teaching guide - engage learning · on meteorites, meteoroids and meteors. ask them: a. what is the...

T E A C H I N G G U I D EVOL 3 / ISSUE 3 / LEVELS 3 & 4

AGES 9-13 YEARS

Teach English, science, the environment and social science.

ENGAGE PAGE 2 VOL 3 / Issue 3 / Levels 3 & 4

Dear Educator,

engage magazine is committed to helping you save time.

Each issue is carefully crafted to teach content literacy.

The stories teach specific outcomes from your curriculum.

They also improve your students’ reading skills. While

you may not directly teach reading, transforming

students into good readers means they will remember

what they read and perform better on tests. And that is

what everyone wants!

In this issue of engage, students zoom off into space

to explore asteroids in our solar system, their past

encounters with Earth and how scientists may be able

to protect our planet from future impacts. The second

story extends students’ conceptual knowledge of simple

machines and energy transfer. Here, they ‘dissect’ a

bicycle to better understand how simple machines work

together to make it move. In the third story, students

learn about our interdependence on nature to find new

medicines that fight diseases and keep us healthy.

Continuing our focus on introducing one new reading

strategy in each issue, we use the visualisation

technique in issue 3. This is an especially powerful

technique to understand abstract science concepts

like energy transfer or the difference between objects

in space that we cannot usually see. We encourage

you to use this technique to teach similar abstract

concepts from your textbooks.

Be it visualising, illustrating, questioning, defining

key scientific vocabulary or solving word problems,

engage allows one story to teach multiple skills and

content. This is the power and beauty of engage

magazine!

You next issue of engage magazine will arrive in

November.

Happy reading!

PURVI VORA AND SANGITA KAPADIA for Reniscience Education

CREDITS

1. Pedal power images and vectors: freepik.com, vecteezy.com & wikipedia.org

2. Map vector images: wikipedia.org


SCIENCE• Students learn what an asteroid is.

• Students learn about the position of the asteroid belt in the solar system.

• Students understand that asteroids can collide with moons and planets, including Earth.

• Students learn how scientists may be able to protect Earth from asteroids.

• Students learn about simple machines.

• Students understand what a force is.

• Students learn that medicines can cure many diseases.

• Students learn that scientists are using chemicals found in nature to make new medicines.

• Students learn about the immune system.

SOCIAL STUDIES• Students create an informative “asteroid crater

map” of India.

MATH• Students solve word problems using subtraction

(Level 3) or multiplication/division strategies (Level 4 only).

LANGUAGE ARTS

• Students visualise sections of the text to improve comprehension.

• Students create their own questions about the story and answer them.

• Students define key content vocabulary.

• Students visualise and illustrate specific sections of the text to improve comprehension.

CONTENTS

Asteroids Rock Earth 04–10

Pedal Power 11-17

Nature’s Medicine Cabinet 17-24

MEET THESE OUTCOMES

VISUALISATIONAs we have seen with the last two issues of engage, reading strategies boost comprehension for all students. They transform struggling readers into good readers and good readers into great readers. Each engage issue will teach students how to use a specific nonfiction reading strategy.

Visualising text is a proven strategy for improving reading comprehension. As students read or hear aloud a text, they imagine what the discussion in the text looks and feels like. Depending on the age group, students can picture minute details in their minds’ eye including colours, sounds, shapes, movement, zooming in and out, rotating an object to observe it from different angles,

changes that occur over time, etc.

In this issue, students use the technique to visualise how energy is transferred from a biker to the different parts of a bicycle, eventually making the bike move; they will use the technique to understand how different types of venomous animals kill their prey; and they will use the technique to understand the difference between meteoroids, meteors and meteorites, as well as to visualise and illustrate the asteroid belt. You can also remind them that they can combine visualising with the other two strategies they have learned. Good readers always use all the strategies they know.

READING STRATEGY


SCIENCE OBJECTIVES• Students learn what an asteroid is.

• Students learn about the position of the asteroid belt in the solar system.

• Students understand that asteroids can collide with moons and planets, including Earth.

• Students learn how scientists may be able to protect Earth from asteroids.

SOCIAL STUDIES OBJECTIVES• Students create an informative “asteroid crater

map” of India.

LANGUAGE ARTS OBJECTIVES• Students visualise sections of the text to

improve comprehension.

• Students create their own questions about the story and answer them.

