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With this lesson students will explore immune responses to a pathogen attack and/or a vaccine with a didactic, kinesthetic model of the process.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will analyze an informational text that addresses research into the fine balance between microbes and their hosts. The text explains how a human's microbiota or microbiome plays a very important role in the immune system. The text describes how bacteria, or the lack of bacteria, play a role in the immune system and keep autoimmune diseases at bay. This lesson is designed to support reading in the content area. The lesson plan includes a note-taking guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will analyze an intended to support reading in the content area. The article discusses new research conducted by Penn State scientists to determine how the malaria parasite is evading the human immune system and entering into red blood cells. The study revealed how the parasite is able to use the complement system to its own advantage rather than being negatively affected by it. This lesson plan includes a note-taking guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric. Numerous options to extend the lesson are also included.

Type: Lesson Plan

The lesson was developed to broaden students' understanding of the immune system and its role in the human body. Students will do investigations and apply vocabulary terms to real-world scenarios.

Note that students will complete the 5E cycle twice over the course of two days; please see the attached "Lesson Overview" document for a chronological outline of each day.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson is a good introduction to the immune system. It will give students the chance to have discussions with the teacher and classmates as well. The teacher will also have a chance to quickly assess the students' knowledge by using checkpoint questions scattered throughout the PowerPoint presentation. After the lesson is complete, the students will have a clear understanding of the three lines of defense and nonspecific and specific immune responses.

Type: Lesson Plan

ResourceID: 28153

This lesson covers the information on the basic functions of the human non-specific and specific immune response. It does not cover the vaccines, health or antibiotics used as an approach to aid the immune system.

There is vocabulary that goes as high as AP Biology. The lessons are editable so you can change vocabulary if you would like to bring the lesson down to lower levels. However, higher level vocabulary is not too extraneous and I leave it for my 9th grade Honors classes.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson introduces the basic forms of pathogens and how our bodies prevent and fight infection from them. It goes more in depth on the differences between active and passive immunity as well as the differences in non specific and specific defenses. The students will actively role play the events of specific immunity as well as evaluate methods of maintaining individual and public health.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will identify the major parts of the immune system, including specific and nonspecific immune response, vaccines, and antibiotics.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will learn about the immune system and how disease can affect personal and public health.

Type: Lesson Plan

The lesson is design to explain the basic functions of the human immune system, including specific and nonspecific immune response, vaccines, and antibiotics. Primarily, it focuses on infectious diseases and how the immune system defend the body against infectious diseases. The lesson uses the 5E model as an approach for students to become engage, analytical and inquisitive in learning about infectious diseases and the immune system.

Type: Lesson Plan

Explores how vaccines and antibiotics provide an extra level of protection from infectious agents and pathogens. 

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Learn how to identify the basic functions of the immune system. You will also be able to distinguish between nonspecific and specific immune responses.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. The text describes current research being conducted on microbiota and the immune system. The text describes how bacteria, or the lack of bacteria, play a role in the immune system and keep autoimmune diseases at bay. There is currently a spike in autoimmune diseases like Crohn's disease and psoriasis that occur primarily in developed countries. This research emphasizes how important our symbiotic relationship is with bacteria.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is designed to support reading in the content area. The article discusses the research conducted by scientists to determine how the malaria parasite evades the human immune system and enters into red blood cells. It was determined the parasite is able to use the complement system to its own advantage rather than being negatively affected by it.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. The immune system's job is to defend against pathogens and keep our bodies healthy. There are a number of cell types, tissues, and organs that play a role in the immune process. The article discusses the three types of immunity: innate, adaptive, and passive. Finally, the article discusses various immune system disorders and diseases that are associated with each one.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. This article explores how scientists discovered that the immune system naturally suppresses cancer while they were researching how B cells change during the growth of lymphoma. The text explains how T cells work as an "immune surveillance" and can be a way of preventing blood cancers. Through experimentation, scientists discovered how vitally important those cells are to possibly suppressing other forms of cancer in the future.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. The text explains the importance and function of the human immune system with a detailed discussion of non-specific versus specific immunity. The text features an embedded animated component showing how vaccines work.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. Scientists have been making breakthroughs in immunotherapy: the use of infectious pathogens as a method for treating cancer. The infections heighten the response of the immune system and eradicate the cancer in the process.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. Tropical areas such as Brazil can be hotspots for communicable diseases due to warm temperatures and crowded urban spaces. There is a concern that when Brazil hosts the World Cup, mosquito-borne dengue fever may spread to its visitors. The article explores methods of pathogen transfer in a variety of venues (pilgrimages, airplanes, cruise lines) and compares these to conditions at the World Cup.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. This article describes the components of blood (red blood cells, white blood cells, platelets, and plasma) including their functions and origins, along with a novel medical application for the rare blood-producing stem cells.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. This article is about the swine flu. It explains where and how the virus originated, what countries it can be found in, facts about the virus, and whether a vaccine might be developed.

