase as the sidelines/bench of when a player is playing a sport. If

the player is injured, the coach will call for the player to be removed from the game and then put onto

the sideline bench until they feel ready enough to play again. Some cells spend most of their lives in G0

phase, especially cells that do not divide, such as liver cells.


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Cyclins and CDK

Cyclins and CDK are two types of regulatory molecules that help with keeping the cell cycle running

smoothly. These two molecules will detect the phase of which a cell is in and ensure that it is in the

proper phase and doing the correct things in that phase.

If the molecules recognize a mistake or an error in the cell cycle, they will force the cell into phase inG0

order to keep it from producing the wrong daughter cells. Think of them as the coach who puts the

player onto the field if they notice an error or that the player is not well enough to play.

Cancer

Unfortunately, even with these regulators, there are still mistakes that occur in the cell cycle that go

unnoticed. Sometimes these mistakes are extremely dangerous and can cause cancer. Cancer is a

problem in which there is uncontrolled cell growth, often because of mutations (or changes in the DNA)

of organisms. In humans, a defect in the p53 gene is often associated with an increased level of cancer

because they can manipulate with the growth regulators.

How Does Cancer Form?

Cancer forms when a cell begins to multiple uncontrollably, forming a tumor. Sometimes tumors can be

harmless and will simply be removed from the body through surgery or otherwise. However, sometimes,

the tumors can be extremely dangerous and will require a lot of treatment.

Teacher’s Note: Have students watch the following video about the mechanism of cancer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?annotation_id=annotation_385640765&feature=iv&src_vid=f-ldPgEfAHI

&v=lpAa4TWjHQ4


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https://www.youtube.com/watch?annotation_id=annotation_385640765&feature=iv&src_vid=f-ldPgEfAHI&v=lpAa4TWjHQ4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?annotation_id=annotation_385640765&feature=iv&src_vid=f-ldPgEfAHI&v=lpAa4TWjHQ4


Supplemental Lesson 5a Cancer and Biomarkers

Summary

1. Subject(s): cancer cells and cyclin and CDK; cancer therapy; immunotherapy and

chemotherapy



4. Objective: Students will learn about the current research practices of cancer therapy.

They will also learn about other mechanisms that are still in the beta/testing stage.

Key Skills: Students will be able to understand research and scientific diction as well as

apply what they have learnt the past 5 lessons to real-world research.


Biomarkers

Biomarkers are short for biological markers. Every organism’s cells have markers on them or unique

biological tags that can identify them. Think of them as the luggage tag you place on your suitcase with

your identification on it. By looking at that tag, you can understand what kind of luggage it is as well as

who the luggage belongs to. In the same sense, biomarkers are molecules that help signal whether or

not the cell is abnormal, normal, or even belongs to the body in the first place.

Teacher’s Note: Draw the following diagram on the board to explain to students what biomarkers

are:


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Biomarkers can be DNA, RNA, proteins, and hormones. They are produced by both healthy and

unhealthy cells. While biomarkers are most studied in relation to cancer therapy, there are

particular biomarkers for all sorts of diseases: from neurodegenerative diseases to cardiovascular

diseases. These biomarkers are unique to certain diseases and the appearance of specific

biomarkers can help create therapy options that are unique to the specific patient, not just the

idea of the disease. Biomarkers are not the same thing as an individual’s genes. Instead these

biomarkers are basically little tags for the tumors to help scientists and doctors know more about

the characteristics of the bad guys in your body (rather than your body itself)!

Biomarkers are most studied in relation to cancer. Here is one example of a common biomarker:

HER2. HER2 is used to monitor cell growth similar to how CDK and cyclin helps to control the cell

cycle. But sometimes, your body might make too much of HER2. If there is too much of it, that

means that more cells are made than usual, allowing the cell growth to become rapid and

uncontrollable and often end up as a tumor. In this sense, HER2 is a biomarker. If scientists and

doctors can prescribe treatment that targets the HER2 pathway if the patient shows too much of

the biomarker, then this treatment would uniquely help them.


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Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News

In the past, cancer therapy has been generalized to cancer and not the actual patient. Using the

novel approach of biomarkers, scientists are able to create therapies unique to the patient itself.

Using biomarkers, scientists know what specific cells not to target. For example, if you know all of

the villains or bad guys have a specific tags on them. Instead of setting off an alarm that catches

all of the people good and bad, you can specifically target the bad guys only. This is how

biomarkers have helped guide the new research methods for cancer and other diseases.

For example, biomarkers have been linked with virotherapy. Virotherapy is a type of therapy that

uses viruses and genetically modifies them to be good and beneficial biological agents, instead

of carrying disease-causing DNA/RNA. By genetically engineering viruses to target cells with

cancer biomarkers, these viruses can then kill those specific cells.


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Lesson 6 Genetics

Summary

1. Subject(s): DNA, genes, chromosomes, genetic inheritance and heredity



4. Objective: Students will learn the basics of genetics, including DNA, genes,

chromosomes, and heredity.

Key Skills: Students should be able to explain the basics of genetics.


Powerpoint

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1x083g1f-rMX55eD05kJ-EveB2nQboJabRa4PKxJCMy8

Lecture Transcript

Introduction to Genetics

Genetics is a field of biology that studies how traits are passed from parents to their offspring. The passing of traits from parents to offspring is known as heredity, therefore, genetics is the study of heredity. In simple terms, genetics is the study of how you inherited your dad’s hair color or how you inherited your mom’s ear lobes.

Genetics is built around molecules called DNA. DNA molecules hold all the genetic information for an organism. It provides cells with the information they need to perform tasks that allow an


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https://drive.google.com/open?id=1x083g1f-rMX55eD05kJ-EveB2nQboJabRa4PKxJCMy8



organism to grow, survive and reproduce. A gene is one particular section of a DNA molecule that tells a cell to perform one specific task.

U.S. National Library of Medicine

Heredity is what makes children look like their parents. During reproduction, DNA is replicated and passed from a parent to their offspring. This inheritance of genetic material by offspring influences the appearance and behavior of the offspring. The environment that an organism lives in can also influence how genes are expressed.

DNA

DNA is the cornerstone of genetics and is the perfect place to start for an introduction to genetics. DNA stands for deoxyribonucleic acid and it is the molecule that holds the genetic information for a cell and an organism.

A DNA molecule contains a code that can be used by a cell to express certain genes. Specific sections of a DNA molecule provides the information to build specific proteins which can then be used by a cell to express the desired gene.


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https://www.basicbiology.net/micro/genetics/dna/

https://www.basicbiology.net/micro/biochemistry/protein/



DNA molecules are replicated during cell division. When a cell divides, the two new cells contain all the same DNA that the original cell had.

Teacher’s Note: Students should be familiar with the process of DNA replication. Review

the process by having students draw the mechanism on the board or have a quick class

discussion about it.

In sexual reproduction with two parents, half of the DNA of the offspring is provided by each of the parents. The genetic material of a child is made from 50% of their mother’s DNA and 50% their father’s DNA. This is because we inherit one chromosome from the mother and one chromosome from the father to create a chromosome pair. There are 23 pairs of chromosomes or 46 chromosomes in all (23 from our mom and 23 from our dad).

Genes

A gene is a specific segment of a DNA molecule that holds the information for one specific protein. DNA molecules have a unique code for each gene which codes for their specific protein. Some organisms can have more than 100,000 different genes so they will have 100,000 unique sequences of DNA ‘code’.

Genes are the basic unit of heredity. The genes of an individual are determined by their parent or parents. A bacteria that is born by one parent cell splitting into two cells and has the exact same genes as their one parent cell.

A human, on the other hand, has two copies of each gene – one set from their mother and a second set from their father. Different forms of the same gene are called alleles. For each gene, a human can have two different alleles or two of the same alleles – one from each parent.

For example, if the gene codes for hair color. One allele could be for blonde hair, the other for brown hair, and the other for green hair! Of course, it is not as simple as that. Let’s say for example, we inherit an allele for blue hair and red hair? Do we end up having purple hair? Sometimes but most of the time, no. The allele can be dominant or recessive. If the allele is dominant that means that no matter what it will be expressed. In this case, if the red hair allele is dominant, no matter what, if I inherit the red hair allele, I will have red hair. The recessive allele is


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one that is only expressed if there is NO dominant allele. So, in this case, if the blue hair is recessive, the only way I can have blue hair is if I inherit a blue hair allele from my mom and a blue hair allele from my dad.

Physical traits such as eye color or height are often determined by the combination of multiple genes. The environment an individual lives in also impacts how genes are expressed.

Chromosomes

A chromosome is a structure made from tightly packed strands of DNA and proteins called histones. Strands of DNA are tightly wrapped around the histone proteins and form into long worm-shaped structures called ‘chromatids’. Two chromatids join together to form a chromosome.

Chromosomes are formed in the nucleus of a cell when a cell is dividing. It is possible to see chromosomes under an ordinary light microscope if the cell is in the right stage of cell division.

The number of chromosomes varies between species. Humans have 46 chromosomes. Some species can have many more than 100 chromosomes while others can have as little as two.

Genetic Inheritance

Inheritance is the backbone of genetics and is an important topic to cover in an introduction to genetics. Long before DNA had been discovered and the word ‘genetics’ had been invented, people were studying the inheritance of traits from one generation to the next.

Genetic inheritance occurs both in sexual reproduction and asexual reproduction. In sexual reproduction, two organisms contribute DNA to produce a new organism. In asexual reproduction, one organism provides all the DNA and produces a clone of themselves. In either, genetic material is passed from one generation to the next.


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Experiments performed by a monk named Gregor Mendel provided the foundations of our current understanding of how genetic material is passed from parents to their offspring.

Activity

Engineer an Animal

For this game, have the class work together to create a new organism.

Read this prompt aloud: You are a group of scientists at the AnimCorps Lab (purely fictional). You are ordered to create a new organism to register in the international log of organisms. To ensure that this organism is purely unique, you must randomly select traits and register them in the following table.

Draw the table on the board:

Characteristic Description

Hair

Nose

Feet

Body shape

Wings

Neck

Fur

Scales

Horns


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Cut the following page into little slips. After doing so, place the slips (of the same characteristic category) in a little container. Both of the hair slips should be in the container at the same time. Then draw the slips one by one. The first slip you draw is dominant, while the second slip you draw is recessive. If for example, you draw the red hair slip first and the green hair slip last, the red hair allele would be dominant, while the green hair recessive.

Mark the different characteristics of the organism (the dominant allele as only that will be expressed) in the table to create an organism. Name the organism and draw it on the board!

YELLOW HAIR

GREEN HAIR

TRIANGLE NOSE

CIRCLE NOSE

WEBBED FEET

TWO-TOED FEET

OVALULAR BODY

SPHERICAL BODY

WINGS

NO WINGS

BLOCK SHORT NECK

LONG NECK


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LONG FUR

SHORT FUR

NO SCALES

SCALES

THREE HORNS

MANY HORNS ALONG THE SPINE


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EPIDEMIOLOGYThe following section is for Epidemiology or the study of diseases. Students will be exposed to the different types of diseases, the biological and environmental causes of epidemics, the functions of the immune system, statistical measures scientists use themselves to analyze epidemics, and current experimental solutions to some of the world’s biggest diseases. Not only will students be able to intertwine math and biology into one subject, they will also be able to better understand the world around them.

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Lesson 1 Introduction to Epidemiology

Summary

1. Subject(s): Types of epidemiology and types of studies performed in fields of

epidemiology

2. Topic or Unit of Study: Epidemiology


4. Objective: Students will learn about the field of epidemiology, including the types of

studies that are performed.

Key Skills: Students should be able to briefly explain about the topic of epidemiology.



Learning Context

Pathogens: infectious agent such as a virus, bacteria, protozoa, prion, a fungus, or other

microorganism (organism that causes diseases)

Incidence: number of new cases during specific period time

Prevalence: number of cases at any specific time frame or point in time

Powerpoint

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=sharing



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Lecture Transcript

Teaching Note: This lesson is very important to establishing a basic understanding of how studies

and experiments are conducted, as well as teaching students about the different elements that

are studied as part of epidemiology. Because the lesson will have new vocabulary, make sure to

go slowly and share the analogies listed in the document.

Slide 3: What is the definition of Epidemiology?

As according to the Center of Disease Control and Prevention, the United States’s Governmental

Organization in charge of dealing with disease outbreaks, the definition of epidemiology is “the study of

the distribution and determinants of health-related states and events in specified populations.” When we

break this down, distribution means the frequency and pattern of the disease. Frequency means how

often populations or people experience the disease and pattern can refer to the people, time, place of

the disease. Determinants are known as the causes and factors that relate to the disease itself.

Health-related states and events are more commonly understood as states of disorder or diseases.

Ask students: Why do you think epidemiologists call disorders, health-related states and events, rather

than diseases? The answer is that often times we think diseases are when individuals are suffering from

a physical illness or are feeling very ill. Instead, diseases and disorders are when people’s state of being

is not healthy. It does not need to be extreme or caused by a physical factor.

Ask students: What are some examples of health-related states and events that are not caused by or

have physical symptoms? Examples include depression where people are very sad for long periods of

time and often lose the will to live or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. This disorder is often associated

with war soldiers who have had traumatic experiences, so when they come home from the war, they

have high levels of anxiety and terror because of these horrible memories.

Slide 4: Simplifying Definition of Epidemiology

A simpler definition of epidemiology is the study and analysis of health and disease.

Slide 5: Types of Epidemiology



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Epidemiology can be classified into many types. The main difference between all of these types is what

data is being collected and the application of this data to solving/preventing similar outbreaks in the

future.

Slide 6: Types of Epidemiology

Classical Epidemiology - population oriented, studies community origins of health problems related to

nutrition, environment, human behavior, and the psychological, social, and spiritual state of a population.

This is the most common approach to epidemiology because it involves scientists looking at populations

to determine why certain diseases arose and spread within the population.

