Hands-on Activity Generating Ideas & Questions:
What Is Going on with Grandma?

Learning Objectives

After this activity, students should be able to:

• Apply background knowledge about osteoporosis and biomedical engineering to begin solving the challenge.
• Identify gaps in student knowledge needed to solve the challenge.

Educational Standards

Each TeachEngineering lesson or activity is correlated to one or more K-12 science, technology, engineering or math (STEM) educational standards.

All 100,000+ K-12 STEM standards covered in TeachEngineering are collected, maintained and packaged by the Achievement Standards Network (ASN), a project of D2L (www.achievementstandards.org).

In the ASN, standards are hierarchically structured: first by source; e.g., by state; within source by type; e.g., science or mathematics; within type by subtype, then by grade, etc.

NGSS: Next Generation Science Standards - Science

International Technology and Engineering Educators Association - Technology

State Standards

Materials List

Bone Module Worksheet, one per student

Worksheets and Attachments

Introduction/Motivation

Today let's continue to brainstorm thoughts in response to the challenge question.

Engineers are presented with challenges every day so they generate ideas and gather the information necessary to find solutions. Specifically, biomedical engineers study problems associated with the human body in order to find solutions.

In this activity, you will follow the same process. First, consider what background knowledge you have that will help you to answer this question. Then, consider the topics you need to learn to answer the challenge question.

(Hand out the worksheets.) On this worksheet, record your thoughts. Then, after several minutes, you will join with a partner and brainstorm for a little while longer. I will ask you to share your responses with the rest of the class. We will categorize everyone's ideas into the main topics that we need to explore in order to help you answer the challenge question.

Procedure

Background

This activity introduces students to the first step of the legacy cycle: generating ideas. Students begin generating ideas on the challenge question and contribute to a class discussion in an engaging manner.

Before the Activity

• Make copies of the Bone Module Worksheet, one per student.

With the Students

1. Describe the challenge to the students.
2. Ask students to individually make notes on their worksheets for a few minutes as they reflect on what they know and what they learned in the videos presented in the Fix the Hip Challenge lesson.
3. Then assign small groups and have students share their thoughts with each other, recording all their brainstorming ideas on the worksheets.
4. As a class, ask students from each group to share their thoughts.
5. Compile student suggestions on the board to provide a visual.
6. Encourage students to develop their own questions that need to be answered as well.
7. Generate a list of a few knowledge areas on which the students should focus. Categorize the concepts they have suggested into the knowledge areas.

Vocabulary/Definitions

biomedical engineering: The application of engineering principles and techniques to the medical field. It combines the design and problem solving skills of engineering with medical and biological sciences to help improve patient health care and the quality of life of individuals.

BMD: Acronym for bone mineral density. BMD is the mineral content in a given volume of bone, used as a measure of bony health and in the diagnosis of osteoporosis.

DEXA scan: Acronym for dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry. A device that measures bone mineral density.

osteoporosis: A disorder in which the bones become increasingly porous, brittle and subject to fracture, owing to loss of calcium and other mineral components.

Assessment

Activity Embedded Assessment

Worksheets: Have students complete the Bone Module Worksheet; review their notes to assess their comprehension of the subject matter. Determine students' daily participation grade by considering their individual contributions while the class compiles its thoughts.

Post-Activity Assessment

Calculated Risk Problem: Many gene mutations can increase the chances of a person developing osteoporosis, and researchers are determining the roll of each of these genes in bone development. Some of the genes involved include the vitamin D receptor gene, the COLIA1 gene and the COLIA2 gene. Give students the following problem scenario to solve:

• Your grandmother possesses two of the mutations linked to osteoporosis. Calculate the risk of her passing one of these genetic traits to you. Assume a 50% chance that a gene gets passed from mother to child, the rest of your grandparents do not possess these mutations, and the mutations are independent.

Answer: Assuming a child has a 50% risk of inheriting each mutation from his/her parent, a 50% chance exists that your grandmother passes each trait to her child (let's say, your mother). If we label the mutations A and B, The probability that your mother receives the trait A is P(A)=0.5, and the probability that your mother receives trait B is P(B)=0.5. The probability that your mother receives both traits is P(A and B) = P(A)P(B) = (0.5)(0.5) = 0.25. The chance of your mother receiving A or B is P(A or B) = P(A) + P(B) - P(A and B) = 0.75 or 75%. Thus, your mother has a 75% chance of inheriting one or both of the genes. Similarly, for you, P(A) = (0.5)(0.5) = 0.25, P(B) = (0.5)(0.5) = 0.25, P(A and B) = P(A)P(B) = (0.25)(0.25) = 0.0625, and finally, P(A or B) = P(A) + P(B) - P(A and B) = 0.25 + 0.25 - 0.0625 = 0.4375. So, you have a 43.75% chance of inheriting one or both of the genes from your grandmother.

References

Copyright

Contributors

Supporting Program

Acknowledgements

The contents of this digital library curriculum were developed under National Science Foundation RET grant nos. 0338092 and 0742871. However, these contents do not necessarily represent the policies of the NSF, and you should not assume endorsement by the federal government.