Microorganisms and disease: framing the research; getting the assessment rubric

NYS Core Curriculum: See Appendix at end of document & the NOTE on the Common Core State Standards

Materials associated with this lesson (these links are available within the lesson too): Microorganism Worksheet in Word & in PowerPoint (PPT); student-project assessment rubric; video on rubric approaches (2 min); internet links & resources (click the terms) as a MindMeister PDF

Instructional objectives: by the end of this lesson, students should be able to: understand the expectations for the research project on micro-organisms and disease transmission; delineate the areas that will need to be researched for each micro-organism; articulate a plan for gathering the information needed; explain how they will be assessed and understanding the science terminology that they will need to be integrate into their reports

Essential Question / rationale (not necessarily stated for the students) – what do these organisms look like? How do we know they exist – how today? how in the past? What experiments could we do to show they really exist? What resources and data are available that let us understand the influence of these organisms on world populations?

Differentiation: the use of heterogeneous groups with roles and oversight will help all students become engaged; the ultimately different levels of products will ensure all students have a task; having both text and drawing as legitimate activities within the research will engage different types of learners with different talents and abilities

Technology incorporated? The students will begin to conduct and save their research – to the greatest extent possible this research should be supported with technology – to gather the resources and to produce the products. In addition to textbooks and classroom print materials students should be circulating in groups or individually to the internet-connected computers or to the library and school resources; at the very minimum, students should have at least one day during the unit to get to the library or computer lab for research.

Appendix 1: Content Science Standards

NOTE: these lessons predated the requirement of the Common Core State Standards by NYS, thus, no specific references to CCSS are found here - however, please review CCSS (link here) and observe the alignment of the lessons with key expectations within CCSS

Standard 4: Students will understand and apply scientific concepts, principles, and theories pertaining to the physical setting and living environment and recognize the historical development of ideas in science.

Key Idea 1:

Living things are both similar to and different from each other and from nonliving things.

Living things are similar in that they rely on many of the same processes to stay alive, yet are different in the ways that these processes are carried out.

Nonliving things lack certain features of living organisms, such as the ability to maintain a cellular organization, carry out metabolic processes while maintaining internal stability (homeostasis), and pass on hereditary information through reproduction. The highlight Performance Indicators will be most evident in the research and reporting done by the students when preparing for the reports to the other countries.

Performance indicator 5.2: Explain disease as a failure of homeostasis.

5.2a Homeostasis in an organism is constantly threatened. Failure to respond effectively can result in disease or death.

5.2b Viruses, bacteria, fungi, and other parasites may infect plants and animals and interfere with normal life functions.

5.2c The immune system protects against antigens associated with pathogenic organisms or foreign substances and some cancer cells.

5.2d Some white blood cells engulf invaders. Others produce antibodies that attack them or mark them for killing. Some specialized white blood cells will remain, able to fight off subsequent invaders of the same kind.

5.2e Vaccinations use weakened microbes (or parts of them) to stimulate the immune system to react. This reaction prepares the body to fight subsequent invasions by the same microbes.

5.2f Some viral diseases, such as AIDS, damage the immune system, leaving the body unable to deal with multiple infectious agents and cancerous cells.

5.2g Some allergic reactions are caused by the body’s immune responses to usually harmless environmental substances. Sometimes the immune system may attack some of the body’s own cells or transplanted organs.

5.2h Disease may also be caused by inheritance, toxic substances, poor nutrition, organ malfunction, and some personal behavior. Some effects show up right away; others may not show up for many years.

5.2j Biological research generates knowledge used to design ways of diagnosing, preventing, treating, controlling, or curing diseases of plants and animals.

6.1e In any particular environment, the growth and survival of organisms depend on the physical conditions including light intensity, temperature range, mineral availability, soil/rock type, and relative acidity (pH).

6.1g Relationships between organisms may be negative, neutral, or positive. Some organisms may interact with one another in several ways. They may be in a producer/consumer, predator/prey, or parasite/host relationship; or one organism may cause disease in, scavenge, or decompose another.

Explain how the living and nonliving environments change over time and respond to disturbances.

6.3a The interrelationships and interdependencies of organisms affect the development of stable ecosystems.

6.3b Through ecological succession, all ecosystems progress through a sequence of changes during which one ecological community modifies the environment, making it more suitable for another community. These long-term gradual changes result in the community reaching a point of stability that can last for hundreds or thousands of years.

6.3c A stable ecosystem can be altered, either rapidly or slowly, through the activities of organisms (including humans), or through climatic changes or natural disasters. The altered ecosystem can usually recover through gradual changes back to a point of longterm stability.

7.1b Natural ecosystems provide an array of basic processes that affect humans. Those processes include but are not limited to: maintenance of the quality of the atmosphere, generation of soils, control of the water cycle, removal of wastes, energy flow, and recycling of nutrients. Humans are changing many of these basic processes and the changes may be detrimental.

7.1c Human beings are part of the Earth’s ecosystems. Human activities can, deliberately or inadvertently, alter the equilibrium in ecosystems. Humans modify ecosystems as a result of population growth, consumption, and technology. Human destruction of habitats through direct harvesting, pollution, atmospheric changes, and other factors is threatening current global stability, and if not addressed, ecosystems may be irreversibly affected.

Appendix 2: Process Science Standard

The particularly relevant standards are highlighted in yellow; the larger framework of standards is included to provide more context.

Standard 1

Students will use mathematical analysis, scientific inquiry, and engineering design, as appropriate, to pose questions, seek answers, and develop solutions.