Share this example: The H1N1 flu or swine flu has broken out in the town Pigville (swine is another word

for pig). Epidemiologists use classical epidemiology to understand why the flu spread from 1 person to 48

people and to compare the characteristics of each person infected. They identified a pattern or

distribution of swine flu in which very young or very old people in the population had swine flu.

Slide 7: Clinical Epidemiology

Clinical Epidemiology - studies patients in health care settings in order to improve the diagnosis and

treatment of various diseases and the prognosis for patients already affected by a disease. In other

words, after scientists collect information about the disease in the population, they can use this

information to create medicines and solutions for the disease.

Share with students: The definition of prognosis is the likely course or pathway of a disease illness and

ailment.

Slide 8: Descriptive Epidemiology

Descriptive Epidemiology is used to create a hypothesis of what could have caused the disease based

on researching about the who, when, where of the outbreak or analyzing the person, time, place.

Slide 9: Analytical Epidemiology

Analytical Epidemiology is used to test out hypothesis using experimental or observational studies. This

is because it involves looking at the what or why of the disease.

Share this with students: An easy way of remembering the difference between Descriptive and

Analytical Epidemiology is that description involves details, while analytical means analyzing. Thus the



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details of the outbreak include who, when, and where. But, by analyzing the details of the outbreak, we

can determine the what and why of the outbreak.

Slide 10: Types of Studies in Epidemiology

In order to collect data about diseases and disorders, we must carry out studies or experiments. There

are a lot of different studies scientists can perform and sometimes, if epidemiologists (scientists who

study epidemiology) want to find a solution to the disease, they can use experiments.

Slide 11: Ecological Study

Ecological - study of the interactions between environment and pathogen and host. As one can see in

the slide, the image of the mosquito represents an ecological study because it measures the interactions

between the host of mosquitos and the parasite of the Plasmodium bacterium.

Slide 12: Cross Sectional Study

Cross Sectional - a survey, health questionnaire, "snapshot in time". Cross sectional studies are focused

on prevalence or how many people have a disorder rather than then the time in which they got the

disorder. It is a known measure of descriptive epidemiology rather than analytical epidemiology.

Ask students: why would a cross-sectional study, such as a survey about diets and heart attacks, be a

measure of descriptive epidemiology rather than analytical epidemiology? Descriptive epidemiology

focuses on the who, where, and when rather than establishing a cause of the disease which is often

through analytical epidemiology. The survey would help us find more information about the types of

people who have heart disease but it would not be able to confirm the cause of the heart disease.

Slide 13: Case Control Study

Case-Control - compare people with and without disease to find common exposures or causes. For

example, if you want to identify the cause of a bad stomach illness going throughout the school, you

would find a sample group of people. Then, you would split them up into a group of people who has the

stomach illness and the other group is made of people who do not have the stomach illness.

Ask students: Who is the control group and who is the case group in this instance? The control group is

always the group without the disease, so in this case is the group of people without the stomach illness.

The case group is the group with the disease or the group of people with the stomach illness.



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After splitting them up, you would interview each person in each group to figure out what could have

caused the stomach illness. You can then identify a common cause by comparing answers to find a

pattern. For example, if a lot of people with the stomach illness ate some spoiled vegetables sold in the

cafeteria, we can infer that the spoiled vegetables was the cause of the stomach illness.

Slide 14: Cohort Study

Cohort - compare people with and without exposures to see what happens to each. By splitting up the

group into a group of people who have been exposed to the pathogen (for example, have eaten the

spoiled vegetables) and a group of people who have not been exposed, scientists can track the two

different groups over time. If the group with the higher exposure had more people the disease than the

group with no exposure, then scientists can say the pathogen caused the disease.

Share this analogy: The pathogen is a mosquito. A group of 50 students who have just returned from

the camping trip are split into two groups. One group is those with mosquito bites (exposed to

mosquitos) and the other group is those without mosquito bites (unexposed to mosquitos). The students

are tracked by the school’s epidemiologist who finds that out of the exposed group of 25 students, 10 of

them developed malaria-symptoms. However, in the unexposed group, only 1 student developed

malaria. Thus, the epidemiologist concluded that the mosquito was the cause of the disease and was

carrying malaria.

Slide 15: Experiment

In studies, scientists do not actively try to change anything. Instead, they collect data and make

observations. In the case of the experiments, scientists give one group with the disease a possible

treatment. This group is the experimental group. The other group with the disease does not receive

treatment and is known as the control group. They are used as a comparison to the experimental group.

While the other studies we talked about before are mainly about finding out a cause for the

disorder/disease, experiments are about finding medicine and treatment that work.

Slide 16: Characteristics of a Good Experiment

Blind: The participants do not know which group they are in. This way they are not subconsciously forced

to act in a certain way, according to their group. For example, if you were placed in the experimental

group and was aware that the experimental group would receive a drug that caused increased stomach

pain, you might be more likely to report stomach pain.



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Double Blind: The researcher does not know which group the participants are in. Instead, a third-party,

unbiased person or group conducts the experiment and gives the data to the researcher. This ensures

that the researcher does not prime the participants into acting a certain way.

Prime means to influence.

Randomized: This means that placement of people into a control or experimental group is random.

Placebo: The control group will receive a placebo. For example, if the experimental group is getting a pill

to alleviate stomach aches, the control group will receive a pill that does nothing except give the

impression to the control group that it is doing something. This makes sure that the results are because

of the experiment itself and not because of the feeling the solution has towards the experimental group.

Activity

Experimental and Study Design

Teacher’s Note: The following activity will allow students to apply their knowledge of experiments

and types of studies into an actual scenario. In this process, students will be able to work with

groups of other children as well as present in front of the class. Often times, students learn better

from other students, and this ensures that students understand the information from all

perspectives.

1. Split students up into groups of 3-4

2. Assign each group a type of study from the following (Preferably make it a secret so each

group has to guess what the other group has been assigned): Case-Control, Cohort,

Experiment, Cross-Sectional (It is okay for more than one group to have the same type of

study)

3. Read to the students the following prompt or write the prompt on the board:

Teacher’s Note: You can custom-tailor the prompt to be more interesting to the students you are

teaching. In the classrooms Stemnova has taught in, most students find the following prompt

engaging. If you would like to use a more challenging prompt, please refer to Prompt #2.



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Prompt #1: In the fictional school of Hogwarts, Professor Albus Dumbledore notices students are

increasingly more sleepy after the Hogsmeade Season starts. During this season, students go to

the neighboring town, where many students drink Butterbeer, a non-alcoholic sugary drink.

Dumbledore begins to wonder if the Butterbeer has an effect on student’s academic

performance or drowsiness. He asks top student, Hermione Granger, to devise a set of

experiments to answer the question: Does Butterbeer cause low academic performance in

students?

Prompt #2: Botulism has become more prevalent in the town of Diseasneyland. The symptoms

of this disease include drooping eyelids, double vision, difficulty swallowing, and respiratory

problems. Epidemiologists suspect a recently opened restaurant, Stemnova Cafe, in the center

of the town is responsible for the outbreak. However, they must carry out studies before they

request for the restaurant to be shut down. Their studies are set to answer the question: Is the

recently-opened restaurant responsible for the increased prevalence of botulism?

4. Give students 15 to 20 minutes to develop their ideas and write down how they plan to

carry out the study.

Teacher’s Note: Go around to each group while they are preparing their ideas to ensure that they

are on the right track. For students who are stuck (especially for cross-sectional), prompt them

with questions like, “What do cross-sectional studies measure?” and “Based on what they usually

measure, what would they be designed to measure in this scenario?”

5. One by one, have the groups come up in front of the class to talk about their study. Have

students guess which type of study that group was instructed to design.

6. Ask students about the strengths and weaknesses of the study and any improvements

they might have.



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Lesson 2 Types of Epidemics

Summary

1. Subject(s): Types of epidemics and how to read Epi Curves



4. Objective: Students will learn about the different types of epidemics and how to read Epi

Curves.

Key Skills: Students should be able to read an Epi Curve.



Learning Context

Teacher Note: Start the lecture by having students talk about what pathogens are. Because

epidemics are caused by pathogens, it is important that the students understand what pathogens

are in the first place. After a discussion with the students, give them the formal definition.

Pathogen: infectious agent such as a virus, bacteria, protozoa, prion, a fungus, or other microorganism

(organism that causes diseases)

Powerpoint

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Lecture Transcript

Slide 3: What is an epidemic?

An epidemic is when a large number of people over a wide geographical area are affected by the same

disease or sickness. Additionally, the number of people affected by the sickness is more than usual. The

usual number of people who are affected by the disease is For example, even if 100 individuals in the

community have the flu in December, we cannot say it is an epidemic unless we are able to compare this

number to the usual amount of people who have the flu in the community. After more data collection, we

find out that usually only 15 people in the community have the flu in December, then we can say that

there is a flu epidemic occurring. Another example is when 500 individuals in the community have

malaria. However, the usual number of people who have malaria in the community is 496. Thus, this

cannot be classified as a malaria outbreak because there is not a significant increase in the number of

cases. Diseases that are very common, in this case: malaria, are known referred to as endemic to the

area.

Epidemics are not just used to describe contagious diseases or diseases that spread from person to

person. Instead, epidemics can be used to describe all types of diseases. Recall from Lesson 1, the

Center for Disease Control and Prevention defined disease as being anything that causes a person to

not be healthy. In the United States, increased numbers of people are dying from overdosing on opioids,

a prescription drug given to them by their doctors. These opioids are painkillers, but taking too many of

them can cause addiction and oddly enough, more pain. Thus, an opioid epidemic has been declared in

America. On the other hand, contagious diseases can also be referred to as epidemics.

Ask students: Why would contagious diseases be more likely to be epidemics than noncontagious

diseases? Contagious diseases spread from person to person. This means that the number of people

who have the disease increase rapidly, causing a large amount of people to suffer from the disease.

Noncontagious diseases do not spread from person to person, so it is harder for a larger amount of

people to have the disease.

Slide 4: How are Epidemics Caused Part 1



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Because an epidemic is when more people have a disease than normally, there must be a reason why

the prevalence and incidence of the disease has increased.

Concept Check: Ask students what is the difference between incidence and prevalence? Incidence is

the number of new cases that have occurred during a timeframe, while prevalence is the total number of

cases regardless of the time.

The first cause behind epidemics is an increased amount of pathogens. Haemophilus influenzae is the

one of the many bacteria that causes the flu. If more of the Haemophilus influenzae bacteria become

present in the community, then of course more people are going to become sick with the flu, causing an

epidemic.

The second cause is when the pathogen is introduced into a new environment altogether. In the image,

you can see the Haemophilus influenzae bacteria was once in India (The Taj Mahal) but now has moved

to China (Great Wall of China). China will now experience a flu epidemic because some of the population

will be exposed to the bacteria for the first time and will contract the flu.

Slide 5: How are Epidemics Caused Part 2

The final causes of Epidemics involve people who contract the disease themselves. If people have an

increased susceptibility (vulnerable or likely to contract the disease) to the disease, then it is more likely

that their body’s immune system will not be able to fight off the pathogen. Then, the individual will

contract the disease.

Share this analogy with students: Imagine a beautiful house with a garden. After a terrible storm, the

side window of the house is broken. We can call this an increased susceptibility because now the house

is more likely to be broken into by the burglar bacteria. Ask students to relate analogy to people. If the

population has a weaker immune system or a person has an increased vulnerability to the disease, then

it is more likely that they and other people in the population will contract the disease.

Slide 7: Types of Epidemics and Epi Curves

An epi-curve is a histogram that shows the course of an outbreak by plotting the number of cases of a

condition according to the time of onset.



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Slide 8: Types of Epidemics - Breakdown

There are two main types of epidemics and their respective Epi Curves. Common Source Epidemics can

be broken up into Point Source Epidemic and Continuous Common Source Epidemic. The other

classification of Epidemics is Propagated Epidemics.

Slide 9: Common Source Epidemics

Common Source epidemics are those in which people are exposed to the same pathogen or cause.

Thus, it is a common source. For example, if raw meat is served at a picnic and most of the attendees

develop salmonella, the type of epidemic would be common source. Often times, common source

epidemics are food related epidemics and involve diseases that are not contagious. There are two types

of common source epidemics.

Slide 10/11: Point Source Epidemics

Point source epidemics occur when people are exposed to the same exposure over a limited, well

define period of time. The shape of the curve commonly rises rapidly and contains a definite peak,

followed by a gradual decline.

Slide 12/13: Continuous Common Source Epidemics

Continuous common source epidemics occur when the exposure to the source is prolonged over an

extended period of time and may occur over more than one incubation period. The down slope of the

curve may be very sharp if the common source is removed. If the common source is not removed, then

the outbreak may continue to increase or decrease gradually once the outbreak exhausts itself.

Slide 14: Characteristics of Common Source Epidemics, Epi-Curve

Teaching Note: Draw the following diagrams and have students identify what type of epi-curve

you have drawn. When they answer, have them explain the reasons behind their answer (ideally,

relating to the characteristics on the slide).



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Slide 14



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The first one is point source because it has a steep increase then a gradual decline in the number

of cases indicating that people developed the disease from a source at one point of time. The

second case is a common continuous source epidemic because the number of cases do not

decrease suddenly and instead gradually slope off after a long period of time. There are also

successive large peaks meaning that people are continuing to develop the disease because of

continued exposure.

Slide 15/16: Propagated Epidemics

Propagated (progressive source) epidemics occur when a case of disease serves later as a source of

infection for subsequent cases and those subsequent cases, in turn, serve as sources for later cases.

The shape of this curve usually contains a series of successively larger peaks, reflective of the increasing

number of cases caused by person-to-person contact, until the pool of those susceptible is exhausted or

control measures are implemented.