MATH OBJECTIVES• Students solve word problems using subtraction

(Level 3) or multiplication/division strategies (Level 4 only).


BUILD BACKGROUND

1. Ask students if they have ever seen a ball of fire in the sky? Ask:

a. What do you think these objects are? (Answers may vary.)

b. Where do you think these objects come from? (Answers may vary.)

2. Show your class this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vD-jbm79kUE

3. In pairs, ask students to discuss the following questions. It is okay if they do not have all the answers at this time.

a. What are asteroids?

b. What is the position of the asteroid belt in our solar system?

c. How big are asteroids?

d. What would happen if one of these asteroids hit Earth?

4. Show them the following scene from the movie Armageddon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cgth4lGaKW8

In the movie a very large asteroid is on a collision path with Earth and is predicted to destroy all life on Earth when it collides. This scene shows how scientists have planned to blow up the asteroid using a nuclear weapon. Ask students how real they think this scenario could be.

5. Read the title of the story on pages 2-3 of engage magazine and tell students that they will learn more about asteroids in this story.

READY TO READ

1. Direct students to read pages 4-5 of their copies of engage magazine. Discuss the following questions with the entire class:

a. What could have happened if asteroid 2019 OK had smashed into Earth? (It could have wiped out or destroyed an entire city.)

b. How do scientists know that asteroids have smashed into Earth in the past? (Asteroids have created craters when they smashed into Earth. These craters still exist and scientists can study them.)

c. How did the Age of Dinosaurs end? (An asteroid measuring 12 km wide struck Earth and created a tsunami 1.6 km high, that splashed around the world. The high and powerful waves drowned all living things near the coastline. The asteroid impact also blasted debris into Earth’s sky and into space. Some of the rocks rained back towards the ground but the smallest particles remained in Earth’s sky and blocked the sun’s rays. Plants and animals, including dinosaurs, died.)

d. What was the result of the sun being blocked out? (The sun did not shine for months. Without sunlight, plants died. Without plants herbivores died. Without herbivores, carnivores died.)


EXTENSION ACTIVITIES

ACTIVITY 1FAQ SHEET Students create their own questions about the story and answer them.

1. Write “FAQ Sheet” on the board and explain to students that an FAQ sheet lists the most frequently asked questions that people may have about a given topic. The sheet also answers these questions in an easy-to-read manner. For example, for the topic on asteroids, some frequently asked questions could be:

a. Where do find asteroids in space?

b. Can an asteroid hit Earth?

c. What does an asteroid look like?

2. Ask students to individually read pages 6-9 of their copies of engage magazine. As they read, they must form 10 questions that they believe should go in an FAQ sheet about asteroids.

3. Remind them that questions may begin with any of the following question stems: what, why, where, how did, how might, who, when, in what way, can, etc.

4. In groups of 4, students share their individual questions and then collectively select the 10 best and most interesting questions they want to answer and include in their FAQ sheets.

5. Students write the responses to their 10 questions in full sentences.

6. Provide students with different coloured paper and stationary. Students work in their groups to create their FAQ sheets. These can be displayed around the class or even used for a fun quiz activity to check comprehension of text.

ACTIVITY 2VISUALISE AND DRAW Ask students to turn to page 11 of their copies of engage magazine and read the information on meteorites, meteoroids and meteors. Ask them:

a. What is the difference between meteorites, meteoroids and meteors? (A meteoroid is a small rock in space. When it enters Earth’s sky, it is called a meteor and when it hits the ground, it is called a meteorite.)

b. What is difference between asteroids and

meteoroids? (An asteroid is a large, rocky body in space that orbits around the sun. A meteoroid is a much smaller rock or particle in orbit around the sun.)

Throw a football towards the sky. After a few seconds the ball will fall to the ground. Ask your students to close their eyes and “visualise a rock, about the size of a football, moving in space around the sun. The rock is called a meteoroid. Ask them to visualise several such meteoroids. Now imagine a meteoroid comes close to Earth and is pulled by Earth’s gravity. It enters the Earth’s atmosphere. While traveling through the atmosphere, the rock is heated by friction and starts glowing brightly as it streaks through the sky. For those few seconds, the rock is called a meteor. Now the rock lands on the ground with a thud, making a small hole. It is now called a meteorite.”

Ask students to open their eyes and draw the position of a meteoroid, meteor and meteorite as it travels from space to Earth. A few students come to the front of the class to describe their drawings.

