Diabetes

Activity time: 30-60 minutes. (Dependent on how much time you want to use; I gave the pupils 45 minutes…

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Activity time: 30-60 minutes. (Dependent on how much time you want to use; I gave the pupils 45 minutes to complete all the activities plus a worksheet.  The remaining 15 minutes of lesson time was spent sorting out the laptops they used and reviewing the work they completed.)

Level/Prior knowledge: I used this with a year 11 set 1, who will all be sitting the higher tier Additional Science paper.  They already had knowledge of other homeostatic mechanisms, for example control of body temperature and removal of waste from the body.  No prior knowledge of control of blood glucose concentration or of diabetes is necessary.

Subject/curriculum links/skills: Homeostasis – control of blood glucose concentration and diabetes (AQA Additional Science unit B2).

Preparation time: Less than a minute.

Extra resources: Computers or laptops for students to work on (in pairs or individually).  In addition, I produced a worksheet with questions on so they could summarise the key points they will need to revise for their exam in June.

Commentary: This activity is an interactive resource produced by ABPI.  It covers how blood glucose concentration is controlled, what diabetes is and how the importance of insulin was discovered.  There are written descriptions of the key information, as well as multiple choice quizzes and interactive animations to guide students through their learning.  Key terms are highlighted; hovering the mouse pointer over these words brings up a definition of each word.  There is also a post-16 version of the activity available.  In the lesson, the students were given the lesson objectives (i.e. that they would be learning about how blood glucose concentration is controlled and about the discovery and treatment of diabetes), then they were shown the interactive using a projector at the front of the class.  Each pupil was given a worksheet comprising of questions to which the answers would summarise everything they needed to know about this topic for their B2 exam in June.  Working in pairs, the students used a laptop to read and work through the quizzes and activities on each page of the resource, filling in answers to the questions they had been given on the sheet as they found them.  The last 5-10 minutes of the lesson was spent reviewing the answers they had found.  Each pair of students managed to complete the required tasks in the time allowed, although some worked faster than others so were given extension tasks.  The majority of pupils said they had enjoyed learning about the topic through the use of the interactive, and a few commented that they would probably use the resource again when they come to revise.  In my opinion, the resource is well set out and it covers all of the subject content they need for this part of the specification.
 

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