When I start teaching the immune system, I begin with the tissues and organs that are important to it's function. I like doing this first because it lays some basic groundwork of what cells are involved in immunity, where they are located, and the tissues that help with the 1st line of defense. I also think this is the first time most students have looked at tissues under the microscope and had to identify parts of these tissues and relate those to functions. For many of my students, this was one of the more difficult things we did all year. They had to really focus to see the differences in the tissue types.
The way I teach the tissues, is through a multi-day lab. Students work through readings, videos, and microscope slides to learn about various tissues and organs.
Students start with integumentary system first. They read and watch videos to help them answer questions about the epidermis, sweat glands, hair follicles, dermis, and superficial fascia and color a diagram. When they are done with that, they get a skin slide, and draw what they see in the microscope, trying to identify all the parts they just learned about. Then they look at a sole skin slide and compare and contrast the tissues.
They continue this same process through the lymphatic system. There are readings, videos, diagrams to color, and microscope slides to identify. The following tissues are what they learn about:
Tonsils
Thymus
Spleen
Lymph nodes
The only downfall of this lab is you need a good amount of microscope slides. I only have about 3-4 of each type, so students will start at different places in the packet. You don't have to start with integumentary, it is built so students can pick up in any section and move through at their own pace.
Here are the directions: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KmUOhnVQBvJxaP1qhsdi12Mi4-H4z1zaUWYN8PVM3nE/edit?usp=sharing
Here is the student document: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UhIfGKZEsHHksrFUbS-OMjXwte21lHeO9XN8DRCcmLg/edit?usp=sharing
Happy Teaching!
Mrs. Townsend