ANIMAL USE IN SCIENCE: DESIGNING PLAYGROUNDS FOR LABORATORY ANIMALS

Summary

Animal use in science refers to animals used in basic and applied research, i.e., products used in drug development or manufacture, and chemicals, food additives, and other testing to ensure they are safe. The three Rs stand for modification, reduction, and improvement of animal use in science. Anyone who uses animals for scientific purposes in the European Union must practice the Three Rs. Under EU law (Directive 2010/63/EU). Animal testing on cosmetic products is prohibited under EU legislation. This Learning Scenario (LS) will enable middle school students to learn about animal studies, Three Rs careers and animal care. It will also touch on the Three R principles and their importance in governing the use of animals in science. Secondary school students will design a playground for experimental animals in order to improve the environments in which animals live during the use of animals in science.

Overview
SubjectScience Scientific thinking İnformation technologies  
TopicAnimal research, alternatives, Three Rs principles Integrated IT and Science course for middle school students  
Age of students12-14 years old
Preparation time3 hours
Teaching time160 minutes
Online teaching materialVideo to watch to draw attention to the topic and discuss it with students: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPNNNXOrkqM&ab_channel=tahabat%C4%B1kanvar Video to be used to introduce 3R in the description step: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdKiD5pW2XY&t=201s&ab_channel=NationalCentreforthe3Rs Web 2.0 tool that students will use for playground design: https://www.tinkercad.com/  
Offline teaching materialPaper for students’ drawings Paper for students to write instructions/take notes/ Pencils for students  
Resources usedAnimals used for scientific purposes: https://ec.europa.eu/environment/chemicals/lab_animals/3r/alternative_en.htm Video to watch to draw attention to the topic and discuss it with students: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPNNNXOrkqM&ab_channel=tahabat%C4%B1kanvar Video to be used to introduce 3R in the description step: https://www-youtube-com.translate.goog/watch?v=LdKiD5pW2XY&t=201s&_x_tr_sl=en&_x_tr_tl=tr&_x_tr_hl=tr&_x_tr_pto=nui Web 2.0 tool that students will use for playground design: https://www.tinkercad.com/  

Aim Of The lesson

Exploring the Three Rs principle embedded in European Union legislation,

To learn about the career profiles of practitioners who apply the Three Rs in their work,

To gain knowledge in the field of animal use in science,

Studying how to study STEM subjects.

Trends

  • Project-Based Learning: students get fact-based tasks, problems to solve and they work in groups. This kind of learning usually transcends traditional subjects.
  • Lifelong Learning: learning does not stop when leaving school.
  • Collaborative Learning: a strong focus on group work.
  • STEM Learning: Increased focus on Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics subjects in the curriculum
  • Student Centered Learning: students and their needs are at the centre of the learning process.
  • Assessment: the focus of assessments is shifting from “what you know” to “what you can do.”
  • Peer Learning: students learn from peers and give each other feedback.

21st Century Skills

  • Critical thinking
  • Communication
  • Cooperation
  • Creativity and Innovation
  • Problem solving
  • Digital literacy

Engage

The teacher shows the students the video in the link.

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPNNNXOrkqM&ab_channel=tahabat%C4%B1kanvar Ask the students, “Why do you think animals are used in experiments? What do you think about experiments on animals? Have you heard of The Three Rs? “asks questions and encourages students to express their opinions.

Explore

The teacher, who takes the students’ opinions on the subject, asks the students to bring the use of animals in science and The Three Rs researches and findings to the class.

Explain

After completing their research, students present their data on The Three Rs and the use of animals in science to their classmates in teams. The teacher listens to the students’ presentation and fills in the missing parts. The teacher shows the students the video about The Three Rs.

Video:

What are the “Three Rs”?

The publication of The Principles of Humane Experimental Technique”  by W.M.S. Russell and R.L. Burch in 1959 marks the birth of the principle of the “Three Rs”.

