We do human body systems at the end of AP Biology. I like to save my favorite for last. The only drawback is that by this time of year we are starting to lose some steam. I try to teach this unit almost entirely by activity. I started searching in early Spring for ideas of what to do with immunology. I found an article in the American Biology Teacher, "The Immune System Game" from the May 2015 issue. I decided to make my own "characters" for the game just to make copies a little easier. After a test run playing the game with my husband, I decided that I also needed to rewrite the directions in an easier to follow way. There are so many steps in the process and what you do changes depending on what cell from the body you are looking at. I opened a google drawing and made a flow chart of the directions. It seemed to work well with the class.
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| The "bad" guys... |
We did run out of time before we got to simulate a viral infection. Next year, I'll have half of my groups "play" the bacterial infection and the other half "play" the viral infection. Then we'll have a group discussion about the differences.
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| The "good" guys... |
I also found in the trials that even for the primary infection, the body ended up with a lot of immune cells--so it didn't demonstrate the advantage the pathogens have the first time around (in the primary immune response). We didn't have any trials where the pathogens won over the immune system. I've changed the flow chart to reflect an increased reproductive rate for pathogens and a decrease in the reproductive rate of the macrophages.
Here are the files I made for the game:
- Key to Immune Characters
- Antibodies
- B-cells and Helper T cells
- Cytotoxic T cells
- Phagocytes
- Bacterial Pathogens
- Virus Infected Cells
- Plasma Cells and Cytokines
- Immune Game Flowchart (Bacterial)
- Immune Game Flowchart (Viral)
After the simulation, students diagram the immune response on a white board using the cards from the immune system game. They certainly understood the time difference between the primary and secondary immune responses after this game. Next year, I also want to emphasize humoral vs. cell mediated responses in their diagrams.
Update: I've worked on making this virtual and you can read about it here.
I am not sure if you check this, but I am wanting to do this activity in my class, but I am a little confused on the set-up? Do I put all cards in the body bag at the beginning? Do they get all cards at the beginning? How long do they play the game? I am just looking for a little more insight on how to set-up this activity Thanks
ReplyDeletencashen@lw210.org
They start with 3 bacterial pathogens, 1 macrophage (phagocyte),1 B cell, 1 helper T cell for the bacterial infection. For the viral infection, they start with 3 virus infected cells, 1 dendritic cell (phagocyte), 1 cytotoxic T cell, 1 helper T cell,1 B cell. I used to give the students a bag with all the spare pieces mixed in, but it was too much for them to sort through to find the cards they needed. So now they’ll start with just the cards listed above and I’ll keep supplies of all the other cards that they can just take as they need. I would also suggest reading the ABT article that I mention in the post because it explains some of the set up too.
ReplyDeleteAre there directions for how to play the game?
DeleteThe directions for the kids are in the flowcharts. I just start them with the bags filled as described above. It’s really just them pulling a card from the bag and following the flowchart to know what to do next.
DeleteI forgot to mention that between the card game, students making a diagram of the process and our discussion, we easily fill an entire block (80 minutes).
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing this activity!!
ReplyDeleteYou’re welcome! I’m hoping to update soon with pictures of the diagrams my students made of the process.
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