Type: Text Resource

This resource is intended to support reading in the content area. Scientists have discovered that when they disrupt waking and sleeping times in mice, their immune systems responded in a harmful way causing disease, asthma, allergies, and maybe even immune disorders.

Type: Text Resource

Type: Tutorial

A vaccine allows a person to develop acquired immunity against an illness without actually getting the disease. This interactive tutorial will help the learners to understand the process by which vaccines work in the human body.

Type: Tutorial

This Khan Academy video explains how cytotoxic t cells get activated by MHC-I antigen complexes and then proceed to kill infected cells. This video addresses the concept at a high level of complexity.

Type: Tutorial

This Khan Academy video discusses helper t cells in the immune system. The role of helper t cells in activating b cells is detailed. This challenging tutorial addresses the concept at a high level of complexity.

Type: Tutorial

This Khan Academy video describes B lymphocyte cells, and how they are activated and produce antibodies within the immune system.

Type: Tutorial

This Khan Academy video describes non specific immunity, and the specific role of phagocytes. The tutorial explains how phagocytes engulf pathogens that enter the body as a line of defense.

Type: Tutorial

This Khan Academy video contains an overview of the types of immune responses in the body. The differences between humoral adaptive immunity and cell mediated immunity are discussed in detail.

Type: Tutorial

This tutorial will help students understand how the immune system of vertebrates is characterized by acquired responses that are highly specific to particular antigens. This system has the advantage of having a cellular memory for previous infections.

Type: Tutorial

This tutorial will help you to understand how allergies develop. Allergies are exaggerated immune responses caused by B cells producing excess IgE antibodies. An allergen (food, dust) is a foreign substance, which binds to the antibodies and triggers a reaction that includes the production of histamine.

This challenging tutorial addresses the concept at a very high level of complexity.

Type: Tutorial

One of the functions of the T-Cells in the immune system is to attack and destroy infected cells. Target cells are cells that have been attacked by a virus. When the target cells have been taken over by a virus and they do not have a good chance of surviving, they trigger their own death. This action reduces the chance that other nearby cells will become infected.

This challenging tutorial addresses the concept at a high level of complexity.

Type: Tutorial

This tutorial will help you to understand the function of phagocytes. Phagocytes are specialized cells that ingest and break down foreign material including bacteria and viruses.

This challenging tutorial addresses the concept at a high level of complexity.

Type: Tutorial

T-cells perform a wide variety of functions in the immune system. In this tutorial you will understand the structure and function of the T-cells.

Type: Tutorial

All living things are made of cells. In the human body, these highly efficient units are protected by layer upon layer of defense against icky invaders like the cold virus. Shannon Stiles takes a journey into the cell, introducing the microscopic arsenal of weapons and warriors that play a role in the battle for your health.

Type: Tutorial

This short video describes the process of antibiotic resistance. Right now, you are inhabited by trillions of micro organisms. Many of these bacteria are harmless (or even helpful!), but there are a few strains of ‘super bacteria' that are pretty nasty -- and they're growing resistant to our antibiotics. Why is this happening? Kevin Wu details the evolution of this problem that presents a big challenge for the future of medicine.

Type: Tutorial

This Howard Hughes Medical Institute Holiday Lecture Series video includes 6, 60-minute lectures on the history of the AIDS epidemic. The talk covers AIDS/HIV history in the United States from the 1980's through 2007 (when the lecture was taped) and also some basics on the biology of HIV and AIDS, including transmission, viral replication and the human immune system. The video offers a useful perspective on an example of the evolution of scientific thinking and research, as researchers discuss the development of scientific theories about HIV/AIDS as well as treatments. Several related resources, such as animations and video clips, can be found on the main page.

Type: Video/Audio/Animation