The authors proposed the principles of Replacement, Reduction and Refinement (the “Three Rs”) as the key strategies of a systematic framework aimed at achieving the goal of humane experimental techniques. Russell and Burch saw replacement as the ultimate goal for laboratory animal based research, education and testing, with the other two, reduction and refinement, being more readily achievable in the short term.

Replacement

It can be defined as methods, strategies or approaches that do not involve the use of live animals. Replacement may be achieved through a number of tools or their combinations including in vitro systems using tissues, whole cells or parts of cells systems based on biochemical approaches, i.e. using synthetic (macro)molecules as proxies of (reactive) toxicity targets. Such methods are referred to as “in chemico” computer-based models and approaches – often termed in silico use of ‘omics’ technologies (e.g. transcriptomics, proteomics and metabonomics) non-testing approaches such as ‘read-across’ technique

Reduction

The concept of reduction covers any approach that will result in fewer animals being used to achieve the same objective, including maximising the information abtained per animal, reducing the number of animals used in the original procedure and/or limiting or avoiding the subsequent use of additional animals. The number of animals can also be reduced by performing procedures on animals more than once, where this does not detract from the scientific objective or result in poor animal welfare. However, the benefit of reusing animals should always be balanced against any adverse effects on their welfare, taking into account the lifetime experience of the individual animal. As a result of this potential conflict, the reuse of animals should be considered on a case-by-case basis.

Refinement

Today, the term refinement signifies the modification of any procedures or husbandry and care practices from the time the experimental animal is born until its death, so as to minimise the pain, suffering and distress experienced by the animal and enhance its well-being.

When an animal experiences pain, suffering or distress, there are often accompanying physiological changes which may increase the variability of scientific results. Refinement therefore is also likely to improve data quality and contribute to Reduction. Refinement can also be achieved by moving from species that are considered more sentient to those less sentient. Examples: substituting the use of an adult fish with earlier life stages, for example, before entering under the scope of the Directive, or substituting the use of fish with daphnia. These are both considered methods of refinement as they are likely to reduce the pain, suffering and distress experienced by the animal, however, still requiring the use of live animals.

Elaborate

The teacher asks the students to design a playground for the laboratory animals to improve their environment. He asks them to draw their designs on a piece of paper and then create their designs in three dimensions using the tinkercad program. The aim here is to ensure the integration of science, engineering and technology. Students use their engineering skills while drawing the prototype they will design on a piece of paper. They actively use technology while designing playgrounds through the Tinkercad program.

Evaluate

Students who complete their designs present their designs to their classmates. During the presentation, each group is evaluated by peer assessment with the rubrics prepared by the teacher.

Assessment

Peer assessment will be done with rubric.The rubric is given below.

QuantitiesBad (1)Good (2)excellent (3)
 Creating products   
Accurate measurement of the created product   
Availability of the product     
Promoting the product and sharing the process   

Student Feedback

This learning scenario has not yet been implemented. At the end of the application, students’ feedback can be made on the padlet.

Teacher’s Remarks

It is thought that this learning scenario will raise students’ awareness about the use of animals in science and The Three Rs by using STEM disciplines.

AIR DRIVEN CARS

The “Air Driven Cars” project aims for our students to create a vehicle with a STEM organization through design-oriented activities. The main theme is to make vehicles with different designs due to the depletion of natural resources day by day. Work on this project was carried out between April 15 and April 29. It is a matter of designing a vehicle that can produce its own energy using natural resources.

Ages of students: 9-10

Teaching time: 9 hours

Online teaching materials: YouTube, Learning Apps, ChatterPix, Scratch.

Materials: Materials may vary according to the student’s design. However, care is taken to use recycled materials. Balloon, scissors, glue, colored paper, plastic bottle, drinking straw, bottle cap, wooden stick can be used.

Project-based learning (PBL) and STEM techniques are used.

