National Institutes of Health
National Library of Medicine

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Lesson 1: “Living Factories”

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Lessons

  1. Lesson 1: “Living Factories”

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  2. Lesson 2: An Immune Response

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Introduction

Students are introduced to diphtheria and antitoxin treatment through three primary–source images featured in From DNA to Beer. They then learn about the cause of and 19th–century treatments for diphtheria by exploring the “Living Factories” section of the online exhibition.

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Materials:

Materials and set-ups

  • A display set-up for the class—e.g., interactive whiteboard, computer—connected projector, blackboard, or whiteboard
  • Internet access to the following web resource or equivalent printed resources:

  1. Introduce and hand out copies of the Three Primary Sources worksheet to students. Have students work in pairs to complete the worksheet.
  2. Have several students share their definitions of the three phrases and how the three images may be related. Encourage students to explain how they used the images and titles to make those inferences. See suggested discussion guides on Teacher’s Three Primary Sources.
  3. Display the “Living Factories” exhibition section. Tell students that the three primary–source images are from the “Living Factories” part of the From DNA to Beer exhibition website.
  4. Read aloud the statement at the beginning of “Living Factories”, starting with “Humans and animals have natural defenses…” and ending with “…use of large numbers of animals for production.”
  5. Tell students to work in pairs again and re-describe how the three primary-source images may be related, based on the exhibition text.
  6. Have students volunteer how they have rephrased the relationship among those three primary-source images. Summarize for the class that the horses were used to produce medicine—i.e., diphtheria antitoxin serum for human patients.
  7. Distribute copies of Diphtheria: Cause and Treatments to students and review the worksheet instructions as a class. Afterwards, provide students online access to the “Living Factories” exhibition section and allow them to work in pairs to complete the worksheet.
  8. Have the class come together and ask several students to share answers on their completed worksheets. See suggested discussion guides on Teacher’s Diphtheria: Cause and Treatments.
  9. Collect both worksheets that students have completed in the class for evaluation.
  10. Class 1 Evaluation: Teachers may evaluate students’ prior knowledge and learning progress through informal observations, as well as students’ completed worksheets.