Teaching about lungs using Coronavirus information
While it's important not to fuel anxiety about the current Coronavirus outbreak during Biology lessons, it can't be denied that the outbreak of this new virus, called Covid-19, catches student attention. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has an excellent website of materials to help doctors and decision makers around the world. One page is devoted to advice for the public and includes a series of mythbuster posters. This is good general information.
However this video How Coronavirus Kills: Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) & Treatment could be a really interesting way of combining the prescribed lab P6 6.4 Monitoring of ventilation at rest and after mild and vigorous exercise, Topic 6.3 Alveoli & gas exchange and Ventilation & lung disease
This suggestion would be great practise in the skill of applying IB Biology understanding to new examples.
Activity suggesion
Watch the video and discuss the small errors in the use of alveolus and alveoli,
Answer the following questions
Questions on lung anatomy & treatment
- The 600 million alveoli in the human body have thin walls? Why is the wall of alveolus and capillary very thin?
- Why does inflamation cause a problem for gas exchange in the lungs?
- When patients have difficulty breathing they are often put onto a ventilator. What does a ventilator do?
- Suggest why you think each of the following improvements to treatment of patients saves lives.
- Using a low tidal volume strategy.
- Paralysis of patients while they are on a ventilation machine.
- Putting patients into 'prone positioning' on their belly.
An excellent thoroughly informative video which covers history of the virus, symptoms, treatment of patients with the disease.
There is a great interactive dashboard from the John hopkins University here,