Slide 16/17: Drawing Epi-Curves

The first step is to draw and label the axis with appropriate units. The x-axis represents time so the units should be days, weeks, or months. The y-axis represents the number of cases of the diseases. After establishing the axis, plot the points in the coordinate form of (Time, number of cases) on the graph. Draw the bar up to the point and shade in. After drawing the bar for each point in time, identify the trend in the Epi-Curve and determine what type of Epidemic it is.



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Activity

Materials & Resources

Teaching Note: To reinforce the skills of drawing epi-curves and recognizing trends, give

students the following data points and ask them to construct an epi-curve. Then, have them

identify the type of epidemic using keywords, incubation period, time duration of epidemic,

successive peaks, and slope.

Time Jan. 2 Jan. 9 Jan. 16 Jan. 23 Jan. 30 Feb. 6

Cases 2 3 9 12 23 11

Time Feb. 13 Feb. 20 Feb. 27 Mar. 6 Mar. 13 Mar. 20

Cases 7 4 1 0 0 7

Time Mar. 27 Apr. 2 Apr. 9 Apr. 16 Apr. 23 Apr. 30

Cases 15 22 18 10 7 3



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The epi-curve when graphed should resemble the graph below. Make sure students label the

axes with appropriate units and include a title. The epi-curve resembles the trend of the

propagated epidemic because of: 1) increasingly larger successive peaks (the peak number of

cases in the first set of outbreaks is less than the peak number of cases in the second set of

outbreaks), 2) gaps between each peak. These gaps indicate the time taken for the disease to

spread from one group of people to another.



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Lesson 3 Spectrum of Disease

Summary

1. Subject(s): Etiology, pathogens, and environmental and societal causes of

diseases



4. Objective: Students will learn about the causes of diseases.

Key Skills: Students should be able to explain the causes of diseases.



Learning Context

Genes: information we inherit from our parents that controls all of our traits including hair

color, the shape of our ears, and whether or not we may have some genetic diseases

Powerpoint

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edit?usp=sharing



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Lecture Transcript

Slide 2: What is Etiology?

In epidemiology, etiology refers to the study of the causes of diseases. It also can simply mean

cost. For example, I can say the etiology of the rash on my hand is poison oak (The cause of the

rash on my hand is poison oak).

Slide 3: Etiology continued

Scientists determine etiology of diseases by using experiments and studies. Remember that in

the first lesson, we talked about the various types of studies that scientists use to determine what

the cause of the disease was.

Ask students: what are some examples of studies you remember? Cohort studies are when you

divide a group of people by whether or not they are exposed to a certain pathogen. Then, you

track them over time to see whether they develop the disease. Case-control studies are when

you divide a group of people by those who are sick and those who are not. By asking the sick

people about why they may be sick, you can determine common causes.

There are different types of factors that cause etiology. A predisposing factor is a factor that you

cannot control. For example, your age, gender, and genes (refer to vocabulary section) are all

things you cannot control. But these qualities may increase your risk of contracting a disease. For

example, girls are more likely than boys to develop breast cancer. Thus, gender would be a

predisposing factor of breast cancer. A precipitating factor, however, is more in your control

because it involves being exposed to the pathogen in the first place. For example, if you have

been bitten by a mosquito which carries the pathogen for malaria, Plasmodium, then you are

likely to contract malaria. This is a precipitating factor.

Teaching Note: If students are still confused about the difference, share with them this

technique of remembering. Precipitation is like rain. The more rain that falls on you, the



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more wet you become. Similarly, the more exposed you are to a bacteria, the more likely

you are to get the disease.

Slide 3: Predisposing vs. Precipitating

Ask students: Why is the image on the right the precipitating factor, but the image on the left

is a predisposing factor? A predisposing factor is a factor outside of your control. Genes are

inherited from parents so they are out of the person’s control, making them a predisposing factor.

On the other hand, if a person is bitten by a mosquito, that is more in their control, and this is

direct exposure to a pathogen (found inside in mosquito). Thus, the image on the left is a

predisposing factor.

Slide 5: What Are Pathogens?

Pathogens are microscopic things that can cause disease. There are four different categories of

pathogens — bacteria, viruses, fungi, and protozoa. Some pathogens can cause a lot of damage,

while other pathogens are less severe.

Slide 6: Types of Pathogens



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Bacteria are microscopic organisms that come in many shapes and sizes. But even the largest

ones are only 10 micrometres long - 1 micrometre = 1 millionth of a metre. Bacteria cause diseases

such as e.coli where people get diarrhea or respiratory diseases.

Viruses are many times smaller than bacteria. They consist of a fragment of genetic material

inside a protective protein coat. Viruses cause diseases such as influenza - flu.

Larger fungi include molds and mushrooms. Microscopic fungi can cause diseases such as

athlete’s foot.

Protozoa are single-celled organisms. Food contaminated with protozoa can cause infections

such as amoebic dysentery, of which severe diarrhoea is a symptom. Some protozoa are

parasites. These organisms live on, or inside, another organism and cause it harm. Malaria is a

disease caused by protozoa that live in the blood. It is passed to a person by an insect vector, the

mosquito.

Teaching Note: If students are confused about the differences between the pathogens,

have them practice the “Types of Pathogens” through the activity. Understanding the

types of pathogens is a more advanced skill and it is not necessary for the students to

understand the types of pathogens for them to understand the spectrum of disease.

Slide 7: Environmental and Societal Causes of Diseases

Environmental diseases are diseases that have be directly attributed to the environment, not

things like genetics or infections.

Environmental diseases are a direct result from the environment. This includes diseases caused

by substance abuse, exposure to toxic chemicals, and physical factors in the environment, like

UV radiation from the sun.

There are many different types of environmental disease including:

● Lifestyle disease such as cardiovascular disease, diseases caused by substance

abuse such as alcoholism, and smoking-related disease



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● Disease caused by physical factors in the environment, such as skin cancer caused by

excessive exposure to ultraviolet radiation in sunlight

● Disease caused by exposure to toxic or irritant chemicals in the environment such as

toxic metals

Slide 8/9: Chain of Infection

Now that we understand the causes of diseases and the organisms or social/environmental

causes behind them, it is important to understand the steps in which these pathogens can enter

the body. This process is known as the chain of infection.

Slide 10: Reservoir

A reservoir is known as the home of the pathogen or where the pathogen is before it infects a

new person or animal. The reservoir can be a living thing such as a plant, animal, or human.

Reservoirs can also be the environment such the soil. Toxic chemicals, for example, can be found

in the soil. If the reservoir is person, the person is referred to a carrier. Some carriers can be

described as asymptomatic, or not showing any symptoms.

Ask students: Why is it more difficult to avoid contracting a disease if carriers are

asymptomatic? It makes it more difficult to avoid contact with someone with the disease if the

person does not show any symptoms of the disease. They seem perfectly normal.

Slide 11: Portal of Exit

Portal of exit is how the pathogen leaves the reservoir in order to enter the new host. Think of it

as the door to the house that is the reservoir. In order for the pathogen to leave the reservoir

(house), it must cross through the portal of exit (door).

Slide 12: Mode(s) of Transmission

The mode of transmission is the bicycle for the pathogen or how the pathogen travels from one

organism to another. There are two main ways pathogens can travel.

Direct transmission involves direct contact with someone who is sick (through touching) or

droplet spread which is exposure to the germs through sneezing and coughing. Indirect

transmission usually means that there is something in the middle to carry the disease, rather than



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the person directly contracting it from someone who is sick. For example, indirect transmission

can be through touching an object such as a shirt of an infected person. Vector spread involves

an animal, like mosquitoes, that carry the pathogen and transport it. Airborne transmission is

similar to droplet spread but while droplet spread is close contact in the air, airborne transmission

is over a longer distance where dust or water droplets carry germs in the air.

Slide 13: Portal of Entry

Portal of entry is how the pathogen enters the new host. It is like a new door to a new house.

Sometimes though, it takes time for symptoms to appear. Think about it. The last time you fell

sick, was it immediately or did it take time for symptoms to show? This time period that it takes for

the disease to show symptoms is known as the incubation period.

Teaching Note: Share this unique way of understanding incubation period with your

students. Incubate means to grow so if you ever hear incubation period, think of a period

of growth. In this period, the pathogen is growing such that it will finally show symptoms.

Slide 14: Susceptible Host

The last step is the susceptible host itself. Think about it, would it be easier to enter a house with

an open door or a closed door? Of course, open door. The open door represents being

susceptible because your body’s defense or the immune system is not working so your body is

left open and vulnerable to pathogens.

Activity

Spectrum of Disease Game: How to contract a disease

Teacher’s Note: The following activity will allow students to act out the process of how

individuals acquire diseases, cementing key terms and relating the different terms to a

linear process. This also allows the students a chance to get up and get active, instead of

sitting down and listening to a lecture.

One of the students will be considered a reservoir. This individual will contain or carry the

disease (in this case, the disease can be anything from a teddy bear to a toy). The student



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with the pathogen (in this case, the toy) is trying to transmit the disease to the next

susceptible host.

Teacher’s Note: Ensure students understand that the reservoir is not always the person

with the disease. It is just the environment or location in which the pathogen normally

grows and reproduces. It does not need to be a person. We are just using a student to

model it.

The reservoir can pass the disease in one of two main modes of transmission. As the

game’s moderator, tell the students whether it will be direct or indirect transmission. If it is direct transmission, the reservoir must directly touch the student who is the susceptible

host.

Figure 1: Direct Transmission Game Set-Up:

The reservoir can also pass the disease through indirect transmission. There are two

main ways of indirect transmission. The first is vector-borne, where the pathogen is

transmitted to another organism who later transmits it onto the host. The second is

airborne transmission where the reservoir will throw the pathogen to the susceptible



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host. This models the fact that the pathogen does not need to be directly transmitted to

the host, but just transmitted through the air.

Figure 2: Indirect Transmission Game Set-Up

After the pathogen is transmitted, there are 3-4 students who act as guards for the host.

These students are acting as the immune system of the host. Ask the guards to try to

prevent the pathogen from reaching the host. However, at one point, ask the guards to let



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the pathogen in. At this point, the pathogen has found a portal of entry. Because the host

no longer has any guards, it becomes a susceptible host.

Repeat the simulation using the different types of transmission and cycle students so

each student has the opportunity to be each person. For bigger groups of students, have

the susceptible host continue the game by transmitting it to another person.



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Lesson 4 The Immune System

Summary

1. Subject(s): Lines of defense in the body, humoral and cell-mediated responses of the

immune system



4. Objective: Students will learn about the immune system and the body’s response to

pathogens.

Key Skills: Students should have a brief understanding of the immune system and how it

works.


Powerpoint

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Z3cn-Iyen-PppBY7M3cAa3Xkjju1JB6QzHw1TTRoTBo/edit?usp=s

haring

Lecture Transcript

Slide 1: The Immune System



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The immune system is one of the most important body systems. It makes sure that your body is healthy

and it helps fight off pathogens if they enter your body. Without an immune system, you would be sick all

the time!

Slide 3: Functions of the Immune System

The immune system attacks, destroys, and remembers intruders or even cells inside our own body that

may have become abnormal or sick. The three main functions of the Immune System are:

1. Scavenge dead, dying body cells (Scavenge means to look for and collect. Think of a Scavenger

Hunt).

2. Destroy abnormal (cancerous) cells

3. Protect from pathogens & foreign molecules, such as parasites, bacteria, viruses

The immune system has 3 different lines of defense to protect against foreign pathogens. They are

divided into nonspecific defenses and specific defenses.

Slide 4: Nonspecific Defenses

Nonspecific defenses mean actions taken out by the immune system regardless of the type of pathogen.

As an analogy, let’s say you were a gardener and a lot of weeds have popped up in your garden,

threatening the (Ask students for the name of a flower) you planted. Some weeds need to be pulled

out, while other weeds need to be cut. Instead of doing these specific actions, you remind yourself that

the next time you plant flowers, you will spray Round-Up or Weed Killer so that none of the weeds pop

up in the first place.

Ask students: How do we relate this analogy to the nonspecific and specific defenses? The specific

defenses are the methods carried out specific to the weed. For example, one weed needed to be pulled,

while the other weed needed to be cut. The nonspecific defenses occurred when the gardener sprayed

the garden with Weed-Killer to prevent any type of weed from popping up. The action was not specific to

a type of weed. Similarly, while specific lines of defense depend on the type of pathogen (bacteria, virus,

fungi, protozoa) and where the pathogen is, the nonspecific line of defense applies to all pathogens,

regardless of type.



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The first line of defense is made of physical and chemical barriers that prevent pathogens from entering

the body. Some physical barriers are your skin while some chemical barriers are sweat and mucus.

These chemicals are very acidic, so they can kill off bacteria or other pathogens.

The second line of defense occurs when the pathogen slips through the first line of defense and enters

the body. The immune system detects the location of the pathogen and releases millions of white blood

cells to reach the site of the infection. Because so many blood cells are traveling to the infection, the

blood vessels expand, making the area swollen. The immune system also releases chemicals that

increase your body temperature. This is known as a fever. Think of the fever as a sauna to kill all the

bacteria.

Slide 5: First Line of Defense vs. Second Line of Defense

The first line of defense acts like a wall because it prevents pathogens from even entering the kingdom

of your body in the first place. The second line of defense acts like a security guard who finds the

intruder and them removes them.

Slide 6: Specific Defenses

Physical and chemical barriers form the first line of defense when the body is invaded. This system relies

on antigens, which are specific substances found in foreign pathogens. Most antigens are proteins that

serve as the stimulus to produce an immune response to destroy and protect against the pathogen.

The basis of the immune system consists of white blood cells that are able to help to defend the body

against pathogens. The two types of white blood cells that we will talk about are B and T cells.

Slide 7: Humoral Responses

The humoral response (or antibody-mediated response) involves B cells that recognize antigens or pathogens that are circulating in the lymph or blood (“humor” is a medieval term for body fluid). The B cells create plasma cells which create antibodies. These antibodies are very important. They fit the shape of the antigen, so antibodies are specific to the antigen.