At the end of the learning scenario, students will be able to:

  • Design vehicles that can provide its own energy, benefit from the power of nature, reduce labor and produce less cost.
  • Develop students’ creativity and thinking skills.
  • Increase entrepreneurial skills as new ideas and designs emerge.
  • Measure in centimeters and millimeters, which are standard length measurement units.
  • Solve problems related to calculating the perimeter of shapes.
  • Use web2 tools.
  • Make inventions according to the needs of their environment.

Entrance

The teacher draws the attention of the students by entering the class with as many balloons as the number of students in the class. She distributes all the balloons to the children.

“What is inside the balloon?”, “What is the importance of the air in the balloon for living things? “, “Can we use air for other things?” she asks.

She then unties the balloon in her hand and empties the air, allowing the balloon to fly in the classroom. Asks the students, “What moves the balloon forward?”. Thus, the attention is drawn to the subject by brainstorming.

Students are shown a cartoon movie about the subject.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VV09XTBVuAM

Videos of air-powered tools are watched.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcZ8s_WkYl8

Exploring

Students are told that air, which is of great importance for the life of all living things in nature, can be used as a much greater power when compressed, and useful things can be done to facilitate human life.

A story is read to the students.

                                             DOES THE CAR GO?

On a hot summer day, Mete was playing with his toys at home. He was driving in the car park and shouting “Dut… dutt…”. Then he lined up the colorful cars and looked at them lovingly. He thought that one day he would have a car like this too. He was going to have a red car with big wheels that never ran out of gas.

Then he put his toys aside and sat by the window and looked out. He saw how the sudden wind blows the plastic bag that fell on the road.. ‘Wow .. it’s going well’, he said. While he was looking at the plastic bag that disappeared among the trees, he was imagining his car. He whispered that his car will fly like this, too. Then he looked at the clock on the wall and thought it was more time before his father arrived. Every day, he eagerly was waiting for his father to come home from work and explain how cars worked. During this excited waiting, he fell asleep on the edge of the sofa in front of the window.

In his dream, he found himself in a place with many cars. He saw the red car he always wanted to have and ran towards it. He got in the car, turned the key, but could not start it. Then he looked at other cars. They weren’t working, either. He went to the place where the people were, and asked why the cars were not running. People said that now all the oil fields in the world have dried up and all the resources to keep cars running are gone. Mete was very, very upset when he heard that the cars were no longer working. He was awakened by the sound of the horn outside. He was very happy when he realized that what he saw was a dream. It was only after this dream that he began to think about how to run a car without petroleum fuels.

And suddenly he thought of the plastic bag blowing in the wind…

Students are asked questions about the story.

  • Children, can we help Mete?
  • Well children, if the air has such a power, can we use this power to make a means of transportation?
  • Can we design a vehicle that does not harm nature and does not pollute the air?

After the students’ ideas are taken, the following videos are watched.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7L5zgZxsodM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_B07nPhzGH4

https://www.haberturk.com/ekonomi/otomobil/haber/1239803-hava-ile-calisan-otomobil-yapti

Explanation

The teacher gives brief information about the subject of “force and motion” to the students.

Force: The effect we apply to move an object, change its direction, stop, slow down or accelerate is called force.

The force provides us with great convenience. It allows us to do many things we want to do.

– Allows us to move fixed objects.

– It allows us to stop the moving object.

– We can slow down or speed up different moving objects.

– We can also change the direction of moving objects.

– We can also change the shape of objects with force.

Then she makes a statement about gas substances. The spaces between the particles of matter are much larger than liquid and solid substances. Vapor, air in a flying balloon, air hitting your face when you shake the fan are examples of gaseous substances. She uses the learningapps web2 tool, plays games about force and movement. Children learn by having fun.

By showing the picture above, how can we apply a method, so that the car we are going to design can move in the direction of motion using air?

What can we use to make our car?

What can we use to move the car?

With the questions asked, the students are provided to reach the design they will create.

It has been concluded that the vehicle can move with rapid air output.

The design begins.

Deepening

The teacher divides the students into groups. Attention is paid to the use of recyclable materials in the activities to be held. Materials such as pet bottles, pipette, 4 caps, balloons and glue are given to children.

