Infectious Disease: Evolving Challenges to Human Health
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Adherence: What Sticks Can Make You Sick
 Overview of Activity
This activity is geared towards a more advanced student group. The focus of the experiment is to emphasize with students the interactions between microbes and cells by examining more closely the structure of their respective membranes.
Activity Type: In Class Laboratory Experiement
URLs: http://www.hhmi.org/biointeractive/disease/pdf/
adherence/adhere_overview.pdf
Grade Level: 9-12
Level of Difficulty: Advanced
Amount of Time Required for Activity: Three to Four 40-minute Class Periods
Recommended Uses:
Prior to attending exhibit, this laboratory experiment may be used as an activity to engage students in thinking about microbial membrane structure and how it affects medicinal success.
After visiting the exhibit, it may be used to reinforce and highlight microbial membrane structure and how it interacts with medication.
Description
Students begin by visually examining diagrams of the microbial membrane and cell membrane structures. They will then design experiments where they will study the adherence ability of membranes based on the presence of agglutinin, a microbe membrane protein through a precipitation reaction.
This activity was designed as part of a series on Infectious Diseases (2000 and Beyond) for the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
Relation to the Science Standards
High School
Content Standard A - Abilities Necessary to Do Scientific Inquiry
Content Standard C - The Cell
Content Standard C - Molecular Basis of Heredity
Content Standard F - Personal and Community Health
Related Part of the Exhibit
Vaccines and Human Immunity
Where Are They?
Additional Related Links
http://www.hhmi.org/biointeractive/disease/dvd.html
(to request free DVD)
| 