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Think of antibodies as a key that fits into the lock of the antigen. You cannot open any lock with any key. You need a specific key to open a specific lock. The antibodies bind to the pathogen causing the pathogen to be unable to move and relocate. The pathogen will die out and the B cells create memory cells to remember the intruder pathogen in the future.

Ask students: Why is it important that B cells create memory cells to remember the intruder

pathogen? This way if the same pathogen returns in the future, the body will be able to get rid of it quickly because it already has antibodies made for the specific antigen.

Slide 9: Cell-Mediated Response

The cell-mediated response involves mostly T cells and responds to any cell that displays specific markers, including cells invaded by pathogens, tumor cells, or transplanted cells. Antibodies often cannot defeat pathogens inside the cell so we need T cells to defeat the infected cells. The T cells divide into all types of T cells. The killer T cell kills pathogens. The helper T cell helps make memory T cells. Memory T cells remember the antigen. The suppressor T cells suppress killer T cells and end cell-mediated response.

Slide 10: Specific Defenses in Pictures

The humoral response occurs when the pathogen is in the body fluid, while cell-mediated response occurs when the pathogen is inside the cell.

Slide 11: Recap of How Immune System Works

Teaching Note: Have students watch this highly informative video

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24IYt5Z3eC4) about the way the Immune System Works.

The video goes over the immune system using an analogy where the body is a kingdom. Make

sure students make this connection and ask them: 1) What new pieces of information they learnt

and 2) What information was repeated from the lesson you gave them? If students are confused

about macrophages and lymphocytes, clarify that lymphocytes are what B and T cells are called.

Macrophages are responsible for the first function of the immune system: scavenging dying and

infected body cells. The macrophages “eat” these infected cells.

Slide 12: Types of Immunity



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Immunity is the ability for the body to fight off diseases and resist pathogens. There are several ways your body can develop immunity.

Slide 13: Active vs. Passive Immunity

Ask students: how do you think babies have immunity against certain pathogens? After all, if babies

did not have any immunity, they would fall sick all the time. Babies have a type of immunity known as passive immunity. They get antibodies from their mother while in her womb or during breastfeeding where antibodies are passed through breastmilk.

In addition to getting antibodies from your mom, individuals can also get antibodies injected into their bloodstream. For example, when someone is bit by an animal with rabies, they are given antibodies in their bloodstream to develop an immunity against the disease.

Active immunity is developed when an individual develops antibodies on their own. They can develop it on their own by having been exposed to the pathogen in the first place. One way of exposing people to a pathogen in a healthy amount is a vaccination.

Slide 14: Vaccinations

Vaccinations are one of the most important medical discoveries of all time. In fact, according to the World Health Organization, 17.1 million lives have been saved just from death by measles because of vaccines. It was invented by Edward Jenner around 220 years ago. He noticed that a lot of people were dying from smallpox, a deadly disease. Jenner noticed that people who had gotten cowpox however, did not fall sick from smallpox. This led him to believe that those who had cowpox in the past developed immunity to smallpox. He tested this hypothesis out by giving a small dose of a cowpox virus to a child. After the child developed cowpox and recovered, Jenner exposed him to smallpox. The child did not develop the disease proving Jenner right.

Vaccines work in that they introduce a small amount of the pathogen to the human body. The human body will then create memory T and B cells that will recognize the pathogen if it ever returns. You may think, isn’t it crazy to give someone a disease in the hopes of it making them strong enough to fight the disease off in the future? But, vaccines only give a very very very small amount of pathogens. It is so little that it will not cause any illness, but just trigger an immune response.



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Ask students: Now that you understand how vaccines work, why was Edward Jenner right? By giving a small amount of cowpox (a pathogen similar to the smallpox pathogen), the child developed memory lymphocytes. Then, in the future, when Jenner gave him smallpox, the child’s memory cells quickly defeated the pathogens before it could cause any real harm.



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Lesson 5 Immune System Disorder

Summary

1. Subject(s): Allergies, Immunodeficiency Diseases, AIDS, Autoimmune Diseases, Multiple

Sclerosis, Type 1 Diabetes



4. Objective: Students will learn about the disorders of the Immune Systems as well as

possible solutions to these different disorders

Key Skills: Students should be able to classify different immune system disorders after

understanding mechanisms of the disorder, as well as explain the biology of the

disorders.



Learning Context

RNA: single-stranded molecule in which genetic information and genes are coded into

DNA: double-stranded molecule in which genetic information and genes are coded into

Powerpoint

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1vzrvlU-4zNBHJTIqu_epyPeFIE4mWdUNIp3HVH49Zew/edit?usp

=sharing



131

Lecture Transcript

Slide 1: Immune System Disorders

Like any system of the body, the Immune System is not perfect. It has weaknesses and can be

susceptible to diseases. Consider that some of the disorders of the Immune System is that the

Immune System destroys its own body cells. Through this lesson, we will learn about the different

disorders of the Immune System and how we can help solve them.

Slide 2/3: Allergies

Ask students: Do any of you have allergies? How do allergies feel like? Allergies are caused by

overreactions of the immune system to usually, non-threatening antigens. Antigens that cause

allergies are known as allergens.

Teaching Note: Write on board “Antigen + Allergy = Allergens” to help the word allergen and its

relation to allergies and antigens stick.

When an allergen such as dust or pollen (Ask students if they know any more) enters the body,

it attaches to a cell known as a mast cell. While the name of the cell is not very important, just

remember that these cells cause the inflammatory response we talked about while discussing

specific defenses of the Immune System.

Ask students: Does anyone remember what an inflammatory response is? An inflammatory

response is when a pathogen enters the body and white blood cells are released to the site of

the infection. Chemicals are released to increase body temperature and kill the pathogens.

Similarly, the allergens cause the mast cells to trigger inflammatory response. The cells release

chemicals known as histamines which cause sneezing, itchy eyes, etc. The solution to having an

allergic reaction is to take antihistamines or drugs that counteract the effects of histamines.

Slide 4: Serious Allergies



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Most allergies are not very life threatening, but an example of a life threatening allergy is asthma

where allergens, stress, or exercise cause the air pathways to contract. This makes it very hard to

breathe.

Ask students: If asthma attacks are caused by the tightening of muscles in the air pathway,

what do you think medications that help people with asthma do? The medications cause

smooth muscles in the air pathways to relax so that people can breathe properly.

Independence, Missouri

As you can see in this image, the air pathway of someone with asthma is very tight. By relaxing

the muscles of the pathway, we can prevent respiratory failure.

Slide 5: Immunodeficiency Diseases

Immunodeficiency diseases are when the immune system does not work well enough. There is a

“deficiency” in the ability for it to prevent diseases. This is in contrast to allergies where the

immune system works too much.

Slide 6: Immunodeficiency Diseases Cont.

Immunodeficiency Diseases make it very hard to protect the body against infection. Think of your

body as a kingdom. What would happen if your guards were sleepy all the time and refused to

fight off invading armies? Allergies on the other hand occur when your guards are so active that

they attack harmless people like mailmen or bakers.



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Immunodeficiency diseases can be congenital meaning the immune system has not developed

properly during when the person was in the womb of the mother. Acquired immunodeficiency

diseases are when the immune system has been destroyed by a disease.

Slide 7: Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome

This is the most deadly and common example of the acquired immune system disorder. It is

caused by the HIV or Human Immunodeficiency Virus. The reason why this virus is so dangerous

is because its genetic material is coded in RNA instead of DNA. When the DNA molecule

replicates itself, sometimes it makes mistakes. But, it has certain ways of correcting this mistakes,

making the original DNA molecule and the later DNA molecule very similar. However, when RNA

replicates, there is no way to check back against mistakes made through replication. Thus, HIV

mutates or has a lot of changes in its genetic sequence, making it hard to create medicine to

solve the HIV.

Teaching Note: If students are still confused by the importance of HIV being a retrovirus, explain

to them that in order to create medication, the medicine needs to be very specific to the

pathogen. If the pathogen keeps changing or mutating like the RNA molecule does, then it

becomes very hard to come up with a cure.

The virus attacks T cells in the body, specifically helper T cells.

Ask students: What do helper T cells do again? They help make memory T cells which protect

the body against the same pathogen in the future. HIV makes it hard for the body to remember

pathogens. Thus, people who have HIV often do not die because of the virus itself but because

they cannot protect themselves against simple diseases such as the flu.

Slide 8: T Cell Count and HIV Infection

Scientists are able to measure the progression of HIV by counting the number of helper T cells. If

the number of Helper T cells is very low, then the HIV has developed and is in later stages of

disease.

Slide 9/10: Autoimmune Diseases



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Autoimmune diseases occur when the immune system attacks body cells. In the same kingdom

analogy, imagine the guards of your kingdom started attacking other guards because they

thought the guards were intruders. Similarly, the immune system’s macrophages and

lymphocytes are not able to distinguish between invading cells and body cells. The most

common solution or treatment to these diseases is medication that suppresses immune

response. This way, the immune cells cannot attack other immune system cells.

Ask students: Can anyone think of a bad consequence of these immune-suppressing

medications? These medications may also suppress the immune system response when the

body's affected by an actual disease. For example, when the body is attacked by flu viruses,

immune suppressing medications will prevent T and B cells from attacking those viruses as well.

Slide 11: Type 1 Diabetes

Type 1 Diabetes occur when the immune system destroys insulin-producing cells in the pancreas.

The pancreas is (point to the pancreas on your own body; between stomach and liver). These

insulin producing cells produce insulin. Insulin is a hormone or a chemical that moves sugar into

the cell of your body. In the cell, sugar is broken down into energy.

Ask students: What happens if there is no insulin in the body? Sugar will not be converted to

energy and people with Diabetes will always be tired because there is no energy.

As you can see in the diagram below, the blood sugar of someone with Diabetes is almost

double that of the someone without Diabetes.



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OPTHER

A solution to Type 1 Diabetes is giving insulin injections to people. Think of this like passive

immunity where doctors inject antibodies inside the body. Except in this case, we are injecting

insulin.

Slide 12: Multiple Sclerosis

Multiple sclerosis is when the immune system cells, specifically macrophages, destroy the

covering of neurons (nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord).

Teaching Note: Draw the following diagram on the board so students understand the importance

of the myelin sheath.



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Self-Hacked

Myelin covers the axon of the neuron and it helps make messages sent by the brain quicker. If it

is destroyed, then messages are not sent and the body is slow at responding/moving/gathering

information from the environment.



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Lesson 6 Analyzing Case Studies

Summary

1. Subject(s): Case studies, Odds ratio, Relative Risk


3. Grade/Level: 6

4. Objective: Students will learn about the different statistical measures epidemiologists use

to measure distribution of disease in a population.

Key Skills: Students should be able to apply their understanding of relative risk and odds

ratio to different scenarios.


Lecture Transcript Epidemiology is not just the study of diseases, but also the study of how to solve these diseases.

Epidemiologists use math and statistics to figure out how prevalent the disease is in within the

population and to determine if a particular pathogen is actually the cause of the disease.

Step 1: Collecting Information

Ask students: If you were an epidemiologist, what kind of information would you collect to

help you figure out what the cause of the disease was? Epidemiologists collect information

regarding:

● Characteristics of infected population (age, location, gender, pre-existing conditions)

○ Pre-existing conditions means any disease or disorder the individual had before

they contracted the new disease. Some diseases make it easier to contract other

diseases. Like we learnt last time, if someone has HIV, their immune system is so

vulnerable that they can contract the flu.



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● Number of people in the population who is infected/ not infected

● Potential cause of the infection as according to the infected population (obtained through

surveys and interviews)

● Symptoms of the disease/infection (Symptoms are specific to the pathogen and the

subsequent disease. By knowing the symptoms of the disease, scientists can hypothesize

the cause of the disease.)

Step 2: Sorting out Information

The information collected by the scientists is usually organized into a 2 by 2 table. This table is an

easy way of seeing relationships between data.

Teacher Note: Draw the following table on the board so students are able to see where different

pieces of information go.

Without Disease With Disease

Exposed/Group A A B

Unexposed/ Group B C D

Let’s now practice organizing data by sorting through the data from a hypothetical situation. Last

Friday, 400 students from Epidemiology University all went to the Epidemiology Bistro for lunch.

The restaurant was serving two lunch specials. The first special was a lettuce and tomato salad,

while the second special was a turkey and cheese sandwiches. 230 students ate the first special,

while 170 ate the second special. The next day, 200 students who ate the first special and 20

students who ate the second special reported diarrhea, vomiting, and cramps. Health examiners

suspect the produce (vegetables) in Special 1 was infected with the bacteria e.coli, but needs

your help to confirm it.

After sorting out the data, the table should look like:

Without Disease With Disease Total

Exposed/Special 1 30 200 230

Unexposed/Special 2 150 20 170



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Total 180 220 400

You should be able to check whether or not you are right by making sure the totals of the

exposed and the unexposed is equal to the sum of the groups with and without the disease.

Step 3: Calculating Odds Ratio

The odds ratio is used to tell what the odds are of getting a disease after being exposed to the

pathogen. The odds ratio is calculated using this pattern:

AB ÷ C

D = A×DB×C

If we apply this pattern, the odds ratio for the data we collected is:

030×20200×150 = 5

If the odds ratio is greater than 1, scientists can say 1 of two things.

Scientists can correctly say that the odds of getting the disease after being exposed to the

pathogen is greater than the odds of getting the disease if not exposed to the pathogen. Thus,

the pathogen is likely the cause of the disease. In this case, it is likely that the cause of the

symptoms reported by the students is the lettuce and tomato salad because the odds of getting

diarrhea after eating the salad is higher than the odds of getting diarrhea after eating the turkey

sandwich.

Step 4: Calculating Risk Ratio

The risk ratio is used to tell what the risk is of developing the disease after being exposed to the

pathogen. The risk ratio is very similar to the odds ratio, except is calculated in a different way.

Risk is the proportion of the cases of the disease to the total number of people exposed to the

pathogen.