You could use this reading strategy to have students read and visualise any section of the story. After the visualisation process, students can illustrate or explain what they imagined so that you can check for comprehension and understanding.

Students read the section “Awesome Asteroids” on page 6 of the magazine. In pairs, they discuss the following questions:

1. What do asteroids look like?

2. What is the asteroid belt?

3. Where is it found?

4. What is an asteroid moon?

Students visualise the asteroid belt orbiting around the sun, with large and small, oddly-shaped asteroids; some round, some with a moon, some as piles of rocks and some large asteroids with craters.

They illustrate the position of the asteroid belt in the solar system. Then they “zoom in” on the belt and illustrate what some of the asteroids may look like based on the reading and the visualisation.


ACTIVITY 3ASTEROID CRATER MAP OF INDIA Ask students to re-read the section “Impacting India” on page 4 of their copies of engage magazine and find the following information about the 3 craters formed by asteroids in India:

• Name of the state

• Location of the crater

• Size of the crater

Create a table as shown below on the board and ask your students to complete it in their notebooks.

Name of the state

Location of the crater

Size of the crater

Lonar Lake Maharashtra 50,000 years ago

1.8 km wide and 500 m deep

Pushkar Sarovar

Rajasthan 650 million years ago

2.7 km wide

Dhala Crater

Madhya Pradesh

2,500 million years ago

1 km wide

Hand out a copy of the map of India given on page 10 of this Teaching Guide to each student and instruct them to mark the positions of all three craters on the map. Next to each crater, students draw a small box and transfer the information from the table above to the respective boxes. Ask them to give an appropriate title to their map.

ACTIVITY 4MISSION NEO In pairs, ask students to re-read the information given on pages 8-9 in their copies of engage magazine and find the following information:

a. Definition of an NEO (Near Earth objects are asteroids that whizz by Earth.)

b. Number of NEOs (over 1,00,00,000)

c. Size of NEOs (20 m to 140 m)

d. Percentage of NEOs discovered by scientists (Scientists may have found 28% of the largest asteroids and 99% of these which can cause significant damage.)

e. What are scientists studying about NEOs? (kinds of materials that make up asteroids)

f. Ways to deflect asteroids before they hit Earth

• Blow up an approaching asteroid by launching a rocket carrying a bomb toward it.

• Push an asteroid away from Earth with the help of a rocket or several rockets.

• Launch a large spacecraft to come very close to an approaching asteroid to alter its path.

• Use a powerful laser that could nudge an NEO.


ACTIVITY 5WORD PROBLEMS Review how to solve word problems using the appropriate operation. Students must solve the following problems individually.

Level 3:

1. The diameter of Hygiea is 430 km and the diameter of Ceres is 946 km. By how many km is Ceres wider than Hygiea?

2. The diameter of Vesta is 525 km and of Pallas is 512 km. How many km is Vesta wider than Pallas?

3. An asteroid flew over Russia in 2013 at the speed of 19 km/sec. This is 68,400 km/hour. A racing car can go up to 360 km/hour. By how many km/hour was the asteroid faster than a racing car on Earth?

Level 4:

1. Asteroid Ceres is 2.2 times bigger than asteroid Hygiea. If the diameter of Hygiea is 430 km, then what is the diameter of Ceres?

2. The diameter of Vesta is 525 km and of Pallas is 512 km. How many times bigger than Pallas is Vesta?

3. A hole formed in Bihar by a meteoroid is 150 cm wide, while a crater in Rajasthan formed by an asteroid is 2.7 km wide. How many times bigger than the hole is the crater if 1 km is equal to 10,00,00 cm.

4. An asteroid 20 m wide exploded over Russia on February 15th 2013. Another asteroid, 2019 OK, measuring 110 m was going to smash into Earth in July 2019. How many times bigger was 2019 OK compared to the asteroid that exploded over Russia?

Solutions given below are for teacher reference:

1 2 3 4

Level 3 516 km 13 km 68,040 km/hour -

Level 4 946 km 1.02 times

1,800 times

5.5. times


Comprehension Check

1. Describe two ways to deflect an asteroid that is headed toward Earth.

1.

2.

2. How did the Age of Dinosaurs end?

3. What is the difference between a meteoroid, meteor and meteorite?

BONUS QUESTION: List two cool, new facts you learned from this story that you would like to share with others.


