Tag Archives: IBSE

EPIGLOTTIS PROJECT

Posted on by

Author: Daniele Brioschi

Start date: 27/03/2020

From our previous lesson, we learned the structure of our respiratory apparatus, and some of you told me “There is a bifurcation in our throat! Why doesn’t the food enter the trachea going into the lungs?”. It was a great question! In our throat there is a mechanism that prevents food going into the lungs and allows air going into the larynx. How does it work? Imagine being a biomedical engineer; what structure could YOU design? 

This activity started in this way, during an online lesson with my 12 years old students. I didn’t answer their questions but I proposed that they are biomedical engineers for a day and have to design their own artificial epiglottis. I created a simple model of the human throat using a shoebox.

I asked students to design a structure with recycled materials to be installed on the bifurcation model, above the esophagus and larynx. The structure should allow food (marbles in the model) to go into the esophagus and not enter the larynx. In addition, the structure has to allow air to flow freely through the respiratory tract.

During the lesson we followed the steps of IBSE method in this way:

  • 5 minutes to think individually and make the design in their own science notebook
  • 25 minutes to work in small groups, to share ideas with group mates, to choose just one idea and to present it on Jamboard
Continue reading →

Diffraction and interference around us

Posted on by

For years and years this has been my least favorite part of school’s curriculum. Too much messy drawing on the board, too much mathematical formulas, and from student’s point of view this was just empty talk. I naturally tried and tried to explain this to my students as best as I could, but even with experiments, that I could demonstrate during the class, I’ve felt that my students been missing the point. They would just try to memorise whole thing without any critical thinking, and let’s face it, what kind of a teacher would I be to let that happen? Most of my colleagues agreed that this is not an easy part of curriculum which it’s hard to be understood even by older students at faculties, and that it is meant only for top of class.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I am not saying that this was unnecessary part of school’s curriculum. This is fundamental part of physics. This was one of the first mistakes made by Newton. And shockingly this is where quantum mechanics starts (thank you Feynman). So I really needed to help my students learn more about this, but how?

Continue reading →

Open Lab: a place where you are the scientist

Posted on by

Open Lab, in Domus science centre, is a place to wear a lab coat, take safety goggles and handle the instruments that scientists use in their everyday life, from pipettes to centrifuges, agitators to scales, pipes and much more. We will run the following workshops in April 2018:
– Biotechnological revolution: Students become biotechnologist for one day and participate in searching a solution for the treatment of atherosclerosis.
– Investigate HIV vaccine: Try if the vaccine for AIDS in which scientists work in the IrsiCaixa Institute could be effective to protect the population from different continents.
– How are medicines developed? To participate in the synthesis of a new drug under investigation for Parkinson’s disease.
– Live dissections of heart and pig’s eye in the lab to show how these organs work. Wear your gloves, and look at the anatomy.
– Artists of Prehistory: A workshop to become a prehistoric artist and know the materials, techniques and favorite themes of our ancestors.
– ExploreDomus School: Science exploration activities that can be found in the kitchen, as make a hot dog mummy or discover the amazing cornstarch.

Visit us in http://es.mc2coruna.org/2012/12/laboratorio-abierto.html