Medicine & Health Care

During cold and flu season this activity is a way to demonstrate how quickly and easily germs can be spread.

Begin with a discussion on what causes colds or flu. Discuss bacteria and viruses as microorganisms that can cause illness. Explain to students that colds and the flu are caused by viruses, and tehse viruses can be all around us: in the air we breathe, on the objects we touch. These viruses can be easily transferred as we share the air and touch many of the same objects: doorknobs, pencil sharpeners, light switches, faucets, etc. In fact, germs can even be transferred by people who do not seem to be sick themselves! Discuss sneezing and coughing as ways that germs can be expelled into the air, and the importance of covering one's mouth when coughing or sneezing.

Tell the students that this activity will demonstrate just how quickly and easily germs can be spread. Explain that each student will be given a small, folded piece of paper. All will be blank, except one, which will be marked with an "X." Whoever gets the "X" is carrying the virus. Under no condition should the "infected" person reveal themselves!

Once the papers have been distributed, instruct students to move around the room and to shake hands with 3 other students. (Remind students that when someone extends their hand it is a common courtesy to shake it). Have students stop, and then again, shake hands with 3 different students. Discuss shaking hands as a metaphor for any activity requiring close proximity or the sharing of an object. (e.g. talking, playing basketball).

Have students return to their seats and ask whoever had the "X" to please stand. Then, while that person remains standing, ask the 6 students who shook that student's hand to please stand. Now, ask everyone who shook one of these students' hands to please stand. There should be 16 students standing, all of whom now have "flu germs" on their hands. Should any neglect to wash their hands before putting something they touch into their mouths, they could expect to be experiencing flu symptoms shortly! Integrate math by asking students to draw the pattern and asking them to extend the pattern beyond the initial 16 students. What if each of them shook hands with 3 others? etc.

Research has shown that patients who believe that they have been given medication, but who instead have received a placebo, can still experience the positive--or negative--predicted effects of the medication. In this lesson students themselves will research what is now known as the "placebo effect" by helping to design and carry out a double-blind experiment to test the effectiveness of caffeine on memory.

Introduce the concept of the "placebo effect" at the WhyFiles Web site for kids. Inform students that they will be designing and participating in an experiment to test whether caffeine, found in most soft drinks and in other foods and beverages, can improve memory. At the same time, they will be researching the "placebo effect."

Discuss caffeine as a well-known stimulant of the central nervous system. Point to various research linking caffeine with improved memory. Relevant articles may be found at the BBC News site and at NewsWise.

Ask students to define the term "control group." Why are control groups so important in scientific research?. What would happen if researchers just gave everyone a particular medicine or treatment? Introduce the concept of a "double blind" experiment, where neither the researchers nor the subjects know whom has received the real treatment(s). Discuss the importance of random selection in choosing subjects for an experiment.

Have students brainstorm ways to randomly divide the class into three groups: researchers, subjects, and a control group. (e.g. choose marked slips of paper from bag). Have students brainstorm ways to design a double blind experiment. (Suggestion: one group of students removes labels from caffeinated and "caffeine free" soda bottles and marks one bottle with an "A" and the other with a "Z." A second group, not knowing which bottle contains which soda, pours soda into numbered cups and records which cup numbers were filled from "A" and which from "Z". When subjects are called for "testing", they pick a numbered cup of their choice. The researcher, upon administering the follow-up memory test, will record the cup number on the subject's test. Only by comparing the cup number to both lists can the contents of the cup be determined.)

Have the student researchers administer a baseline word recall memory test. Three lists of ten words should be read and the results averaged. (Instead of writing their names on their tests, students should use randomly assigned numbers that are different than those on the cups.) It may be best to end the lesson here for the day, and begin the next lesson with the actual pouring of the soda, labeling of the cups, and taking of the "medicine." Fifteen minutes after consumption, the follow-up tests of three new word lists can be given.

At this point students should be asked whether they believe they received a caffeine drink, or a placebo, and why. Have them record this info on their test. Results can be tallied by the teacher, or by students, and graphed according to percentage of improvement across the three groups: caffeine and control.

At last, the results can be discussed, and the truth about who received caffeine, and who received a placebo revealed!! There may or may not have been a "placebo effect" but either way it can be discussed. What other factors might have influenced the test results?

Finally, the limitations of such an experiment should be discussed, along with the research showing the harmful effects of caffeine. Also, research on other memory-improving techniques can be shared.

PBS Online Resources: Sites to See <Return to Menu>

Epidemic! A Fred Friendly Seminar
Learn about the spread of infectious diseases.

Frontline: Dr. Solomon's Dilemma
How are doctors being affected by the rising cost of patient health insurance?

Frontline: Medicating Kids
Learn more about the ADHD diagnosis and the treatment options that follow.

NOVA: Killer Disease on Campus
Learn more about one of the most frightening infections on the planet: meningococcal disease.

NOVA: Survivor M.D.
Follow the careers and concerns of seven doctors whose lives as physicians began when they entered Harvard Medical School in 1987.

NOVA: Cancer Warrior
Learn how Dr. Judah Folkman treats cancer by cutting off blood flow to tumors.

NOVA: Coma
revolution in the making in the treatment of coma patients.

NOVA: Cut to the Heart
Explore a radical but promising new form of heart surgery that flies in the face of what most heart surgeons learned in medical school.

NOVA: Surviving AIDS

NOVA: Electric Heart
Meet the brilliant, obsessed surgeons and researchers who have pursued the target of a practical artificial heart for decades.

Health Week
Learn about new developments in medicine with this weekly newsmagazine.

Scientific American Frontiers: A Different Way to Heal
Learn more about the growing popularity of alternative medicine.

Scientific American Frontiers: Affairs of the Heart
Investigate advances in the repair and replacement of the hard-working heart.

Health Care Crisis: Who's At Risk?
How will America respond to millions of uninsured citizens?

Children's Hospital
Meet remarkable doctors, patients, and families at Chicago's Children's Memorial Hospital.

February 2003: Medicine & Health Care

Additional Thematic Resources

Teaching Ideas <Return to Menu>

PBS Online Resources: Sites to See <Return to Menu>