*This map is intended for the sole use in this activity and shows approximate geographic positions only. It does not present all territories or regions, and is not meant to show exact political

boundaries, disputed territories or other regions. It should not be used as a reference map of any kind.


SCIENCE OBJECTIVES• Students learn about simple machines.

• Students understand what a force is.

LANGUAGE ARTS OBJECTIVE• Students define key content vocabulary.

• Students visualise and illustrate specific sections of the text to improve comprehension.


BUILD BACKGROUND

• Write the word “force” on the board. Ask students what force means. Take a few responses. Remind students that a force is a pull or a push.

• Place a large book on a table. Ask students why the book doesn’t move. Take a few responses.

• Explain to the class the when the book is sitting on the table it is “at rest”. Even at rest, there are many forces acting on the book. The force of gravity is pulling it down. The table on which it rests also exerts an upward force on the book. Because the two forces are balanced, the book doesn’t fall down. Ask students if the book would fall when suspended in air, and if so, why. The answer is yes because there is no upward force that balances the gravitational pull. Since the pull force is strong and there is no other equally strong upwards force to balance it, the book will fall down. Demonstrate this by holding the book in air and letting it go.

• Draw the following diagram on the board. completed.

• Place the book on the table again. Ask the students what needs to happen for the book to move. Take a few responses. We need to either push or pull the book. Ask a volunteer to push the book gently. Pause and ask the class in which direction is the force being applied. Add an arrow to the diagram as shown below.

• Repeat the same for “pull”.

• Explain that things stay at rest when all the forces acting on them are balanced. They start to move when an outside or external force is applied and the forces become unbalanced.

READY TO READ

1. Project the title pages (12-13) using the digital flipbook. Ask students to read the title and discuss what they expect to learn in this story.

2. In pairs, ask students to read pages 14-15 of their copies of engage magazine.

3. After the reading, discuss the following questions as a whole class:

a. What is a simple machine? (It is a device that changes the direction or magnitude of a force.)

b. What is a compound machine? (It is a machine made up of a combination of two or more simple machines.)

c. When do things start moving? (Things move when the forces acting on them are not balanced.)

d. What does the magnitude of a force mean? (It means how “strong” the force is. Greater the magnitude, “bigger” is the force.)

e. In addition to magnitude, what do all forces have? (All forces have a direction.)

f. Why don’t we fall off a bike saddle when we sit on it? (The force of the saddle pushing up balances the force of gravity pulling down. That is why we do not fall off.)



ACTIVITY 1SIX SIMPLE MACHINES

1. Referring to pages 16-17 and 21 of engage magazine, students read the names and definitions of all six simple machines. Have them copy the drawings and names of the simple machines into their notebooks.

2. Explain to students how each simple machine works. It would be advantageous to show the real machines if you have access to them. For lever, pulley, inclined plane, and wheel and axle, also discuss the direction in which the force is applied when using the machine, and how the simple machine changes the direction of the force.

3. Show the six everyday examples of simple machines give on pages 16 of this Teaching Guide. Students use the definitions given on page 21 of engage magazine to discuss each example. The table below is for your reference only:

4. Students complete the activity on page 21 of their copies of engage magazine using examples different from the ones discussed in the above activity.

Example Simple Machine Reason

doorknob wheel and axle We turn the knob using force. The knob acts as a wheel, spinning the axle it is attached to.

wheelchair ramp inclined plane It is a slope on which we can push up or pull down a wheelchair.

pliers lever The two handles act as the rods of the lever. We can push them down or pull them apart. The point where they are joined acts as the fulcrum, i.e., the point that supports the two handles and allows them to move when force is applied.

well bucket pulley A rope wound around a wheel can be pulled up to draw water from the well.

lightbulb screw The base of the bulb is a screw that allows us to “screw in” the bulb into a socket. You can see the spirally wrapped inclined plane around the base.

axe wedge The head of the axe acts like a wedge when it hits a piece of wood.


ACTIVITY 2VISUALISE AND ILLUSTRATE Students read pages 18-19 of their copies of engage magazine. After the reading, you’re your students through the following visualisation exercise:

Imagine that you are sitting on a bike. You wear your helmet, settle in and push down on a pedal. Imagine the energy from your foot transferring to the pedal. The pedal is a lever connected to a pulley via a rod called a crank. As you push, the pedals move up and down and transfer the energy to the pulley through the crank in a circular motion. Imagine the pedals making the pulley move round and round. A chain is wound around the pulley. As the pulley spins, the chain moves too and transfers the energy to another pulley at the back of the bike. Now both the pulleys are spinning with the chain transferring the energy between them. The back pulley is attached to a wheel and axle. As the back pulley spins, imagine that energy being transferred to the wheel. The wheel starts to spin too, making the bike move. This is how the energy from your legs transfers through the pedals to the two pulleys and finally to the wheel. As the wheel moves, energy makes the bike move forward.