BA+B ÷

DC+D = DA+DB

BC+BD

.42230200 ÷ 20

170 = 7



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Similar to the odds ratio, if the relative risk is greater than 1, scientists can say the risk of getting

the disease is greater when exposed to pathogen than if not exposed to the pathogen. This

indicates that the pathogen is likely the cause of the disease. In this case, since the risk ratio

gives us the value of 7.42, we can see that the cause of the disease must be Special 1.

Step 5: Figuring Out Solutions

After scientists correctly identify the cause of the disease, they can start administering solutions.

Solutions in the case of food-borne illnesses such as this one often include rest and lots of fluids

to flush out bacteria from the body. In the case of contagious diseases, scientists may prescribe

antibiotics or other medications to stop the disease from getting more severe or spreading to

other people.



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Worksheet 6

Analyzing Case Studies

The Epidemiology Organization hosted a dinner for all of its epidemiologists. At the dinner, 6500

scientists showed up to the event. Unfortunately, there was not enough space at Venue A to host

all of the epidemiologists. 2500 scientists were moved to Venue B, while 4000 of the scientists

remained at Venue A.

The menus for the Venues were following:

Venue A:

● Caesar salad

● Macaroni and cheese

● Strawberry cake

Venue B:

● Sweet and sour soup

● Deli turkey, lettuce, and tomato sandwich

● Chocolate brownies

Around 15 hours after the event, 230 epidemiologists from Venue A reported symptoms of

nausea, diarrhea, fever, and muscle aches. 295 epidemiologists from Venue B reported similar

symptoms. Using your understanding of the odds ratio and relative risk, determine the cause of

the symptoms and using information given to you, determine the illness itself to diagnose

medications.

1. Fill out the following chart using the appropriate information.


Exposed



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Unexposed

Total

2. Calculate the odds ratio.

3. What does the calculated value of the odds ratio tell us?

4. Calculate the relative risk.

5. What does the calculated value of relative risk tell us?

6. Using the relative risk and odds ratio, was the outbreak of pathogen greater in Venue A

or Venue B? Explain.



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7. Using the table of pathogens below and their respective symptoms, identify the most

likely pathogen that caused this disease.

E. coli Listeria Salmonella

● Watery diarrhea,

abdominal

cramps, some

vomiting

● Incubation period

of 1-3 days

● Bacteria found in

undercooked

meat

● Fever, muscle

aches, nausea,

diarrhea


of 9-28 hours


ready to eat deli

meats,

unpasteurized

milk, soft

cheeses

● Diarrhea, fever,

abdominal

cramps, vomiting


of 6-48 hours


eggs, poultry,

meat, cheese,

raw fruits and

veggies

8. Give solutions or possible tips to prevent this outbreak from happening in the future.



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Worksheet 6 Analyzing Case Studies

The Epidemiology Organization hosted a dinner for all of its epidemiologists. At the dinner, 6500

scientists showed up to the event. Unfortunately, there was not enough space at Venue A to host

all of the epidemiologists. 2500 scientists were moved to Venue B, while 4000 of the scientists

remained at Venue A.

The menus for the Venues were following:

Venue A:

● Caesar salad

● Macaroni and cheese

● Strawberry cake

Venue B:

● Sweet and sour soup

● Deli turkey, lettuce, and tomato sandwich

● Chocolate brownies

Around 15 hours after the event, 80 epidemiologists from Venue A reported symptoms of

diarrhea, fever, and muscle aches. 295 epidemiologists from Venue B reported similar symptoms.

Using your understanding of the odds ratio and relative risk, determine the cause of the

symptoms and using information given to you, determine the illness itself to diagnose

medications.

1. Fill out the following chart using the appropriate information. (Hint: Epidemiologists are

confident the outbreak was in Venue B).


Exposed/Venue B 2205 295 2500



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Unexposed/Venue A 3920 80 4000

Total 6125 375 6500

1. Calculate the odds ratio.

R .556O = 2952205 ÷ 80

3920 = 6

2. What does the calculated value of the odds ratio tell us?

Because the calculated odds ratio is greater than 1, it tells us that the odds of getting the disease

from Venue B are 6 times the odds of getting the disease from Venue A. Thus, the outbreak is

larger in Venue A.

3. Calculate the relative risk.

R .900R = 2952500 ÷ 80

4000 = 5

4. What does the calculated value of relative risk tell us?

Because the relative risk is greater than 1, it tells us that the risk of getting the disease is higher in

Venue B than it is in Venue A. Specifically, the risk of getting the disease from Venue B is 5.9

times the risk of getting the disease in Venue A.

5. Using the relative risk and odds ratio, was the outbreak of pathogen greater in Venue A

or Venue B? Explain.

In both cases, the relative risk and the odds ratio was greater than 1, indicating that the risk of

getting the disease is higher in Venue B than in Venue A. This is because all of the calculations

assumed Venue B to be the exposure factor

6. Using the table of pathogens below and their respective symptoms, identify the most

likely pathogen that caused this disease.

E. coli Listeria Salmonella



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● Watery diarrhea,

abdominal

cramps, some

vomiting


of 1-3 days


undercooked

meat

● Fever, muscle

aches, nausea,

diarrhea


of 9-28 hours


unpasteurized

milk and soft

cheeses

● Diarrhea, fever,

abdominal

cramps, vomiting


of 6-48 hours


eggs, poultry,

meat, cheese,

raw fruits and

vegetables

Salmonella; The symptoms (all except for vomiting) all match that of Salmonella bacteria. The

incubation period of 15 hours (the time taken for the epidemiologists to contract the disease after

eating the dinner) fits within the range of incubation period of 6 to 48 hours. Additionally, it is

Salmonella because the foods of meat and raw vegetables were included in the Venue B menu. It

cannot be Listeria because there was no unpasteurized milk and cheese in the menu for Venue

B.

7. Give solutions or possible tips to prevent this outbreak from happening in the future.

Cook all meat and make sure to wash all vegetables thoroughly in the future. Epidemiologists

with Salmonellosis should take plenty of rest and lots of water to flush out the bacteria.

Additionally, doctors should prescribe antibiotics for the patients to help the body kill the

bacteria.



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Activity 7 Conclusion to Epidemiology

Summary

1. Subject(s): Study of epidemiology in present, current world



4. Objective: Students will get an conclusion to what basic epidemiological terms mean in

the real world and how to make key connections.

Key Skills: Students should be able to use critical thinking to answer questions about the

article and how it connects to the lesson.

5. Time Allotment: 1 hour



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Article Teacher’s note: Highlighted information/sentences should be emphasized to students while

reading it as a class or asking students to read independently. Stemnova’s comments are written

in red and are not to be confused with the statement of Soumya Karlamangla or the Los Angeles

Times.

Severe flu brings medicine shortages, packed ERs and a rising death toll in California By Soumya Karlamangla (Courtesy of the Los Angeles Times)

So many people have fallen sick with influenza in California that pharmacies have run out of flu medicines, emergency rooms are packed, and the death toll is rising higher than in previous years.

Health officials said Friday that 27 people younger than 65 have died of the flu in California since October, compared with three at the same time last year. (This information proves that this is an epidemic because it is 24 more people who are affected by the flu. Endemics are the baseline number of how many people usually get the disease, while epidemics are much larger than this baseline number. Epidemiologists only declare emergency or focus attention on the outbreak if it is an epidemic.) Nationwide and in California, flu activity spiked sharply in late December and continues to grow.

The emergency room at UCLA Medical Center in Santa Monica typically treats about 140 patients a day, but at least one day this week had more than 200 patients — mostly because of the flu, said the ER’s medical director, Dr. Wally Ghurabi.



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“The Northridge earthquake was the last time we saw over 200 patients,” Ghurabi said. Experts say it’s possible that this year’s flu season is outpacing the last simply because it’s

peaking earlier. The flu season is typically worst around February, but can reach its height anytime from

October to April. Though influenza had only only killed three Californians at this time last year, it had taken 68 lives by the end of February, according to state data. (This is more evidence proving the epidemic level of the influenza virus).

Many California doctors, however, contend that the recent surge has been unusually severe.

“Rates of influenza are even exceeding last year, and last year was one of the worst flu seasons in the last decade,” said Dr. Randy Bergen, clinical lead of the flu vaccine program for Kaiser Permanente in Northern California.

State health officials said Friday that there was no region of the state where people were being spared from the flu. (This should indicate to the students that the flu is contagious and spreads from person to person. This is known as a propagated spread of disease. This should have been referenced in lesson 2).

In Riverside and San Bernardino counties, ambulance services have been severely strained because of the number of flu calls coming in, (example of a potential problem that epidemiologists can target for better healthcare and less fatalities or deaths) local health officials said.

Plus, emergency rooms are so crowded that ambulances arriving at hospitals can’t immediately unload their patients, (another example of a problem epidemiologists should target) so they’re unable to leave for incoming 911 calls, said Jose Arballo Jr., spokesman for the Riverside County Department of Public Health.



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“The ambulances have to wait … and if they’re waiting there, they can’t be out on calls,” Arballo said.

Most people in California and nationwide are catching a strain of influenza known as H3N2, (This is because influenza is a virus, a type of pathogen in which there is only genetic material and a protein coat. DNA and RNA change quickly, which means last year’s flu shot may not be able to stop this year’s flu. Take for example, a little puppy. At first, you buy them a pen that is very small, but then as they keep growing, that old pen may not work for them anymore. Then, you need to buy them a bigger house. In the same way, flu shots need to be made every time the DNA/RNA changes/mutates) which the flu vaccine typically doesn’t work as well against. National health officials say the vaccine might only be about 32% effective this year, which could be contributing to the high number of people falling ill.

H3N2 is also a particularly dangerous strain of the flu, experts say. “It tends to cause more deaths and more hospitalizations than the other strains,” said Dr.

Jeffrey Gunzenhauser, L.A. County’s interim health officer. Of extra concern this year are large numbers of older patients who are showing up at

hospitals with the flu and pneumonia, a potentially fatal combination. “You have no choice but to admit them and hydrate them on IV antibiotics to prevent --

God forbid -- a bad outcome,” Ghurabi said. Each year, the number of flu deaths reported by the state includes only people younger

than 65 and therefore underestimates the flu’s real toll, since elderly people are most likely to succumb to the illness, experts say. In Los Angeles County, 33 people have died of the flu this season and only a handful were under 65, Gunzenhauser said.

Dr. Matthew Mullarky, an emergency physician at St. Joseph Hospital in Orange, said that half of the patients he saw on a recent ER shift were so sick that he had to keep them in the hospital. Most of them were older than 85, with the flu and pneumonia.

“It’s incredibly scary,” he said. Doctors often prescribe the flu medication oseltamivir, known by the brand name Tamiflu,

to patients with the flu. But doctors and patients said this week that the drug was hard to find. (Tamiflu might be a good control measure for the epidemiologists to investigate. A control measure is a tactic scientists use to help stop the spread or prevent the epidemic from becoming a pandemic - going internationally. Scientists may want to increase production of the Tamiflu).

Caroline Bringenberg, who lives in Silver Lake, fell ill when she was visiting her family in Denver for the holidays. She had headache, fever and weakness.

“I don’t remember the last time I was this sick,” said Bringenberg, 25. When her doctor prescribed her Tamiflu on Wednesday, Bringenberg learned that a CVS

pharmacy in Glassell Park was out of the medicine. All the CVS pharmacies in the area had run out, the pharmacists there told her.



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Bringenberg then called a nearby independent pharmacy, but it also had exhausted its supply.

“I’ve just sort of given up,” said Bringenberg, through sniffles. “I think honestly it would make me feel worse to be in the car driving all over town, so I've just opted for ibuprofen and DayQuil.”

CVS spokeswoman Amy Lanctot said increased demand for Tamiflu in California may have led to some stores being temporarily out of stock. Other pharmacies reported that they were running low on the medicine or were out completely.

“They’re all on back order right now,” said Talia Dimaio, a pharmacy clerk at Rancho Park Compounding Pharmacy in West L.A. “We can’t get it.”

Bob Purcell, spokesman for the San Francisco-based pharmaceutical company Genentech, which makes Tamiflu, said there isn’t a national shortage of the medicine, suggesting that pharmacists’ shelves were emptied this week by a sudden surge in demand.

Marenna Bielman, right, takes Angelica Lara's blood pressure as she is treated for flu-like symptoms at St. Joseph Hospital in Orange.

Doctors say Tamiflu doesn’t eliminate the flu but lessens the severity of symptoms and how long they last. It works best if taken within 48 hours of when patients start to feel sick.

Nihar Mandavia, a pharmacist who owns the Druggist Pharmacy in Laguna Niguel, said he’s been ordering as much Tamiflu as possible from wholesalers and filling 25 prescriptions a day, compared with a typical one a day. He said out-of-stock pharmacies are referring patients to him.

“It’s been crazy,” he said. “And there’s still more -- we’re getting calls right now.” On Friday morning, Mandavia had enough left for only four more patients, he said. And

some of his wholesalers had run out too. Though flu season is underway, health officials say it’s not too late to get the flu shot. The

vaccine is recommended for everyone older than 6 months. “Even if you’re healthy, the downside of getting the flu vaccine is so low — it’s relatively

inexpensive. At the worst you’ll have a sore arm,” Gunzenhauser said. The vaccine can also mean not getting sick and then infecting someone who might not

recover so easily. Nationwide, 13 children have died of influenza this flu season. Dr. Greg Hendey, UCLA’s chair of emergency medicine, said people usually develop flu

symptoms two to three days after they’re exposed to the virus, (What is this time period called? Incubation period) but are most contagious the day before symptoms develop.

“So before you even know you’re sick you’re already spreading the virus,” he said. He recommended that people wash their hands often and avoid close contact with

anyone coughing or sneezing.



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Hendey said they’ve been trying to adjust staffing levels at the ER to keep up with the crowds, but there’s been an added challenge lately.