Children, divided into groups, are asked to design a vehicle that can move with the thrust of the air according to the following criteria.

Criteria:

  •   Your vehicle will be move entirely by the power of air.
  •   Mobility will not be restricted.
  •   Its wheels will be able to move a certain distance smoothly.
  •   Care will be taken to that the distance between the wheels is equal.
  •   Joint work will be done.

Each group makes designs for their tools. The teacher helps them in this process by guiding them when necessary. Students are first asked to draw their designs on paper.

Students begin to build a prototype of their work. Hold the pet bottle from sideways. To make a car, while paying attention to the equal spacing of the wheels, the bottom of the bottle and the middle of the bottle are marked. The marked areas and the covers to be used for wheel construction are drilled with the support of the teacher.

Measured and cut evenly, fine straws are passed through the opening in the sides of the bottle and through the straw, by attaching a cap to the ends of the garbage skewers. The cover is fixed on the other end and the wheels are prepared. Then 2 thick straws are fixed together and one end is inserted into the balloon, tied tightly and fixed, so that the air does not escape.

The center point of the plastic bottle is measured again and fixed to the top. The part to be inflated remains in the air.

The balloon on the vehicle is inflated by blowing air from the pipette. The other end of the pipette is clogged to prevent air leakage. The vehicles will move when the clogged end of the pipette is opened and placed on the ground. Then the students calculate how long the vehicle they designed moves, and how far the vehicle has traveled in a given time period.

Then, the designs prepared by the students are voiced with the Chatterpix web2 tool and they are provided to explain the features of the vehicles.

In the next lesson, an online chat with an automotive engineer is made and the real-life cost, material and price research of the prototype he prepared is researched and the table is filled. Thus, the student has an idea about whether the prototype he/she has prepared can be applied in real life.

CODING AREA

In coding with Scratch, students are provided to design a car racing game that earns points by catching air using code blocks. The game designed with the students under the guidance of the teacher is played in the classroom.

https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/534858200

Evaluation

A graph is created for peer assessment and self-assessment, an evaluation template (it will include the measurement, the drawing of the observation result and the evaluation graph), and a self-evaluation form (the children’s learning before and after the activity is evaluated with a comparative table).

Kısmet TÜRKAN KURNAZ- Akören Primary School – Afyon -Turkey

“Scientix Ambassador”- “STEM Teacher”

My Space Rocket for STEM

Children are curious and they begin to know and perceive the world at an early age. From the moment they are born, they tend to explore the environment by observing. In the “concrete operations” period, children tend to learn information with the help of materials. The information of children that learned through material becomes more pernament and open to discuss so that’s why we designed a rocket from bottle that will work with water to help our students to improve the interest that they have about space in our eTwinning project “STEM in Space”.

Materials that we used to make our rocket:

Plastic bottle, cork stopper, thick cardboard, bicycle pump, water, scissors, glue, relief valve.

How did we do our rocket:

First, we cut a conical cap and glued it as the tip of our plastik bottle and we made support legs from thick cardboard because our bottle was upside down. Then, we placed the relief valve in the cork stopper in such a way that water does not leak into the mouth of the bottle. Moreover, we put about a quarter of the water in the bottle. After that, we pumped air into the bottle with a bicycle pump. The plastic bottle jumped upwards in ten seconds.

To sum up, as we are awere of the importance of using materials during education period and we want to raise the interest of our students in STEM in Space topic, we desinged a rocket that can work with gas pressure. We hope it will be useful for my fellow colleagues and their dear students. I wish you an education life which is full of material learning eduation and of course space interest.

See you in another contents.

You can access the video of this event taken in our school from the link below. https://youtube.com/shorts/H9Jk3BupS7A?feature=share

SMART FARMERS

Real- life questions

We unconsciously use many disciplines together to solve a problem in our daily life. While teaching at school, we should not ignore interdisciplinary learning. With this learning scenario, Science and Information Technologies lessons were integrated and used. While sustainability and efficient use of resources are discussed in Science, they will be able to measure how much water a plant needs with coding in Information Technologies.
• Can you determine the water requirement of a plant by coding?
• What can the hygrometer be used for in daily life?
• In which parts of your house do you save water the most?