For Level 4, you can add additional details into the visualisation exercise e.g., ask students to visualise the gears or the handlebars acting as levers, etc. Further, draw the table given below on the board and have your Level 4 students copy it into their notebooks and complete it.

Transfer of Energy Type of Motion

Legs push pedals up and down. Pedals turn this up and down motion to a ______________ motion.

liner / circular

The circular motion of the front pulley is converted to a _________ motion by a chain wound around the pulley and transferred to a back pulley by the chain.

liner / circular motion

The back pulley converts the linear motion of the chain to a _____________ motion.

liner / circular

As the back pulley moves, it makes the wheel move in a ________________ motion.

liner / circular

When the back wheel moves, the bike moves forward in a __________ motion.

liner / circular

Based on the reading, the visualisation exercise (and a discussion around motion for Level 4), students illustrate how simple machines make a bike move. They must show the direction of transfer of energy and label the types of motion at every point.

ACTIVITY 3BIKE AS A COMPOUND MACHINE Students explain why different parts of a bike are simple machines.

Hand out a copy of the worksheet “Bike As a Compound Machine” given on page 17 of this Teaching Guide to each student. Students complete it individually and return it to you for assessment.

ACTIVITY 4FRAYER MODEL Students define key content words in their notebooks using the Frayer Model. This graphic organiser was introduced in Issue 2 of the current volume of engage magazine. It helps students understand new words by asking them to define the word, draw it or write its characteristics, and then to synthesise this new information with prior knowledge by thinking of examples and non-examples.

The template for the organiser is given below with example filed in.

Students draw blank templates in their notebooks and fill them up for the following words: force, magnitude of force, simple machine, compound machine, friction, gravity

FRAYER MODEL

A screw is an inclined plane wrapped in a spiral shape.

a bolt, a light bulb, lid of a jar

SCREW

a gear, a pole, handle of a bike


Comprehension Check

MATCH THE BIKE PART TO THE RESPECTIVE SIMPLE MACHINE.

Parts Of a Bike Simple Machine

pedal and crank pulley

gear and chain wheel and axle

front wheel lever

NAME THE SIMPLE MACHINES REPRESENTED BY THE FOLLOWING EXAMPLES.

IN THE GIVEN COMPOUND MACHINE:1. Label the following: pulley, lever, wheel2. Using arrows, show the direction of the pull force applied by the pulley.


Simple Machines Around Us


Bike As a Compound Machine

1. LABEL THE SIMPLE MACHINES IN THE PICTURE OF A BIKE GIVEN BELOW:

A. WHY IS THE PEDAL CONSIDERED TO BE A LEVER?

________________________________________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________________________________

B. EXPLAIN HOW THE HANDLEBARS OF THE BIKE ACT AS LEVERS.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________________________________

C. THE PULLEYS IN A BIKE HAVE TWO PARTS: A GEAR AND A CHAIN. DRAW WHAT THIS SIMPLE MACHINE LOOKS LIKE IN A BIKE AND EXPLAIN WHAT THE GEARS DO.

________________________________________

________________________________________

________________________________________

________________________________________


SCIENCE OBJECTIVES• Students learn that medicines can cure many

diseases.

• Students learn that scientists are using chemicals found in nature to make new medicines.

• Students learn about the immune system.

LANGUAGE ARTS OBJECTIVES• Students visualise sections of the text to

improve comprehension.


ACTIVATE PRIOR KNOWLEDGE

1. Ask students to work with their parents to complete the “Health Questionnaire” given on page 23 of this Teaching Guide and bring it to class. Hand out the worksheet a few days before you begin the story.