“Sometimes we don’t have our full complement of nurses because, they’re people too, they get sick,” he said.

Questions

1. How do epidemiologists know this is an epidemic and not just an endemic?

Highlighted references indicate that more people than usual are being affected by this strain of

the flu. This means that the number of cases are above the baseline level. By looking at the graph

presented in the article, we can see that the number of cases are clearly exceeding the usual average.

2. What type of spread is this illness?

Propagated; The spread is person to person, as the article states that “people usually develop flu

symptoms two to three days after they’re exposed to the virus, but are most contagious the day before

symptoms develop.” This means that people show symptoms and then spread the disease to others.

3. Name at least three symptoms of this H3N2 strain.

Headache, fever, sniffles, coughing, sneezing, weakness (muscle fatigue)

4. What is a problem regarding the influenza virus that occurs every year, not just this particular

time?

The virus mutates often, forcing scientists to continue researching newer and newer flu shots to prevent

the flu.

5. What are some possible control measures you as an epidemiologists would recommend for the

specific situation? List two.

● Increasing ambulance dispatch services (more ambulances and staff)

● Flu warnings to schools, workplaces to alert people to avoid those showing possible

symptoms



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● Increased production of Tamiflu to help decrease symptoms



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GEOLOGYThe following curriculum section is for Geology. It introduces students to basic chemistry and ecology with an overlying focus on the interactions of these various science fields in the ocean. There is a stressed importance on current events: the mechanism of global warming. Along with explaining the impacts of global warming, we devote a section of the class to exploring different technologies that are currently being used to delay the onset of global warming. The curriculum also touches upon fossils and the use of landforms to give us insight about the Earth’s history.

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Lesson 1 Geology

Summary

1. Subject(s): Plate tectonics, Wilson cycle, where land meets sea, types of sediment

2. Topic or Unit of Study: Oceanography


4. Objective: Students should learn a basic understanding of geology associated

with oceanography.

Key Skills: Students should be able to explain plate tectonics, the Wilson cycle, the

way that land and sea meet, and types of sediment.


Powerpoint

Core Curriculum:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1IDSokU09nyt8kebInwSv-Nk2_vAwAMJa_GJZZ1QrHAg/

edit?usp=sharing

Supplement Curriculum:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1zujUzeJdPxl5HGXM5C2k0tCsAeP9sh1-KUf6-ALZ7oE/ed

it?usp=sharing



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https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1IDSokU09nyt8kebInwSv-Nk2_vAwAMJa_GJZZ1QrHAg/edit?usp=sharing

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1IDSokU09nyt8kebInwSv-Nk2_vAwAMJa_GJZZ1QrHAg/edit?usp=sharing

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1zujUzeJdPxl5HGXM5C2k0tCsAeP9sh1-KUf6-ALZ7oE/edit?usp=sharing

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1zujUzeJdPxl5HGXM5C2k0tCsAeP9sh1-KUf6-ALZ7oE/edit?usp=sharing



Lecture Transcript (Core Curriculum)

Plate Tectonics

We tend to think of land on Earth as being fixed and unmoving, however, the land does move.

The movement is very, very slow, only about 1 to 5 inches per year. It takes over millions of years

for the movement to be noticable.

The part of the land that moves is called the lithosphere. The lithosphere is made up of the

Earth’s crust and a little more further down into the Earth. The lithosphere moves in big chunks

called plate tectonics. The plate tectonics are a little bit like giant puzzle pieces. There are 2

types of plates, continental and oceanic plates. Continental plates are the ones that form

continents, like the African Plate, Australian Plate, and South American Plate. Oceanic plates are

beneath oceans, like the Pacific Plate. The main difference between these 2 types of plates that

you need to know is that oceanic plates are denser.

There are three types of movements that the plates experience — convergent, divergent, and

transform.

Convergent

In the convergent type of plate movement, the plates move towards one another and give rise to

geographical structures like mountain ranges and volcanoes.

India and Asia collided into each other about 55 million years ago, which led to the formation of

the Himalayas, the highest mountain range on the earth.

Similarly, when the oceanic plates crash into each other deep trenches like the Mariana Trench in

the North Pacific Ocean and underwater volcanoes are formed.

Divergent



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In the divergent type of plate movement, the plates move apart.

The magma from the interior of the Earth surges toward the surface and pushes the tectonic

plates away from each other. Between oceanic plates, divergent boundaries are called

mid-ocean ridges. Between continental plates, divergent boundaries are called rift valleys.

One famous mid-ocean ridge is the Atlantic Mid-Ocean Ridge. This is the longest divergent

boundary in the world at 10,000 miles and occurs where the North and South American Plates

are moving away from the Eurasian and African Plates. Along this ridge, there are many

volcanoes and earthquake epicenters.

Additionally, scientists believe that millions of years from now, Eastern Africa will split apart from

the continent and form a new landmass. This divergent boundary is called the East African Rift

Valley, and it is one of the most volcanically active places in the world.

Transform

In the transform type of plate movement, two plates move sideways with respect to each other.

When the two plates rub against each other, a lot of energy is built up, and this energy is

sometimes released as earthquakes.

These movements do not produce spectacular geographical features like mountains or

oceans

Hotspots

Very different from the boundaries mentioned above, hotspots are found in the middle of

tectonic plates. Hotspots are regions where a lot of magma is rising to the surface, and

this magma often breaks through the plate, leading to volcanoes. A great example is

Yellowstone National Park. Right in the middle of the United States, Yellowstone National

Park is nowhere near a plate boundary, but there are still many signs of volcanic activity,

geysers, hot springs, minor earthquakes, and a humongous volcanic crater. This is



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because right below Yellowstone is a column of magma rising to the surface. This magma

brings heat and may eventually poke through.

The Wilson Cycle

The Wilson cycle is the cyclical opening and closing of ocean basins caused by movement of the

Earth’s plates. The Wilson cycle begins with a rising plume of magma and the thinning of the

overlying crust. As the crust continues to thin due to extensional tectonic forces, an ocean basin

forms and sediments accumulate along its margins. Subsequently subduction is initiated on one

of the ocean basin’s margins and the ocean basin closes up. When the crust begins to thin again,

another cycle begins.

The Wilson cycle comes in four stages:

Stage A — begins with a stable continental craton. A craton is a part of the lithosphere that is old

and stable. A hot spot rises up under the craton, heating it, causing it to swell upward, stretch and

thin like taffy, crack, and finally split into two pieces. This process not only splits a continent in

two it also creates a new divergent plate boundary.

Stage B – the one continent has been separated into two continents, east and west, and a new

ocean basin is generated between them. As the ocean basin widens the stretched and thinned

edges where the two continents used to be joined cool, become denser, and sink below sea

level. Wedges of divergent continental margins sediments accumulate on both new continental

edges.

Stage C – the ocean basin widens, sometimes to thousands of miles; this is comparable to the

Atlantic ocean today. As long as the ocean basin is opening we are still in the opening phase of

the Wilson cycle.



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Stage D – the closing phase of the Wilson Cycle begins when a subduction zone (new

convergent plate boundary) forms. The subduction zone may form anywhere in the ocean basin,

and may face in any direction.Once the subduction zone is active the ocean basin is doomed; it

will all eventually subduct and disappear.

Types of Sediment

There are three types of sediment — clastic, chemical, and biochemical sediments.

Clastic

Clastic sediments are composed of fragments or grains (or clasts) of other rocks and minerals.

We classify clastic sediments based on their grain size. Grain Size reflects the amount of bumping

and grinding that has occurred. For example, the largest clasts are generally found close to the

source of the sediment, since they are harder to transport. The farther away you go from the

source, the more grinding occurs between the clasts, and they become smaller and smoother

from the transportation process.

Chemical

Chemical sediments are not formed from the weathering and erosion of other rocks. They form

from the precipitation of minerals out of a solution. Most commonly, the solution is sea water, and

the precipitates are called evaporites.

Biochemical

At the end of the Cambrian era, marine organisms obtained the ability to form protective shells.

When these organisms die, their shells fall to the sea floor forming biochemical sediment. Much

of this material comes from microorganisms (organisms of microscopic size). The primary

biochemical rock is limestone. If the shells are not ground finely, the material may be called

bioclastic.



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Lesson Transcript (Supplement Curriculum)

The Rock Cycle

The rock cycle is a series of changes that circle around three types of rocks — igneous,

sedimentary, and metamorphic. These three types of rocks can change into one another through

the processes of the rock cycle. Before we jump into the specifics, let’s actually examine what the

three types of rocks are.

Igneous Rock

Igneous rock is formed from magma. Magma is lava that has come out of a volcano, it is an

extremely hot liquid that is made out of melted minerals. When magma cools, it forms igneous

rocks. Igneous rock can form above or below ground. Above ground, the magma cools very

quickly or suddenly, such as when it touches water. However, underground, the magma will cool

much slower. Igneous rocks that form from magma cooling above ground are called extrusive

rocks; igneous rocks that form from magma cooling below ground are called intrusive rocks.

Sedimentary Rock

Sedimentary rock is formed when sediments, small tiny pieces of rock, are packed together. Over

time, these sediments become cemented together and create sedimentary rock. If you look at

the picture at the left of conglomerate, a type of sedimentary rock, you can actually see the

smaller rock pieces packed together.

Metamorphic Rock

Metamorphic rock forms when rocks are heated to extremely high temperatures. When rocks

become buried deep underground, the temperature is very very high. The high temperature will

cause the rock to form crystals and become metamorphic rock. If you look at the picture at the

left, you will see that the rock has neat stripes across from left to right. If you see these stripes, it’s

usually a sign the rock is metamorphic since high pressures cause these patterns to form.



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How Does One Type of Rock Change Into A Different Type?

Igneous or sedimentary rock can change into metamorphic rock if they undergo extreme heat

and pressure underground. To get to igneous rock, both sedimentary rocks and metamorphic

rocks can be melted into magma. This magma then cools underground or above ground and

forms igneous rock. To get to sedimentary rock, both igneous rocks and metamorphic rocks can

be eroded into smaller pieces called sediments by wind, water, plants, and other natural forces.

Over time, these small sediments are packed together and cement to form new sedimentary

rock.

Dating Rocks

Today, scientists have plenty of ways to determine the ages of rock layers and fossils. There are

two general categories of rock and fossil dating - relative dating and absolute dating.

Relative Dating

Geological Principles

In relative dating, the general age of a rock layer or fossil is determined. Relative dating is the

method used most often to date fossils. One key principle to remember is the Law of

Superposition. This law basically states that in undisturbed rock layers, younger rock layers are

always on top of older ones. Sounds pretty obvious right? Based on the picture and the Law of

Superposition, one can safely assume that the yellow, lighter rock layers on top are older than

the redder rock layers on the bottom.

Relative Dating: The Process & Multiple Index Fossils

Simply put, relative dating is a method that compares a unknown rock layer or fossil’s age with

one that scientists already know. Scientists use index fossils to help determine the time frame of

other fossils and rock layers. Index fossils are fossils that are only known to occur in a certain

time period.

Now, relative dating can be used to date fossils or rock layers. For example, let’s say you have a

layer of sandstone you are trying to figure out the age of. In the layer of sandstone, you find a



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specific tree fossil, and you know that species of tree lived 3 million years ago. Based on this

information, you can probably guess safely that the mysterious sandstone is approximately 3

million years old. Here’s another example. Let’s say you discover a mysterious insect fossil in

clay. Based on previous studies, you know the clay is 20 million years old, so thus, the insect is

also probably around 20 million years old.

Sometimes multiple index fossils can be used. In a hypothetical example, a rock formation

contains fossils of a type of brachiopod known to occur between 410 and 420 million years. The

same rock formation also contains a type of trilobite that was known to live 415 to 425 million

years ago. Since the rock formation contains both types of fossils the ago of the rock formation

must be in the overlapping date range of 415 to 420 million years.

Absolute Dating

Half Life

Before we jump into absolute dating, it is important to understand the concept of the half life.

Essentially, as time passes, radioactive elements such as Uranium or Carbon-14 (a type of

carbon), break down into simpler elements through a process called radioactive decay. The

half-life of a radioactive element is the time it takes for half of the substance to decay. For

example, let’s say you have 100 grams of Element A, and you know Element A’s half-life is 500

years. That means that after 500 years, you will only have 50 grams of Element A. A more

realistic example is Carbon-14. Carbon-14 slowly decays into Nitrogen-14, a simpler element, and

its half-life is 5700 years. This means that if you have 100 grams of Carbon-14, after 5700 years,

you will only have 50 grams left.

Absolute Dating

Absolute dating uses radioactive dating to determine the exact time period of a fossil. It uses

radioactive materials, like elements we mentioned before, found in the fossil as a geological

clock. Again, certain radioactive elements leave traces of themselves over time and will decay

over time. By seeing how much of the element is remaining and how much has decayed to a

different element, scientists can determine the exact time period of a fossil.



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For example, we already know Carbon-14 decays into Nitrogen-14 over 5700 years. If I take an

old tree fossil and discover there are 2 grams of Carbon-14 and 2 grams of Nitrogen-14, I know

the ratio of Carbon to Nitrogen is 1 to 1. This means that half the total amount of substance is

Carbon and the other half is Nitrogen. Because I know Carbon-14’s half-life is 5700 years, this 1 to

1 ratio tells me the tree fossil is most likely 5700 years old. (Teacher’s Note: To better illustrate

this example, it might be best to draw a diagram on the board or utilize the slide as a visual

reference.)

Activity

Modeling Plate Tectonics

Teaching Note: The purpose of this activity is to give students a better conceptual

understanding of the structure of the Earth. Using common food items, students will

create a model of the Earth’s surface and then enjoy their masterpiece after.

Materials Needed: Different colored candies (M&Ms), crackers, white frosting (dye red if

possible), paper plates, plastic knives, marshmallows, and chocolate frosting/Nutella

1. To conserve materials, organize the students into pairs or groups of three. Each

group needs one paper plate, one spoonful of chocolate frosting, one spoonful of

vanilla frosting, a pack of M&Ms, one marshmallow, two graham crackers, and two

plastic knives.

