AIM
LESSON 4: Science GCSE Introduction This lesson plan is best used immediately after listening to episode 4 of the Starfish audio play/podcast. Either ask students to listen to the episode on their own, or listen to it together as a class.
NATIONAL CURRICULUM LINKS
Aims • To discuss the scientific, moral and ethical implications of new treatments that haven't undergone a clinical trial
14-16 How Science Works: • Develop an argument and draw conclusions • Consider how and why decisions about science and technology are made Curriculum link for Key Stage 4 Science How Science Works - 4b:
consider how and why decisions about science and technology are made, including those that raise ethical issues, and about the social, economic and environmental effects of such decisions
GCSE Specifications AQA
10.8:
Societal aspects of scientific evidence The uses of science and technology developments can raise ethical, social, economic and environmental issues
10.9:
Limitations of scientific evidence
Edexcel
Topic 4: Use, misuse and abuse Topic 8: Designer Products
Twenty First Century
Module B2: Keeping Healthy
AO1 Knowledge and understanding •
Demonstrate understanding of the power and limitations of scientific ideas and factors affecting how these ideas develop
•
Draw on existing knowledge to show understanding of the benefits and drawbacks of applications of science
PODCA ST EXTRACT
SAIRA
No, I can’t stay long. I just wanted to tell you what I’ve found out about that drug you read about on the Internet.
ADRIAN
(HOPEFUL) Yes?
SAIRA
Listen, Adrian, it hasn’t been properly trialled.
ADRIAN
On the Internet it said that it may be able to slow down the disease. The girl who took it is still alive 3 years later! That’s two and a half years more than the expected survival rate.
SAIRA
Yes, but it hasn’t been tested in a controlled and systematic way. My dad would turn in his grave.
ADRIAN
Sod your Dad! Why aren’t they doing a controlled trial?! Michael could be part of it.
SAIRA
But do you even know if Michael would want to do that?
ADRIAN
It’s impossible to tell what Michael wants anymore, you know that. I have to make that decision for him unfortunately. They should have consent cards shouldn’t they, for this kind of thing. Like donor cards. For people who get too sick to speak for themselves, like Michael.
SAIRA
Yes. Yes, maybe they should.
BEAT. ADRIAN LOOKS VERY DISAPPOINTED SAIRA
Look, it’s not just a tablet, this treatment involves surgery. They have to inject the drug into the patient’s brain. It could be uncomfortable, scary. Do you want Michael to go through that?
ADRIAN
I don’t know.
ACTIVITY
Either read the short extract above with the class, or, if they’ve only just listened to the podcast, refer to it. Ask students to think about whether they would give Michael the treatment if they were in Adrian’s position. Ask students to work in groups of two or three to create presentations to the rest of the class, using one of the following situations: •
•
As a doctor telling the family that he/she thinks it’s unwise for his/her patient to be taking a new treatment if it hasn’t been through an unbiased, controlled trial As a parent or carer asking a doctor to give your relative the new treatment
*Before starting, ask students to think about balance in their presentations, bearing in mind: • The difference between facts and opinions • The potential dangers and benefits of taking the new treatment • The difference between just taking a new treatment or having it as part of a clinical trial
Glossary
CJD Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) is a very rare and incurable degenerative neurological disorder (brain disease) that is ultimately fatal. The disease CJD is the human form of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), commonly known as Mad-Cow Disease, and is a fatal, neurodegenerative disease in cattle that causes a spongy degeneration in the brain. Another type of Acquired CJD, called variant (vCJD), has been identified in young people. Clinical Trials Clinical trials are medical research studies involving people. They aim to test whether different treatments are safe, and how well they work. Some trials involve healthy members of the public. Others involve patients who may be offered the option of taking part in a trial during their care and treatment. Clinical trials are carried out to try to answer specific questions about health and illness in health care. Controlled trials Controlled trials are designed to compare different treatments. Most controlled trials compare a new treatment with the standard or usual treatment, by setting up two groups of people. One group, known as the trial group or intervention group, is given the new treatment. The other, known as the control group, then gets the standard treatment. In situations where there is no standard treatment, the control group may not be given any treatment at all or may be given a placebo. Placebo A placebo is a substance or procedure a patient accepts as medicine or therapy, but which has no specific therapeutic activity. Any therapeutic effect is thought to be based on the power of suggestion. Placebo controlled trials are those trials where some participants take a placebo as a control, while the others take the drug being investigated. Here, the placebo is an inactive substance designed to resemble the drug being tested. It is used as a control to rule out any psychological effects that may show during testing. Most well-designed studies include a control group that is unwittingly taking a placebo.