2. On the day you begin the story, discuss the questionnaire with the class:

a. What are some of the traditional medicines or home remedies you took when you were unwell? What were the ingredients of these remedies? (Honey, turmeric, salt water, ginger, jayphal, sonth, etc. These are common home remedies but answers may vary.)

b. What medicines were prescribed to you by the doctor? (Answers may vary.)

c. What do you think the prescribed medicines were made of? What were their ingredients? (Answers may vary. Accept all answers as part of students’ prior knowledge even if they are incorrect or incomplete.)

d. What vaccines have you taken? (MMR, polio, hepatitis B, tetanus, etc. These are typical vaccines but there are more. Answers may vary.)

e. Why do you think we take vaccines when we are young? (Answers may vary Some students may have prior knowledge about this but accept all their answers.)

f. What do you think is inside a vaccine? (Answers may vary.)

READY TO READ

1. Direct students to read pages 26-27 of their copies of engage magazine. Discuss the following questions with the entire class:

a. Why do we have different kinds of medicines? (Different medicines have different functions, they come from different sources.)

b. What are the different functions of medicines? (They are used to ease symptoms, cure diseases, kill germs, relive pain, provide chemicals needed for the body and prevent diseases.)

c. How are medicines made? (Some come from plants, some are from animals and some are man-made chemicals developed in labs.)

d. What are the different ways to deliver medicines? (rub, swallow, sniff, drink, apply, inject, put drops)



ACTIVITY 1NATURE’S MEDICINE CABINET Students learn that scientists are using chemicals found in nature to make new medicines. They also learn that medicines can cure many diseases.

Ask students to read the information on page 25 of their copies of engage. Draw the following table on the board and ask your students to copy it into their notebooks and fill in the information as they read. We have provided a completed table for your reference only:

Name of the animal or plant that acts as a source of venom

Use of the venom obtained from the animal or plant

Gila monster

make medicine to fight cancer, treat type 2 diabetes, improve memory

tarantulas

make medicine to control pain

box jellyfish

make an antidote for the jellyfish’s deadly sting

king cobra

make medicine that controls pain caused by arthritis

ACTIVITY 2VISUALISE AND DRAW Ask students to turn to page 24 of their copies of engage magazine. They read about how four venomous animals (mentioned in the story) kill their prey. They also carefully observe the pictures of the Gila monster and the box jellyfish on pages 24 and 25 respectively.

Ask students to close their eyes and participate in the following visualisation exercise.

Close your eyes and imagine the orange and black Gila monster smelling a nearby frog and then attacking it. Imagine the prey between the Gila monster’s jaws. The frog struggles initially as it is caught but the venomous saliva of the Gila monster kills it soon after.

Now, visualise a large, hairy spider hiding, burrowed in the ground. The palm-sized tarantula suddenly springs out of its hiding place and attacks a small bird standing nearby. It sticks its sharp fangs into the bird, injecting its victim with venom. The venom kills the prey and the tarantula can have a feast!

Move into the ocean. Imagine a translucent, beautiful, soft-bodied jelly fish swimming in the water. Think about its cube-shaped body and the long tentacles that growing from every corner of its body. Zoom into the tentacles and you will see thousands of little stingers. The jellyfish stings a small fish passing by with its tentacles. Visualise the tentacles stinging and killing the prey.

Now, you are moving through a forest and you come across a king cobra. Visualise the snake and its long, scale-covered body. The snake suddenly stops slithering and becomes alert. It has spotted another black snake ahead in the grass. Visualise the king cobra raising its hood and getting ready to attack the other snake. The cobra’s fangs sink into the body of the other snake to deliver the venom, killing the prey.

Students open their eyes. In pairs, ask them to discuss and illustrate the following features of the animals:

1. Stingers on the box jellyfish’s tentacles

2. Fangs of the king cobra

You could use this reading strategy to have students read and visualise any section of the story. For example, they could visualise the white blood cells fighting off bacteria or antibodies attacking viruses. The visualisation process relies on students’ active imaginations to make the text come alive!


ACTIVITY 3VACCINES: FIRST LINE OF DEFENCE Students understand how vaccination works by sequencing the steps of the process.

Ask students to read the information given on page 28: “How Vaccines Work”. List the steps of how vaccines help build immunity. You can create a flow chart as shown below. Students copy the flowchart into their notebooks.

ACTIVITY 4MY AMAZING IMMUNE SYSTEM Students learn about the immune system.

Note to teacher: You need an empty room for this activity. You can play the game in your classroom but you will need to remove all chairs and tables, so that students can run freely.

Resources: Printouts of the “Antigen-Antibody Cards” given on page 24 of this Teaching Guide. Print as many as you need for the number of children in your class. Cut the cards along the lines drawn on each card. Each card will cut into two parts like a jigsaw. Hand out one half of a card to each student playing the role of an “antibody” and the other half to students playing “antigens”.

