Lesson #4: medical research
• Hook: Mis-diagnoses
- Teacher introduces the complex task of doctors and how they need to deduce the affliction based on information that is often perhaps very limited.
- The teacher shows related stories of doctors that sometimes make the mistake of a diagnosis and consequently do more harm than good.
* Please refer to "References: Videos" for various links to several videos related to the respective mis-diagnoses*
• Action: Brainstorm + Sharing
- Brainstorm: Students (organized into the same groups) are tasked with the same specific component of the digestive anatomy as the lesson before. Teacher hands back their list of problems. Students are instructed to come up with as many potential solutions to treat their list of problems. Adopting an entrepreneurial mindset, students challenge their thinking by addressing several key questions:
How would they solve this disorder?
How would they minimize expenses?
What are the benefits?
What ethical considerations are there?
What further technological advances are needed (if any)?
- Sharing: Students share their ideas with the rest of the class.
• Debrief: You be the doctor!
- Provided with scenarios distributed around the classroom, students assess the hypothetical patient and are to give a prognosis to the best of their ability.
- For every prognosis, students are asked to consider what further information would be necessary to validate their hypothesis.
- An example of a simulated patient:
On your walk home from school every day, you pass by Sherman, the gentle old man who likes to feed the birds. His doctor recently told him that he has high blood pressure, and so, he has taken to walking around the park. He walks but then stops to hold his chest and lean against a tree. Being a helpful student, you race over to help him to see what is wrong. He informs you that this is the first time he has conducted his walks and he does not know what is going on. He cannot feel his left arm and there is searing pain against his chest. He used to smoke quite a bit and did not eat very well due to his financial circumstances.
- Examples of relevant questions:
What do you think Sherman is suffering from?
What typical over-the-counter medication could you safely give him?
What additional information do you need to support your prognosis?
- Teacher introduces the complex task of doctors and how they need to deduce the affliction based on information that is often perhaps very limited.
- The teacher shows related stories of doctors that sometimes make the mistake of a diagnosis and consequently do more harm than good.
* Please refer to "References: Videos" for various links to several videos related to the respective mis-diagnoses*
• Action: Brainstorm + Sharing
- Brainstorm: Students (organized into the same groups) are tasked with the same specific component of the digestive anatomy as the lesson before. Teacher hands back their list of problems. Students are instructed to come up with as many potential solutions to treat their list of problems. Adopting an entrepreneurial mindset, students challenge their thinking by addressing several key questions:
How would they solve this disorder?
How would they minimize expenses?
What are the benefits?
What ethical considerations are there?
What further technological advances are needed (if any)?
- Sharing: Students share their ideas with the rest of the class.
• Debrief: You be the doctor!
- Provided with scenarios distributed around the classroom, students assess the hypothetical patient and are to give a prognosis to the best of their ability.
- For every prognosis, students are asked to consider what further information would be necessary to validate their hypothesis.
- An example of a simulated patient:
On your walk home from school every day, you pass by Sherman, the gentle old man who likes to feed the birds. His doctor recently told him that he has high blood pressure, and so, he has taken to walking around the park. He walks but then stops to hold his chest and lean against a tree. Being a helpful student, you race over to help him to see what is wrong. He informs you that this is the first time he has conducted his walks and he does not know what is going on. He cannot feel his left arm and there is searing pain against his chest. He used to smoke quite a bit and did not eat very well due to his financial circumstances.
- Examples of relevant questions:
What do you think Sherman is suffering from?
What typical over-the-counter medication could you safely give him?
What additional information do you need to support your prognosis?