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Science at key stage 3    (Year 8)

Unit 8C: Microbes and disease
Section 9: c. How can we protect ourselves against infectious diseases?

QCA

Objectives
Children should learn:
  • that immunisation helps to protect against some diseases
  • that antibodies can pass through the placenta to the foetus and through breast milk to a baby
  • that vaccines contain material which stimulates body defences

Activities

Outcomes
Children:
  • Ask pupils about which immunisations they have had, eg polio, DPT (diphtheria/whooping cough/tetanus), MMR (measles/mumps/rubella), HIB (Haemophilus influenzae B), Heaf tests and TB (tuberculosis), and why they had them.
  • Explain what is in a vaccine. Show, by using charts, video clips and simulation software, what happens to antibody levels in the blood as the programme of immunisation proceeds. Challenge pupils to predict what happens in the blood when someone re-encounters the micro-organisms against which they have been immunised. Ask pupils to annotate a graph of antibody changes in the blood after, eg DPT, immunisations. Explain that antibodies pass to babies via breast milk and play an important role in protecting newborn babies from disease.
  • explain 'immune' as meaning resistant to disease and that immunisation is a way of raising immunity
  • recall that vaccines contain microbial material, eg weakened strains, dead micro-organisms, extracts of micro-organisms, that cannot cause infections
  • explain that antibodies pass to a baby across the placenta and via breast milk
  • explain that immunisation protects the body against some diseases because antibodies are made more quickly in response to infection

Points to note
  • It is useful to have a box of information snippets for research, eg measles immunisation required for entry to US schools, World Health Organization programmes, newspaper clippings about vaccine scares, comparative data on the incidence of measles and ensuing complications in developed and developing countries.

Sections in this unit

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This unit is divided into sections. Each section contains a sequence of activities with related objectives and outcomes. You can view this unit by moving through the sections or print/download the whole unit.
1. a. What are micro-organisms and how do we grow them?
2. b. What are micro-organisms and how do we grow them?
3. c. What are micro-organisms and how do we grow them?
4. a. Can micro-organisms be harmful?
5. b. Can micro-organisms be harmful?
6. Checking progress
7. a. How can we protect ourselves against infectious diseases?
8. b. How can we protect ourselves against infectious diseases?
9. c. How can we protect ourselves against infectious diseases?
10. d. How can we protect ourselves against infectious diseases?
11. Reviewing work