Tell your class that they will now play a game to understand the role of the immune system in keeping us healthy. Explain to them that the classroom represents the skin. This is the first line of defence. Unless there is a cut, germs cannot enter the body through the skin.

The walls and doors of the classroom are part of the skin. Divide your class into two groups. One group play the role of “antigens” while other represents “white blood cells” and “antibodies”.

The simulation: Initially the classroom is closed. All the “antigens” stand outside the class. They cannot enter the class unless the teacher opens the door and creates a “cut” in the “skin”. White blood cells kill antigens when they try to enter the body. Students who represent the white blood cells stand near the door. When the door opens and the antigens try to enter the class, the white blood cells try to block their entry. If a “white blood cell” is successful in placing both hands on the shoulder of an “antigen”, the antigen dies and must sit out the rest of the game. If antigens successfully make it past the white blood cells, the cells give a summons call to the “antibodies” who wait at the back of the room for the order. When they receive the call, they try to catch the antigens. When an antibody captures an antigen, they have to match the two halves of their cards. If the cards match, then the antibody and antigen sit next to each other and are out of the game. If the cards do not match then the antibody must release the antigen and capture the next antigen until it finds and captures its match.

The teacher acts as a narrator, timekeeper and referee. You provide a running commentary of each action e.g., “The antigens have crossed the first line of defence.”; “The antigens are dying!”; or “The chicken pox antibody has captured its antigen, you are now safe from the disease!”.

Play the game for 4-5 minutes. If, at the end of the game, any antigens are left alive, then the class is infected with the disease written on the antigen’s card. If even one antigen survives, it could multiply and increase in number. If all the antigens are captured, then the body is free of germs.

Once the game is over, have a brief discussion on what students learned. In pairs, ask students to read the information given on page 29 of their copies of engage magazine. Explain that when any foreign particles (called antigens) like bacteria, viruses or fungi enter our body, they stimulate the immune system into action. The immune system then produces white blood cells and antibodies. These cells and antibodies find and attack the antigens. Ask students how might germs enter our bodies? They can enter through cuts in the skin, our nose, mouth, ears, eyes and genitals.

A weakened form of germs that can cause a disease is injected in our body.

This kickstarts the immune system into action.

The immune system produces cells (antibodies) to fight the germs.

The next time our body is infected with the same germs, the immune system

remembers what antibodies to produce


Comprehension Check

MATCH THE PARTS OF THE IMMUNE SYSTEM WITH THEIR RESPECTIVE FUNCTIONS.

DESCRIBE THE THREE WAYS IN WHICH MEDICINES WORK IN OUR BODY.

1.

2.

3.

WRITE TRUE OR FALSE:

1. Chemical compositions of venom from all venomous animals are the same. _________________

2. The Gila monster administers venom in its prey through a stinger. _________________

3. Measles can be prevented through immunisation. _________________

4. Diabetes is caused due to lack of hormones produced by the thyroid gland. _________________

5. The tongue is part of our immune system. _________________

Parts of the Immune System Function

nose hairs attack germs floating in blood and tissues

skin produce cells to fight germs

stomach push mucus and contaminants up and out of the body

white blood cells act like a shield

bone marrow enrich cells that fights germs


Health Questionnaire

NAME:

THINK OF A TIME THAT YOU HAD TO MISS SCHOOL BECAUSE YOU WERE VERY SICK. WHAT WAS THE HEALTH PROBLEM YOU FACED?

HOW MANY TIMES DID YOU VISIT A DOCTOR DURING THE TIME YOU WERE UNWELL?

WHAT KINDS OF MEDICINES DID YOU TAKE?

HOW LONG DID YOU HAVE TO TAKE THE MEDICINES FOR?

HOW DID YOU TAKE THE MEDICINES?

HAVE YOU TAKEN ALL YOUR VACCINATIONS?

WRITE THE NAMES OF ANY THREE VACCINES THAT YOU HAVE TAKEN AND THE AGE AT WHICH YOU TOOK THEM.

HOME REMEDIES

NAME OF THE VACCINE

MEDICINES PRESCRIBED BY A DOCTOR

AGE AT WHICH VACCINE WAS TAKEN


Antigen-Antibody Cards

teaching guide - engage learning · on meteorites, meteoroids and meteors. ask them: a. what is the...

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