Course Goals

Biology
• Contributing to the efficient use of resources.
Informatics (ICT)
• Coding with Arduino.
• Measure the moisture of your soil with a hygrometer.

Entrance

The teacher makes the students watch the 25 Lt documentary below.

The following questions are asked to the students in order to determine the readiness level of the students. Brainstorming is done by collecting the answers from the students.

  1. Why do you think water is so important?
  2. Do you think that water resources are used sparingly in our country?
  3. What problems can a decrease in potable water cause?
  4. What can be done to reduce water use in agriculture?
    The teacher said to the students who answered the questions, “Imagine you are an agricultural engineer. Can you design a device that will reduce water use in agriculture and provide efficient irrigation?” The problem situation is given.

Exploring

Students were asked to conduct research on sustainable development and the efficient use of resources anAt this stage of the learning scenario, the students did research on sustainable development and the efficient use of resources. They gathered the information they obtained on the Canva Web 2.0 tool.

Explanation

At this stage, students explain the subject by presenting the data they have collected in the class. The teacher fills in the missing parts of the students.

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

The world population is increasing rapidly and with it, the need for energy is also increasing. Conscious use of resources in order to meet the energy needs of future generations is called sustainable development. It is aimed to prevent the exhaustion of natural resources without ignoring today’s needs. Sustainable development has two main pillars. The first of these is the efficient use of resources and the other is recycling.

Elaborate

At this stage, students’ science, technology and engineering disciplines are integrated. Students will look for solution suggestions suitable for the problem situation and present their solution suggestions to their teammates. The most appropriate solution proposal will be selected by the teams. Here, our students have chosen to develop an irrigation system with Arduino as a suitable solution to the problem situation. In the system created by the students, watering is done when necessary by measuring the soil moisture with the soil moisture sensor.In the created setup, students used soil moisture sensors. They measured the soil moisture and watered when necessary.

Sketching the design and creating its three-dimensional version

Here, our students draw attention to the efficient use of water. Students first drew their prototypes in 2D and then designed them. For the irrigation system, our students wrote codes and built a circuit on Arduino. Science and technology integration is provided here.

Evaluation

The students presented the prototype they created to their friends in the classroom. At the end of the presentation, the teacher evaluated the product and process of the students with the rubric he prepared. The irrigation system created by our students was presented at the TÜBİTAK 4006 Science Fair.

ÖĞRETMEN DEĞERLENDİRME FORMU
 NEED TO BE IMPROVEDGOODVERY GOOD
Identifying and analyzing the problem   
Finding possible solutions and choosing the best   
Sketch or simulated form of the design product   
Presenting the product   
Group work and collaboration   
Evaluate the product and think better   
Teacher Rubric

RECYCLE FOR A BETTER FUTURE

Summary

This project aims to raise awareness of our students about today’s environmental problems with the Steam approach, to increase environmental and recycling awareness in our children who will be adults of the future, to use our natural resources effectively, to avoid waste, to transform waste into art and to ensure that they produce rather than consume, to provide motivation by using technology and Web 2.0 tools and to teach our lessons. to integrate, to increase cooperation and self-confidence among students, to contribute to their foreign language skills. Our project was realized with the participation of 11 schools. Our project appeals to the 12-15 age group.

Participants in the project:

Project partners Ayşegül Kaşka- Nefise Yılmaz İpek Secondary School- İbradı, Cristina Marin- Colegio Cooperativa Al- Bayyana- Spain, Deniz Soydan – Yusuf Ziya Öner Science High School – Döşemealtı, Elisavate Stefanoska- Hristo Uzunov- North Macadonia, Emine Kutlu – Cumhuriyet Gülizar Osman Sarıca Secondary School Korkuteli, Figen Boyacıgil- Çalkaya 75 years Cumhuriyet Secondary School- Aksu, Magdalena Korzynska- Poland, Müyesser Esravaş- Çalkaya 75 Years Cumhuriyet Secondary School-Aksu, Necla Sever-Kargicak Secondary School- Alanya, Olcay Çakır- Private Life Design Schools- Alanya and Raşide It consists of Dayıoğlu – Antalya Science and Art Center – Kepez.