Science relies on logic and creativity. Science is both a body of knowledge and a way of knowing—an intellectual and social process that applies human intelligence to explaining how the world works. Scientific explanations are developed using both observations (evidence) and what people already know about the world (scientific knowledge). All scientific explanations are tentative and subject to change. Good science involves questioning, observing and inferring, experimenting, finding evidence, collecting and organizing data, drawing valid conclusions, and undergoing peer review. Understanding the scientific view of the natural world is an essential part of personal, societal, and ethical decision making. Scientific literacy involves internalizing the scientific critical attitude so that it can be applied in everyday life, particularly in relation to health, commercial, and technological claims. Also see Laboratory Checklist in Appendix A.

Key Idea 1:

The central purpose of scientific inquiry is to develop explanations of natural phenomena in a continuing and creative process. The KI 1 is most evident in the development of the materials for the health organizations that use information already known or available about microorganisms.

Performance Indicator 1.1:

Elaborate on basic scientific and personal explanations of natural phenomena, and develop extended visual models and mathematical formulations to represent one’s thinking.

Major Understandings

1.1a Scientific explanations are built by combining evidence that can be observed with what people already know about the world.

1.1b Learning about the historical development of scientific concepts or about individuals who have contributed to scientific knowledge provides a better understanding of scientific inquiry and the relationship between science and society.

1.1c Science provides knowledge, but values are also essential to making effective and ethical decisions about the application of scientific knowledge.

Performance Indicator 1.2:

Hone ideas through reasoning, library research, and discussion with others, including

experts.

Major Understandings

1.2a Inquiry involves asking questions and locating, interpreting, and processing information from a variety of sources.

1.2b Inquiry involves making judgments about the reliability of the source and relevance of information.

Performance Indicator 1.3:

Work toward reconciling competing explanations; clarify points of agreement and disagreement.

Major Understandings

1.3a Scientific explanations are accepted when they are consistent with experimental and observational evidence and when they lead to accurate predictions.

1.3b All scientific explanations are tentative and subject to change or improvement. Each new bit of evidence can create more questions than it answers. This leads to increasingly better understanding of how things work in the living world.

Performance Indicator 1.4:

Coordinate explanations at different levels of scale, points of focus, and degrees of complexity and specificity, and recognize the need for such alternative representations of the natural world.

Major Understandings

1.4a Well-accepted theories are ones that are supported by different kinds of scientific investigations often involving the contributions of individuals from different disciplines.

Key Idea 2:

Beyond the use of reasoning and consensus, scientific inquiry involves the testing of proposed explanations involving the use of conventional techniques and procedures and usually requiring considerable ingenuity. The KI 2 is most evident in the study with the bread and with the probes; if students trying investigate the topic themselves, draw conclusions, and create extended, in-depth reports, they will be achieving advanced level learning, applications, and science literacy.

Performance Indicator 2.1:

Devise ways of making observations to test proposed explanations.

Performance Indicator 2.2:

Refine research ideas through library investigations, including electronic information retrieval and reviews of the literature, and through peer feedback obtained from review and discussion.

Major Understandings

2.2a Development of a research plan involves researching background information and understanding the major concepts in the area being investigated. Recommendations for methodologies, use of technologies, proper equipment, and safety precautions should also be included.

Performance Indicator 2.3:

Develop and present proposals including formal hypotheses to test explanations; i.e., predict what should be observed under specific conditions if the explanation is true.

Major Understandings

2.3a Hypotheses are predictions based upon both research and observation.

2.3b Hypotheses are widely used in science for determining what data to collect and as a guide for interpreting the data.

2.3c Development of a research plan for testing a hypothesis requires planning to avoid bias (e.g., repeated trials, large sample size, and objective data-collection techniques).

Performance Indicator 2.4:

Carry out a research plan for testing explanations, including selecting and developing techniques, acquiring and building apparatus, and recording observations as necessary.

Key Idea 3:

The observations made while testing proposed explanations, when analyzed using conventional and invented methods, provide new insights into natural phenomena.

Performance Indicator 3.1:

Use various methods of representing and organizing observations (e.g., diagrams, tables, charts, graphs, equations, matrices) and insightfully interpret the organized data.

Major Understandings

3.1a Interpretation of data leads to development of additional hypotheses, the formulation of generalizations, or explanations of natural phenomena.

Performance Indicator 3.2:

Apply statistical analysis techniques when appropriate to test if chance alone explains the results.

Performance Indicator 3.3:

Assess correspondence between the predicted result contained in the hypothesis and actual result, and reach a conclusion as to whether the explanation on which the prediction was based is supported.

Performance Indicator 3.4:

Based on the results of the test and through public discussion, revise the explanation and contemplate additional research.

Major Understandings

3.4a Hypotheses are valuable, even if they turn out not to be true, because they may lead to further investigation.

3.4b Claims should be questioned if the data are based on samples that are very small, biased, or inadequately controlled or if the conclusions are based on the faulty, incomplete, or misleading use of numbers.

3.4c Claims should be questioned if fact and opinion are intermingled, if adequate evidence is not cited, or if the conclusions do not follow logically from the evidence given.

Performance Indicator 3.5:

Develop a written report for public scrutiny that describes the proposed explanation, including a literature review, the research carried out, its result, and suggestions for further research.

Major Understandings

3.5a One assumption of science is that other individuals could arrive at the same explanation if they had access to similar evidence. Scientists make the results of their investigations public; they should describe the investigations in ways that enable others to repeat the investigations.

3.5b Scientists use peer review to evaluate the results of scientific investigations and the explanations proposed by other scientists. They analyze the experimental procedures, examine the evidence, identify faulty reasoning, point out statements that go beyond the evidence, and suggest alternative explanations for the same observations.