STEMNET Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Network

http://www.manchestersciencefestival.com/media/2009/Resources/Manchester...

You might like to try this as a very practical activity and could involve family and carers as well as others in the school not from the science world. It is an activity I have seen a number of schools use and a lot of children enjoy and often it has involved the school in the local community bring in an older generation to teach the young ones how to knit a skill that is being lost in many places

Thanks Leanne and Tim, your suggestions are all great! I will struggle to chose which ones to go for...

One I use for Medical students, in the days before antibiotics, syphilis could be treated by infecting the person with malaria. The high temperature from the malaria infection killed off the bacteria and then the malaria was treated with quinine. That was the idea anyway.

High blood pressure in the 1930's was treated by William Kempner using a low calorie rice and tinned fruit diet. It was apparently very successful but boring. Has now been replaced by drugs of course.

The cancer drug methotrexate was developed in the 1940's after children with leukaemia were given folic acid supplements which made their disease worse. The methotrexate is an analogue of folic acid and is still used today in cancer, arthritis and Crohn's disease.

Or how about the frog pregnancy test? Taking urine or serum from a woman who may be pregnant and injecting it into frogs to see if the frogs make eggs in response to the pregnancy hormones from the woman.

Hi Andrea,
I've recently become a STEM abassador so apologies in advance for not knowing how old P1-S1 pupils are. Have you thought about using the history of vaccines to explain the history and treatment of disease? You could start with Edward Jenner who created the small pox vaccine by injecting individuals with pus from cowpox blisters (the pupils may like that bit.) This would take you to the present where without vaccines there wouldn't be prevention against swine flu and MMR (which is revelant at the moment.) If you would like to know more or are looking for some interactive ideas the following website is quite useful:
www.historyofvaccines.org

Hope this helps.

Thanks,

Leanne