2. Read the following prompt aloud: “You are a geologist hired by the kingdom of

Candyland to better understand the planet’s geography. Candyland has a very

similar structure to Earth except everything is edible. Use the following pieces of

information to construct a model of Planet Candyland”

3. Have each group spread the white frosting across the plate. Ask them what layer

of the planet the frosting represents and why? - Sample Answer: The frosting

represents the mantle beneath the crust. Like the mantle, the frosting is not rigid,

able to move around, and sticky.



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4. Have each group break the crackers into at least four pieces and lay them on top

of the frosting; two of the crackers should be spread with brown frosting. Let the

students know that each of the cracker pieces represent a plate, and ask them

what they the frosted crackers represent and why? - Sample Answer: The brown

crackers are oceanic plates since they are heavier and denser that the

non-frosted ones.

5. Have each group identify convergent, divergent, and transform boundaries - this

can be up to their choice. Students should line convergent boundaries with blue

candies, transform boundaries with yellow candies, and divergent boundaries with

red candies. Ask them, “Is it possible for a boundary between a frosted and

non-frosted cracker to be lined with red or yellow candies?” - Sample Answer: No;

because the oceanic plate is denser, it always sinks beneath the continental one,

creating a convergent boundary that should be lined with blue candies.

6. Read the following aloud: “Now we have the basic map of Planet Candyland.

However, we just got new data that there is a hotspot beneath one of the oceanic

plates.” Ask the students what a hotspot is, and have them represent the hotspot

with one marshmallow passed out.

7. With the orange M&Ms, have the students map out where they think volcanoes

should be. There should be orange candies near the marshmallow and along the

convergent and divergent boundaries. Ask them why there shouldn’t be

volcanoes allow the yellow transform boundaries and why there are volcanoes

near the hotspot.

8. Now, assign the following words to each group: friction, earthquakes and

tsunamis, land formation, and the Wilson Cycle. Groups should present their plates

and explain how the term they’ve been assigned relates to their map.



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Lesson 2 Ocean Movements

Summary

1. Subject(s): Ocean temperature, salinity, and density



4. Objective: Students will learn about factors of temperature, salinity, and density in

the ocean

Key Skills: Students should be able to explain the ocean in relation to temperature,

salinity, and density.


Powerpoint

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/18XFUJ53k8AE1MpdMKJ-EMlKrKf9Btewg5qpgkKkKvz8/e

dit?usp=sharing

Lecture Transcript

Ocean Movements

The ocean is not a uniform body of water. The ocean is made up of many water masses that flow past each other. These distinct masses of water each have a characteristic density. Density is the relative heaviness of a substance; it is mass per unit volume. Dense water masses will sink while



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https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/18XFUJ53k8AE1MpdMKJ-EMlKrKf9Btewg5qpgkKkKvz8/edit?usp=sharing

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/18XFUJ53k8AE1MpdMKJ-EMlKrKf9Btewg5qpgkKkKvz8/edit?usp=sharing



less dense ones will float above them. It is similar to density differences that lead to oil floating on top of water in a bottle of salad dressing. Water masses of different densities will similarly layer out. This layering is known as stratification in the ocean. There is no single perfect example of a "typical" stratification, though the link below is a neat graphic.

Density

Density of seawater is primarily determined by two factors: temperature and salinity. Warmer water is less dense than colder water. Therefore, warm water floats near the surface while cold water will sink toward the bottom. Salinity also affects density. Higher salinity (more salts in the water) leads to higher density. So salty water sinks while fresh water floats at the surface.

Anywhere in the ocean where water masses of different salinity and/or different temperature meet, the ocean will be stratified. There will be distinct layers of water found at different depths. The layer of the ocean where density increases the fastest is called the pycnocline.

Temperature

The major source of heat for the ocean is the sun. Therefore, it is only surface waters that get heated. Deep-ocean water is cold with temperatures hovering around 40C. The sun does not heat the surface of the ocean evenly. Polar regions receive very little, diffuse sunlight and even surface waters are cold there. Therefore the entire column of water from the surface to the bottom is cold; there is no thermal stratification. Tropical regions receive the most solar energy and tropical surface waters are warm. The warmer surface waters, with their low density, float on top of the colder deep water and the ocean is thermally stratified in the tropics. Temperate surface waters are cold in the winter but warm up in the spring and summer. Therefore, in these regions, there is no thermal stratification in the winter. It builds up as the seasons change and there is strong stratification in the summer months.

Plotting the change in temperature with depth, in the tropics for example, clearly shows that temperature does not just decrease uniformly with depth. Instead, there are three distinct layers or zones. The warm upper zone, known as the mixed or surface zone, is kept uniformly warm as waves and currents distribute the solar energy from the sun. The middle zone is a region where temperature decreases with depth; this is known as a thermocline. Within the thermocline, warm surface water mixes with cold deeper water. Below the thermocline is the deep layer, which is uniformly cold.



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Salinity

Salinity is a measure of the total amount of dissolved solids (salts) in the ocean. The average salinity in the ocean varies from about 33 – 37 parts per thousand (ppt or o/oo). Salinity can approach 0 (fresh water) where rivers enter the ocean and may be very high in areas where there is little rain and an excess of evaporation. The amount of rainfall, input from rivers and streams and the level of evaporation will all affect the salinity of the ocean in any area. Therefore, most salinity variation take place near the surface where these environmental influences occur.

Diffusion is the slow mixing that occurs due to random motion of molecules. The salts and water molecules in seawater are vibrating and this vibration causes them to bounce off each other and mix. Salts will slowly spread away from areas of high salinity and toward areas of low salinity due to diffusion and the salinity of those areas will change.

The salts dissolved in seawater are heavier than the water molecules themselves. Therefore increasing the salinity of water increases its density. Water with low salinity will float on top of water with a high salinity, as happens when river water flows into the ocean. Salinity, as temperature, does not increase uniformly with depth. A plot of salinity versus depth shows three distinct zones. The upper mixed zone is characterized by lower salinity. The middle zone is a zone where salinity increases with depth; this is known as a halocline. Below the halocline, the deep zone contains water of fairly uniform higher salinity.

Activity

Density Demonstration

Teaching Note: The purpose of this demonstration is to show how water masses of

differing densities interact with each other. Students will also receive a more in-depth look

of the thermocline.

Materials Needed: two 500-600 mL beakers per group (any large glass container works

as well as long as it is transparent), sea salt (NaCl), Epsom salt (MgSO4), hot water, cold

water, room temperature water, red food coloring, blue food coloring, one sheet of binder

paper per group, one thermometer per group



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Demonstration 1: Freshwater and Saltwater

1. Distribute two beakers to each group. In both beakers, pour room temperature

water. Dissolve sea salt and add blue food coloring to one of the beakers.

2. Have the students combine the contents of the two beakers and record their

observations on the binder paper.

3. Give the students 5 minutes to discuss and write down where this phenomenon

may occur - Sample Answer: Sea ice melting, rainfall, and river runoff all lead to

situations in which freshwater interacts with salt water.

Teaching Note: Between demonstrations, it is suggested to rinse the beakers of coloring.

Demonstration 2: Saltwater and Saltwater

1. Distribute two beakers to each group. In both beakers, pour room temperature

water. Dissolve sea salt in one and add blue food coloring. Dissolve Epsom salt in

the other and add red food coloring.

2. Have the students combine the contents of the two beakers and record their

observations on the binder paper.

3. Give the students 7 minutes to discuss and write down why this phenomenon

occurs and where this phenomenon may occur - Sample Answer: Epsom salt is

heavier than sea salt; thus, water with dissolved Epsom salt is denser and sinks to

the bottom. This may occur near underwater volcanoes that eject denser salts

and minerals into the ocean.

Demonstration 3: Warm Water and Cold Water

1. Distribute two beakers to each group. In one beaker, pour the cold water and dye

it blue. In the other beaker, pour the warm water and dye it red.

2. In the cold water beaker, have the students measure the temperature per

centimeter above the table. Plot this data in a table similar to the one below:

Centimeters from Bottom of Temperature of Water Layer



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Beaker

1 cm X degrees Celsius

2 cm Y degrees Celsius

... ...

3. Slowly add the warm water to the cold water beaker. Every centimeter of water

increase, remind the students to record the temperature and plot the data in the

data table on the binder paper.

4. When all the warm water has been added, record observations on the paper as

well as the water surface temperature.

5. Give the students ten minutes to plot the data from the table on a chart. The X-axis

should be Centimeters from Bottom of Beaker while the Y-axis is Temperature of

Water Layer. Afterwards, have the students circle the thermocline based on the

graph. If there is no visible thermocline, have students discuss and record 2

reasons why the experiment does not accurately represent what happens in the

oceans - Sample Answer: Ocean water masses are larger & this demonstration

does not account for salinity of water



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Lesson 3 Ocean Currents

Summary

1. Subject(s): thermohaline circulation, surface and coastal currents, and tides



4. Objective: Students will learn about ocean currents, including thermohaline

circulation, surface currents, coastal currents, and tides

Key Skills: Students should be able to explain the differences between surface

and coastal currents, explain tides, and briefly explain thermohaline circulation.


Powerpoint

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1mVMzADn93rJiExvX7VYOTMyiWS9K0fk4KBY7A5cTo4o

/edit?usp=sharing

Lecture Transcript Thermohaline Circulation (Slides 2,3,4)

Winds drive ocean currents in the upper 100 meters of the ocean’s surface. However, ocean

currents also flow thousands of meters below the surface. These deep-ocean currents are driven

by differences in the water’s density, which is controlled by temperature (thermo) and salinity



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https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1mVMzADn93rJiExvX7VYOTMyiWS9K0fk4KBY7A5cTo4o/edit?usp=sharing

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1mVMzADn93rJiExvX7VYOTMyiWS9K0fk4KBY7A5cTo4o/edit?usp=sharing



(haline). This process is known as thermohaline circulation.

In the Earth's polar regions ocean water gets very cold, forming sea ice. As a consequence the

surrounding seawater gets saltier, because when sea ice forms, the salt is left behind. As the

seawater gets saltier, its density increases, and it starts to sink. Surface water is pulled in to

replace the sinking water, which in turn eventually becomes cold and salty enough to sink. This

initiates the deep-ocean currents driving the global conveyor belt.

Surface Currents (Slides 5,6,7)

The water at the ocean surface is moved primarily by winds that blow in certain patterns.

Surface ocean currents flow in a regular pattern, but they are not all the same. Some currents are

deep and narrow. Other currents are shallow and wide. Currents are often affected by the shape

of the ocean floor. Some move quickly while others move more slowly. A current can also change

somewhat in depth and speed over time. Surface currents form large circular systems called

gyres.

Surface ocean currents carry heat from place to place in the Earth system. This affects regional

climates. The Sun warms water at the equator more than it does at the high latitude polar regions.

The heat travels in surface currents to higher latitudes. A current that brings warmth into a high

latitude region will make that region’s climate less chilly.

Tides (Slides 8,9,10)

Tides are actually waves, the biggest waves on the planet, and they cause the sea to rise and fall

along the shore around the world. Tides exist thanks to the gravitational pull of the moon and the

sun, but vary depending on where the moon and sun are in relation to the ocean as the earth

rotates on its axis. The moon and sun’s pull cause two bulges or high tides in the ocean on

opposite sides of the earth. The moon, being so much closer, has more power to pull the tides

than the sun and therefore is the primary force creating the tides.

However, when the sun and moon reinforce each other’s gravitational pulls, they create

larger-than-normal tides called spring tides. The opposite of this—when the gravitational forces of



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the sun and moon pull from opposite sides of the earth and cancel each other out—is called a

neap tide and results in a smaller-than-usual tidal range.

Coastal Currents (Slide 11,12,13,14)

Along the coast, there are also different currents that operate on the smaller scale. There are

three types of coastal currents - upwelling, longshore currents, and rip currents.

Upwelling is probably the most important of all coastal currents. Upwelling is defined as the rising

of colder, deep water to the ocean surface. If you recall from previous lessons, isn’t colder water

denser, so why does it rise to the surface? This phenomenon happens because near coastlines,

winds are typically very strong. These strong winds blow on the ocean surface and actually push

the surface water away from the shore. Because the surface water has been displaced, there is

now a “gap” on the ocean surface. Thus, the deeper, colder water rises to fill the “gap”.

Upwelling is especially important since plankton and nutrients are more commonly found in

deeper, colder waters. This means that upwelling supports fish populations that survive on

plankton and, thus, human fishermen.

Longshore currents are powerful currents that run parallel to the shore. Because these currents

are so close to the shoreline, they transport large amounts of sand and other sediments and

deposit the load elsewhere. This transport is called longshore drift. Longshore drift is especially

bad for beachside buildings because over time, the ground under the building can actually be

eroded away too, causing the house to collapse. Where this sand is deposited, different features

form. A spit is a stretch of sand connected to the mainland that extends into the ocean. A barrier

or barrier island is a sand dune not connected to the mainland.

Rip currents are the most dangerous coastal current. Rip currents happen on beaches. If you’ve

ever gone to beach, when you watch the waves, do you ever see the water recede once it

contacts the sand. The water doesn’t remain on the beach forever - it flows backwards towards

the ocean again. On some beaches, this backwards flowing is extremely powerful, and that is

when a rip current forms. Many swimmers have died from being trapped in rip currents, so next

time, pay attention to any warnings. If you ever see foam or debris floating away from the beach

rapidly, it’s probably a rip current.



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Worksheets

Teacher’s Note: The purpose of this worksheet is to teach students the different types of

tides and how tidal patterns are factored into decisions that actually affect us.

Worksheet:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8yQoHxsmWNxVnh2WTI2ODNDSmc/view?usp=sharing



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https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8yQoHxsmWNxVnh2WTI2ODNDSmc/view?usp=sharing



Lesson 4 Marine Life

Summary

1. Subject(s): Ocean layers and different ocean ecosystems



4. Objective: Students will learn about the different ocean layers and the ecosystems

associated with them.

