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Touch the Spring (Lightbulb)
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In this activity, a lightbulb is placed in front of a concave mirror. The actual lightbulb is not visible to the viewer, but the viewer can see the mirror image of the lightbulb formed in space. When the viewer tries to touch the lightbulb, they are attempting to touch an image. Their hand moves right through what seems to be a solid object! Learners will enjoy this illusion, while investigating principles of light and mirrors. In this version of a popular Exploratorium exhibit, a lightbulb is substituted for a spring.

Author:
The Exploratorium
California Department of Education
NEC Foundation of America
National Science Foundation
Viral Hijackers
Read the Fine Print
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Students learn how viruses invade host cells and hijack the hosts' cell-reproduction mechanisms in order to make new viruses, which can in turn attack additional host cells. Students also learn how the immune system responds to a viral invasion, eventually defeating the viruses -- if all goes well. Finally, they consider the special case of HIV, in which the virus' host cell is a key component of the immune system itself, severely crippling it and ultimately leading to AIDS. The associated activity, Tracking a Virus, sets the stage for this lesson with a dramatic simulation that allows students to see for themselves how quickly a virus can spread through a population, and then challenges students to determine who the initial bearers of the virus were.

Subject:
Applied Science
Engineering
Health, Medicine and Nursing
Material Type:
Activity/Lab
Lesson Plan
Author:
Engineering K-PhD Program,
Mary R. Hebrank (project writer and consultant)
Date Added:
09/18/2014
Walk This Way
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After students have complete the associated activity to collect and graph acceleration data from walking human subjects, they learn more about gait analysis---the study of human motion, which is used as biometric data for human medical diagnostics and (non-human) comparative biomechanics. They learn about the steps that comprise the universal process of engineering analysis—data collection, data analysis, mathematical modeling and reporting—and consider how these steps could be applied to analyze a person's gait, which prepares them to conduct the second associated activity.

Author:
IMPART RET Program, College of Information Science & Technology,
Jeremy Scheffler, Brian Sandall
We've Come a Long Way, Baby!
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Students discuss several human reproductive technologies available today pregnancy ultrasound, amniocentesis, in-vitro fertilization and labor anesthetics. They learn how each technology works, and that these are ways engineers have worked to improve the health of expecting mothers and babies.

Author:
Malinda Schaefer Zarske
Kristin Field
Integrated Teaching and Learning Program,
Denise W. Carlson
TeachEngineering.org
What Do I Need to Know about Heart Valves?
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Students are presented with the unit's grand challenge problem: You are the lead engineer for a biomaterials company that has a cardiovascular systems client who wants you to develop a model that can be used to test the properties of heart valves without using real specimens. How might you go about accomplishing this task? What information do you need to create an accurate model? How could your materials be tested? Students brainstorm as a class, then learn some basic information relevant to the problem (by reading the transcript of an interview with a biomedical engineer), and then learn more specific information on how heart tissues work their structure and composition (lecture information presented by the teacher). This prepares them for the associated activity, during which students cement their understanding of the heart and its function by dissecting sheep hearts to explore heart anatomy.

Author:
Michael Duplessis
VU Bioengineering RET Program, School of Engineering, Vanderbilt University,
What Is a Motor? How Does a Rotation Sensor Work?
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Students learn about electric motors and rotational sensors. They learn that motors convert electrical energy to mechanical energy and typically include rotational sensors to enable distance measuring. They also learn the basics about gear trains and gear ratios. Students create a basic program using the LEGO MINDSTORMS(TM) NXT interface to control a motor to move a small robot. Then, through a 10-minute mini-activity, they make measurements and observations to test a LEGO rotation sensor's ability to measure distance in rotations. This prepares them for the associated activity during which they calculate how many wheel rotations are needed to travel a distance. A PowerPoint® presentation, worksheet and pre/post quizzes are provided.

Author:
GK-12 Program, Computational Neurobiology Center,
Nishant Sinha, Pranit Samarth, Satish S. Nair
What Is a Sensor?
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Students gain a rigorous background in the primary human "sensors," as preparation for comparing them to some electronic equivalents in the associated activity. A review of human vision, hearing, smell, taste and touch, including the anatomies and operational principles, is delivered through a PowerPoint® presentation. Students learn the concept of "stimulus-sensor-coordinator-effector-response" to describe the human and electronic sensory processes. Student pairs use blindfolds, paper towels and small candies in a taste/smell sensory exercise. They take pre/post quizzes and watch two short online videos. Concepts are further strengthened by conducting the associated activity the following day, during which they learn about electronic touch, light, sound and ultrasonic sensors and then "see" sound waves while using microphones connected to computers running (free) Audacity® software.

Author:
Srijith Nair, Pranit Samarth, Satish S. Nair
GK-12 Program, Computational Neurobiology Center,
Who Robbed the Bank?
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Students use DNA profiling to determine who robbed a bank. After they learn how the FBI's Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) is used to match crime scene DNA with tissue sample DNA, students use CODIS principles and sample DNA fragments to determine which of three suspects matches evidence obtain at a crime location. They communicate their results as if they were biomedical engineers reporting to a police crime scene investigation.

Author:
Malinda Schaefer Zarske
Integrated Teaching and Learning Program,
Frank Burkholder
Denise W. Carlson
You're the Expert
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Student teams learn about and devise technical presentations on four reproductive technology topics pregnancy ultrasound, amniocentesis, in-vitro fertilization or labor anesthetics. Each team acts as a panel of engineers asked to make a presentation to a group of students unfamiliar with the reproductive technology. Each group incorporates non-lecture elements into its presentation for greater effectiveness. As students learn about the technologies, by creating a presentation and listening to other groups' presentations, they also learn more about the valuable skill of technical communications.

Author:
Malinda Schaefer Zarske
Kristin Field
Integrated Teaching and Learning Program,
Denise W. Carlson
A Zombie Got My Leg
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Students experience the engineering design process as they design and construct lower-leg prostheses in response to a hypothetical zombie apocalypse scenario. Like the well-known Apollo 13 story during which engineers were challenged to fix the crippled spacecraft with limited supplies in order to save astronauts' lives, in this activity, students act as engineers during an imaginary disaster in which a group member's leg was amputated in order to survive a zombie attack. Building on what they learned and researched in the associated lesson, they design and fabricate a replacement prosthetic limb using given specific starting material and limited additional supplies, similar to how engineers design for individuals while working within constraints. A more-advanced scenario challenges students to design a prosthesis that is able to provide a more-specific movement function.

Author:
Megan Ketchum, Andrea Lee
National Science Foundation GK-12 and Research Experience for Teachers (RET) Programs,