My first few years of teaching Microbiology at the HS level, I taught the Immune System at the end of the year right before our Epidemiology unit. Going into my 3rd year, I realized that it would be a lot easier to teach prokaryotic and eukaryotic functional anatomy in terms of how they may cause disease, if students had a better understanding of the immune system.
Teaching the immune system can be a bit complicated and difficult to teach, in my opinion. This year I thought it went much better, so I plan on doing a few posts of some of the activities that we did during the unit.
After going over the 1st and 2nd line of defenses, we spend some time learning about different white blood cells: how to identify them and what their main functions are. I use a chart, Cells of the Innate Immune System, and students take notes while I go over major characteristics and show them pictures of each one.
I tell them we are going to spend a little time focusing on the phagocytic white blood cells: neutrophils, macrophages, and dendritic cells.
Then I show them a video of a white blood cell engulfing bacteria. We discuss that this process is called phagocytosis and while it looks very simple in the video, there are particular steps that must occur.
I pass out this notes page, that contains the major steps of phagocytosis. Then I give them this modeling activity directions page. Students work in pairs to model the process using playdoh. Below are some samples of their work.
I hope you can find a way to use this activity in your class. I have found that modeling with playdoh is a great way for students to practice processes and help it stick.
Happy Teaching!
Mrs. Townsend
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