Teaching Resources (Material & Online tools)

Materials

Waste materials

kardboard

Glue

Paint

Online Tools:

https://wordart.com/

https://www.storyjumper.com/

https://www.artsteps.com/

https://www.pixton.com/

https://www.canva.com/

https://learningapps.org/

Learning Objectives

– To make students aware of environmental problems and to enable them to reach possible solutions

– To raise awareness of recycling in students

– Questioning recycling in terms of effective use of resources

– Taking care of waste control in the immediate vicinity

– Gaining the ability to find, understand, analyze, produce and share information

– To enable them to use technology effectively and efficiently

– Creating awareness of safe internet usage

– Supporting them to communicate effectively by developing cooperation, self-control, self-efficacy and self-confidence.

Entrance:

Recycling Wordclouds

In our project, which aims to raise environmental awareness among students, word clouds were created to reveal the readiness levels of students regarding recycling. Students used the WordArt Web 2.0 tool to create their word clouds.

Our WordArt word cloud works

Recycle for a Better Future Book

After revealing the readiness levels of the students, we wrote a joint story using the StoryJumper Web2 tool as a collaborative product work. We used the station technique while writing our joint story. Each group continued the story on the assigned page.

Our story

https://www.storyjumper.com/book/read/116718952/619612cf2e546

Exploring

We Recycle Letters for a Better Future

At this stage of our project, we organized recycling activities with our students. We wrote the initials of the name of our project using waste materials. The teams chose letters from the name of our project and created them using waste materials. We combined the created letters into a collage.

We Recycle Letters for a Better Future Collage

Explanation

In the explanation phase, recycling and environmental awareness, which are the main discipline goals of our project, are explained.

Recycle:

Recycling is the conversion of wastes that can be re-evaluated into raw materials through various processes and included in the production process again. Reuse, on the other hand, is the use of wastes in the same way until the end of their economic life, without undergoing any treatment other than collection and cleaning.

Importance of Recycling

  • It ensures the protection of natural resources.
  • It saves energy.
  • It provides convenience in garbage operations by reducing the amount of waste.
  • Thanks to the resource and energy savings it provides, it contributes to the development and economy of the country.

Elaborate

It is the stage where our project integrates with other disciplines.
Art integration: From Waste To Art
Technology integration: Safer Internet Day- Digital Games
English integration: Acrostic Poem

From Waste To Art

In the “From Waste to Art” activity, our students tried to create art products such as sculptures and paintings using waste products. In the event where science, engineering and art integration was ensured, our students were given a problem situation. The teams produced suitable solutions for this problem situation. Student teams chose the most suitable solution. Our students drew the prototype of the chosen solution on drawing papers in 2D. Then our students started to create the prototype. The products created by our students were presented as a virtual exhibition using the Artsteps Web 2.0 tool.

https://www.artsteps.com/embed/624e9dcabf3e6f07e1aeec71/560/315

Safer Internet Day

For February 8, Safe Internet Day, we created classes using the Pixton Web 2.0 tool and drew attention to safe internet rules.

Acrostic Poem

In the acrostic poetry activity, our students wrote texts consisting of the initials of our project and created a common poem. Here, by completing a text with our students, we used the station technique and integrated English with science.

Digital Games

In digital game development, which is the last activity of our project, technology and science were integrated. For this activity, we created the games of our project from Web 2.0 tools such as LearningApps, Kahoot, Wordwall, Quizizz.

Evaluation

At the end of our project, post-test scales were applied to our students for evaluation. In addition, our students’ opinions about the project were collected through Padlet.