Key Skills: Students should be able to explain the different layers of the ocean and

the various ocean ecosystems.

5. Time Allotment:

Powerpoint

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1sGRK60X-dmE9AWaoWOL162Gu_LZ3RIxAqpqQlnrgHR

Q/edit?usp=sharing

Lecture Transcript

Marine Life Overview

The oceans are a habitat teeming with life. Filled with millions of animals, plants, and other

organisms, marine ecosystems account for 50 to 80 percent of all life on Earth. Even though 1.5

million species have already been discovered, much of the ocean is still uncharted territory:



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https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1sGRK60X-dmE9AWaoWOL162Gu_LZ3RIxAqpqQlnrgHRQ/edit?usp=sharing



scientists estimate there are still 2 to 50 million life forms left to find. From the shallowest tide

pools to the deepest trenches, you will always find something living.

This marine life is fragile, however. As you will see later on, these organisms are valuable to us,

but human activities such as overfishing and littering have put them under attack. It’s our

responsibility to make sure oceans remain beautiful and lively.

Ocean Life Building Blocks

Plankton form the building blocks of ocean habitats. Plankton are tiny, tiny organisms we can’t

see that float with ocean currents. They are important because they are a major food source for

ocean animals - everything from small shrimps and anemones to the largest whales feed on

plankton. From an ecological standpoint, plankton for the bottom of the food chain.

There are 2 types of plankton. Zooplankton are animal planktons - to survive, they feed on

smaller planktons. Phytoplankton are plant planktons - to survive, they convert energy from the

sunlight to their own food source.

Surprisingly, plankton enjoy cold water. You will find more plankton in the near freezing waters of

the Arctic than the tropical beaches of Hawaii. Plankton enjoy cold waters because they usually

have more nutrients. The abundance of plankton near the Arctic and Antarctic is what allows

marine life to thrive there.

Light and the Oceans

Not all regions of the ocean receive light. The deeper you go, the less sunlight reaches that

region of the ocean.

The upper 200 meters, about 650 feet, of ocean is called the euphotic zone, or - more easy to

remember - the sunlight zone. This zone has sunlight, so it is warmer and supports phytoplankton

(remember? phytoplankton need sunlight to produce their own food).

The middle zone, called the twilight or disphotic zone, receives very little sunlight and extends

from 660 feet to nearly 3000 feet. Here animals are adapted to darkness and high pressure. Fish



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have larger eyes, and some smaller organisms can glow in the dark. Some animals here include

zooplankton, octopi, krill, lobsters and crabs, eels, grey whales, sperm whales, squids, and some

large fish species.

The deepest zone, called the midnight or aphotic zone, is all regions of the ocean deeper than

3300 feet. The environment here is basically pitch black. Animals in this zone are the most

unique. First, at this zone, scientists refer to a phenomenon called a “rain of death” - essentially,

all organisms that die in the sunlight and twilight zones fall to the midnight zone. These carcasses

and dead plankton serve as the primary food sources for many organisms.

Another interesting thing to take note of is underwater volcanoes. Near mid-ocean ridges, there

are special underwater volcanoes called hydrothermal vents that eject different chemicals and

minerals from the Earth. Despite the extreme conditions, some organisms such as tube worms

and crabs actually survive here, relying on the chemicals ejected by the volcanoes to produce

food. Yes, even at the deepest depths and hottest temperatures, you will still discover life.

Habitat Focus: Coral Reefs

There are so many habitats in the ocean, but one key ecosystem everyone must understand is

coral reefs. Coral reefs can be found in tropical waters, and they are a home to 25% of all marine

species. Humans rely on reefs for fishing and tourism, and in places where storms are common,

coral reefs act as crucial wave breakers.

Contrary to common belief, corals are not plants. Corals are made out of individual units called

polyps. Polyps are small and look like upside-down jellyfish. Like jellyfish, polyps also have

stinging tentacles they use to catch floating plankton, and some glow in the dark. What gives

corals their beautiful colors is the algae. Algae called zooxanthellae actually live in the polyps;

these microscopic algae help produce extra food for the coral by converting sunlight to food,

while the polyp provides a home. This cooperation is called symbiotic mutualism, a relationship

where both the coral polyp and algae benefit. (The following slide of pictures depicts polyps and

a diagram of a polyp and algae. In the rightmost image, the orange-brown dots are actually

zooxanthellae living in the polyp)



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Reefs are huge structures. The Great Barrier Reef by Australia is the largest living structure in the

world at 1400 miles long. Reefs take millions of years to grow because coral grow so slow. Hard

corals form the backbone of the reef. Hard corals are special because their polyps secrete

calcium carbonate, a very hard mineral. Over time, the calcium carbonate accumulates, giving

more space for polyps to grow.

Because coral reefs grow so slowly, they are considered very fragile ecosystems. Any changes in

the environment can kill the coral. When the water becomes too warm or too cold, the

zooxanthellae actually escape the polyp; this causes the polyp to lose color in an event called

bleaching and eventually starve to death. If there is pollution in the water, this not only poisons

the polyp, but it can block sunlight and prevent the algae from making food. Finally, powerful

storms can completely destroy reefs if waves are powerful enough. The greatest threat to coral

reefs today is humans. Our littering, pollution, fishing practices, and contributions to climate

change harm reefs. For instance, in some countries, fishermen use dynamite to blow up entire

reefs to catch dead fish. Right here in the US, irresponsible boaters drag their boats through

reefs, destroying hard corals If we do not change our ways, more than 90% of our coral reefs will

die by 2050.

Activity

Ecosystem Modeling

Teaching Note: The purpose of this activity is to ensure students conceptually and visually

understand the diversity of marine ecosystems.

Materials: plain clay, cardboard, construction paper, toothpicks, paint, Internet access,

glue, tape

1. Distribute clay, construction paper, toothpicks, glue, tape, cardboard, and paint to

each group. Assign each group one of the following marine ecosystems: kelp

forests, tide pools, coral reefs, seagrass beds, hydrothermal vents, and deep sea

reefs.



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2. With the materials and online research, students should recreate a model of the

ecosystem they have been assigned.

3. After the models have set, have each group present the following information

about their specific ecosystem: location, 4 unique organisms, importance to

humans, how it relates to another group’s ecosystem, and 1 fun fact.



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Lesson 5 Humans & The Oceans

Summary

1. Subject(s): Human activities and their impacts on the oceans.



4. Objective: Students will learn about the different ocean layers and the ecosystems

associated with them.

Key Skills: Students should be able to explain the different layers of the ocean and

the various ocean ecosystems.

5. Time Allotment:

Powerpoint

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1hC5x3GuzOfO9N11Cju04-m9wUK8lNVD4BmP_24Bb_Y

M/edit?usp=sharing

Lecture Transcript

Global Warming & Climate Change (Slide 2,3)

By now, most of us know global warming and climate change are two immense problems we

have to face. But before we can think of solutions, we must first understand how global warming

and climate change works in the first place.



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https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1hC5x3GuzOfO9N11Cju04-m9wUK8lNVD4BmP_24Bb_YM/edit?usp=sharing



99% of scientists agree that humans are responsible for the impending climate disaster. But what

is it that we do that has such large impacts? There are three main fossil fuels that humans depend

on - coal, natural gas, and oil. Almost every part of our lives involves burning these fuels. When

we drive, our cars burn gasoline, which comes from oil. When we turn on the lights, the nearest

power plant is probably burning coal to generate power. When we cook or heat our homes, our

stoves and heaters burn natural gas. All this burning has severe consequences as greenhouse

gases are released into the air. Greenhouse gases include carbon dioxide (CO2), methane, and

sulfur dioxide. These greenhouse gases are invisible, and when they reach our atmosphere, they

form a blanket around the Earth that traps in heat from the Sun. Usually, the heat the Earth

receives from the Sun is reflected back into space, but with this layer of greenhouse gases in our

atmosphere, heat is reflected back onto the Earth’s surface and is trapped for a long time. This

trapped heat is what’s responsible for the phenomenon we call global warming.

Global Temperature Trend (Slide 4)

Global warming has been observed since the early 1900s. The 1800s and 1900s were when

humans first started burning massive amounts of fossil fuels. If you look at the graph from NASA,

you can see that global average temperatures have been on a rise since then.

Direct Ecological Impacts (Slide 5)

This increase in temperatures has direct impacts on the ocean’s ecosystems. First, because

water temperatures are dramatically warming with the atmosphere’s temperatures, many fish

species can no longer bear living in their original environments. This has caused them to move

northward or southward towards the poles in search of cooler environments. In their new

environments, these fish disrupt the balance of Arctic and Antarctic marine ecosystems by

outcompeting the species that originally lived there. If you look at the diagram at the left, you can

clearly see how Arctic fishes’ habitats, the regions outlined in purple, have shrunk over the past

thirty years while the habitats of temperate fish, the regions outlined in orange and red, have

expanded. Fish migrations have also threatened fishermen. These days, fishermen have to travel

farther and farther just to get a catch.



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Another direct ecological impact is the death of coral. From the previous lesson on marine

ecosystems, we know that coral reefs are extremely fragile ecosystems, and that even small

ocean temperature increases can kill coral. That’s exactly what’s happening right now in many

parts of the world - coral and the species that depend on them are dying due to rising

temperatures. Even the Great Barrier Reef, the largest coral reef in the world, has suffered greatly

from unusually warm waters.

Sea Level Rise (Slide 6)

One serious long term impact of global warming is sea level rise. Most of us already know that

sea level rise is partially caused by the melting of land ice. As glaciers and ice caps in the Arctic,

Antarctic, and Greenland continue to fragment and melt, this meltwater is entering the ocean and

causing sea levels to increase. Greenland’s melting ice is one of the greatest concerns for

scientists. If all of Greenland’s ice melted, sea levels would increase by 22 feet - that’s the height

of a two story building. Right now, Greenland’s melting contributes to a 1 millimeter increase in

sea levels every year, but if temperatures continue to warm, this rate will only increase. The

second cause behind sea level rise is thermal expansion. When water is warmer, it actually takes

up more volume. That means, that as the oceans have been getting warmer and warmer, they

have also been getting larger and larger.

There are several impacts to sea level rise. Right now, NASA reports that by 2100, sea levels may

rise by 11 to 78 inches, depending on whether or not we change our greenhouse gas emissions.

Higher sea levels means bigger storm surges during hurricanes and typhoons that can wipe out

entire towns and cities. In fact, up to 650 million people globally are at risk for increased flooding

due to sea level rise. If all these people are forced to move due to natural disasters and become

climate refugees, that would be a huge humanitarian crisis.

Ocean Acidification - Diagram (Slide 7)

Often overlooked, ocean acidification is another serious threat to our ocean’s health. Not directly

caused by higher temperatures, ocean acidification is actually a result of greater CO2 levels in

the air. Before we jump into why this is serious, let’s get a brief overview of how our oceans are

growing more and more acidic. When the oceans absorb CO2 from the air, the carbon dioxide

reacts with water molecules and carbonate ions to form bicarbonate ions. This process is



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detrimental since it decreases the pH of the oceans - the lower the pH, the more acidic the

oceans are.

Ocean Acidification - Impacts (Slide 8)

Let’s take some time to imagine why ocean acidification is problematic. Imagine putting a tooth in

soda - soda is acidic by the way. If you wait several weeks, you’ll see the tooth will be completely

dissolved. The bottom line is acidic solutions with lower pH values break down things like bones

and skeleton, especially if they contain calcium (an element that is used to build calciums and we

obtain it from milk). As we’ve touched upon before when we discussed sediments and coral

reefs, hundreds of marine organisms rely on calcium carbonate, a compound containing calcium,

to build their shells and internal skeletons. Because oceans are becoming more and more acidic,

these organisms’ shells and skeletons are literally slowly dissolving. If you take a look at the

image on the left, you can see the effects of ocean acidification very clearly. In the 2005

snapshot, the coral are thriving. In the 2010 snapshot, the corals don’t even exist anymore;

there’s barely a trace of them since their skeletons have all dissolved away.

Activity

Solutions Debate

Teaching Note: The purpose of this activity is for students to better understand how

human needs and activities often conflict with the health of our oceans. Through debates,

students should have a sharper grasp of how important oceans are to our survival.

1. Give each group a sheet of paper, and ten minutes per debate to discuss/research

solutions and arguments. Refer to the following prompts for guidance, and assign

sides to make the debate even more challenging!

a. In many poorer coastal communities, fishermen depend on fishing from

coral reefs to survive. However, these fishing practices are often

destructive - some fishermen overfish while others use dynamite to kill

hundreds of organisms at the same time. Should governments respond to

this issue? How should governments approach this issue?



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b. Today, much of our understanding of ocean currents comes from an

accident that happened many years ago. After a shipment of rubber ducks

fell into the ocean, scientists were able to track the floating plastic ducks to

see where the surface currents took them. Should more of these

investigations be carried out, even if they involve polluting the oceans?

c. Tidal energy and offshore wind farms are two rapidly developing

renewable energy sources. One downside to these sources is that they

often damage local ecosystems. Assign one group to defend the

construction of these structures and assign the other group to defend the

prohibition of these structures.

d. The Earth currently has a freshwater crisis - many countries are running out

of water. Some coastal nations have turned to constructing desalination

plants. Desalination plants are essentially buildings that convert seawater

to freshwater by filtering the salt and dumping it back into the ocean. This

salt destroys surrounding organisms and affects ocean circulation patterns.

What should be done about this conflict?

2. While each pair of groups debates, remind students to take notes. At the end of

each debate, ask the class for their input on the situation.



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v v · EPIDEMIOLOGY v v TEACHER GUIDE AND CURRICULUM HANDBOOKStemnova is a 501(c)(3) nonproﬁt founded in California with the mission to increase educational equity across the community