Ebola
Ebola
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Resource from the ENGAGE project, which won 'best open educational resource (2017)'
Will the next outbreak be a global pandemic? The 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa was the largest in history, and killed more than 11,000 people. Even survivors are suffering long term health problems. Scientists have responded quickly with a number of possible vaccines. In this activity students are asked if they would volunteer to be part of the safety trial. They gather information from different sources, weigh up risks and benefits and apply what they know about genes to decide if it is a risk worth taking
Learning objective
- Weigh up risks and benefits and make a decision, using scientific knowledge of the function of genes.
Blueprint curriculum link
- Unit: Genetics
- Concept: Genes: Inherited characteristics are the result of genetic information, in the form of sections of DNA called genes, being transferred from parents to offspring during reproduction
- Skills: Decisions: Estimate the seriousness of the hazards of an experiment or technology
- Learning stage: Analyse
Activity contents
- Teachers guide
- PowerPoint file
The activity is delivered as a zip file. After you checkout, you will be sent an email with the link to download it.
Weblinks
Information about the Ebola vaccine and the trials.
Progress towards the Ebola vaccine in 80 seconds
Short video clip which can be used at the start of the lesson.
The first woman to receive the trial Ebola vaccine talks about why she volunteered and what the trial involves.
Ebola virus: how it spreads and what it does to you
Video with further information about Ebola
A strategy-based computer game where students investigate infectious diseases in an attempt to stop them spreading.
Q&A
For the Year 7 Mastery Practice book:
For the Y9/GCSE Mastery Practice Book:
It was written to help year 7 students learn to transfer the scientific knowledge to unfamiliar situation. It can also be used by students in other years to improve their understanding of the fundamental concepts. Learning to apply is what will give students access to the 60% of marks at GCSE that demand more than recalling content. The book uses a research-based approach to teach students how to solve different types of problems.
The Practice Book has a chapter on each unit in the year 7 curriculum, based on a 5-year curriculum and AQA's KS3 Science Syllabus. Download the sample material to see exactly what concepts and types of problems are included.
The first strategy studente need to learn is to evaluate the problem and what knowledge is needed to solve it. 'Detect' simulates how an expert looks at a question. They make sense of the situation, look beyond the superficial details to find the deep structure This allows them to recognise this as an example of a problem type they have seen before, and recall the organised information they need to solve - key concepts. It ensures that students avoid their inclination to just look at the keywords, and dive in risking misunderstanding the situation. Detect is broken down into smaller steps, usually: draw a diagram, show values, identify unknown, decide the concept
This encourages students to bring into their working memory all their existing knowledge, externalise it on paper (to reduce working memory demands), and then home in on what's relevant to solving the problem.
The third stage of the problem solving strategy is the actual solution process using the knowledge from Recall.The Solve starts by showing how to use the knowledge from Recall and models a step by step process of moving towards a solution for the problem.We teach students how to write answers scientifically, using a variety of structures like claim-evidence-reasoning, and problem-solution, and cause-effect.
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