Being a medical doctor in the rush and confusion of the modern hospital emergency room is a difficult and challenging task. It involves life and death decisions of real family members who are loved and needed! You, along with your team members, will get a chance to see just how difficult the job can be. As a team of 3 to 4 members, you will assume the role of an emergency room physician. You will walk from room to room and read the medical complaints of the patients. You will view their medical records and histories. From this information, along with the Internet resources listed, your team will make a diagnosis of their illnesses and plan a course of treatment to assist them in becoming well again. Good luck!! You and your team can do it!!

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Your team will visit as many patients as you can during your work day. You will read each patient's health history, health habits, and symptoms. You will also have access to medical tests that have been conducted on each patient. With this information, along with the information you can research from the listed Internet links, you will make a diagnosis of the medical illness and develop a course of treatment for each patient. See as many patients as you can but remember it is important to be thorough and accurate! A word of caution, as you proceed through the emergency ward, each patient's medical condition becomes more complex and challenging!

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Students will be placed in teams of 3-4 members. Starting with patient #1, the teams will read and discuss all the patient information available. They will read patient medical histories, health habits, and medical test results. They will also research possible diseases through the Internet links that are provided that may be causing the patient's illness. Students may divide up the listed disease links and research them individually and then share the information as a group. For each patient, they will complete a medical form that gives the diagnosis of the illness and its treatment. The team will also develop a 5 - 10 minute multimedia presentation over their medical findings for the assigned period. All patients treated will be discussed. The presentation will be given to the hospital medical staff (Class), to update them on the current medical condition of each patient in the hospital. How well your team does will be scored on an evaluation rubric.

There are three major components that you will need to complete on patients to provide evidence that you have learned from your "Medical" WebQuest.

1. You must complete the medical form for each patient that gives your diagnosis and treatment plan, along with the reasons supporting your decisions.

2. You must prepare a 5 - 10 minute multimedia presentation covering all the patients that your group has seen and diagnosed during your "medical day". It must include a "summary" of your medical decisions covering the patients.

3. In your group presentation, you must include a "futuristic" set of recommendations on how the health of Americans can be improved. This could include better health education, vaccinations, diagnosis, etc.

The following rubric will be utilized to assess your progress and grade on the project.

California Academic Standards Grade 9-12 Bio/life 10 Inv/Ex 1d,k,l Lang. Arts	Showed Some Results 2 Points	Average Results 4 Points	Very Good Results 6 Points	Excellent Results 8 Points	Score
Understands human immune response to disease causes and symptoms	Diagnosed and correctly treated 1 patient	Diagnosed and correctly treated 2 patients	Diagnosed and correctly treated 3 patients	Diagnosed and correctly treated 4 or more patients	l
Understands that medical diagnosis involves problem solving	Demonstrated some problem solving logic	Demonstrated average problem solving logic	Demonstrated very good problem solving logic	Demonstrated excellent problem solving logic	l
Shows understanding that diseases not only can be treated, but can be prevented	Shows an elementary understanding of disease prevention / treatment	Shows an average understanding of disease prevention / treatment	Shows a very good understanding of disease prevention / treatment	Shows an excellent understanding of disease prevention / treatment	l
Shows understanding of bacterial and viral impact on human diseases	Demonstrates little understanding of disease causing bacteria and viruses	Demonstrates average understanding of disease causing bacteria and viruses	Demonstrates very good understanding of disease causing bacteria and viruses	Demonstrates excellent understanding of disease causing bacteria and viruses	l
Multimedia Presentation is logical, clear, and complete	Multimedia presentation is poorly done	Multimedia presentation is of average quality	Multimedia presentation shows very good logical thought and is easy to understand	Multimedia presentation demonstrates excellent logic, is clear, and complete	l

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This WebQuest will allow students to engage in "Real World" medical scientific problem solving that conforms to the California Academic Content Standards. They will research diseases utilizing the Internet, and use what they have learned to solve patient disease scenarios. The students will also be required to develop technology and communication skills by presenting their findings to the class utilizing a multimedia format. 

Grade 10- 12
Biology
Anatomy/Physiology
Health WebQuest Timeline

7-10 Days (Depending on class and computer access)

This WebQuest is aligned with the California Academic Science Content Standards and designed to meet the spirit of learning that is manifested in the following quotation taken from one of the developers of those Standards, Dr. MILLARD SUSMAN, Professor, Laboratory of Genetics, University of Wisconsin-Madison. He states:

"I think it is important for students to do a good deal of their learning through discovery; that is the way to encourage creativity and critical thinking. I also think it is necessary for students to know that knowledge is transmitted from generation to generation and from scholar to scholar, that efficient learners make us of the huge reservoir of knowledge that has been collected through the efforts of others. The `big picture' is made up of a lot of little details, and the more of those that you know the better you see the big picture, the more adept at learning more through your own inquiry. The standards as they are now written expect a lot of students--both the learning of a lot of facts and the exercise of those inquiring little grey cells. These are standards for science literacy that can help to save us from the mediocrity that we have accepted for too long."

1. Students should be instructed in the biology of bacteria and viruses. Students should have a basic understanding of what they are, how they reproduce, and an understanding of their potential to cause disease in humans.

2. Student should be introduced to the scientific method and how it can be utilized to isolate a problem, research information, make and test an hypothesis, collect data, and to make conclusions from that data.

3. Students should be shown how to design and produce multimedia projects using computer programs such as HyperStudio and PowerPoint.

10. Organisms have a variety of mechanisms to combat disease. As a basis for understanding the human immune response, students know:

a. the role of the skin in providing nonspecific defenses against infection.

b. the role of antibodies in the body's response to infection.

c. how vaccination protects an individual from infectious diseases.

d. there are important differences between bacteria and viruses, with respect to their requirements for growth and replication, the primary defense of the body against them, and effective treatment of infections they cause.

1. Develop ability to utilize the scientific method to solve problems in a real world scenario.

2. Develop and understanding of the symptoms, causes, and treatments of human diseases.

3. Develop an understanding of the complexity of the diagnosis and treatment of disease.

4. Develop the ability to problem solve in a group setting and to work as a team.

5. Develop the ability to present information gained by research and problem solving in an organized and clear way.

Additional Teacher Links

Center for Disease Control	Communicable Diseases
Epidemic	Johns Hopkins' InteliHealth
Discover - Epidemic	Mayo Clinic Health Oasis
Yellow Fever	Dr. C. Everett Koop
Ebola	Virtual Hospital
Leprosy	Bacteria Cells
Malaria	Anatomist Project
Plague	NOVA Online
Rabies	Science Daily
Small Pox	Science Questions Answered

If you have questions about this WebQuest please feel free to E-Mail me at the address below:

Dr. Robert F. Kirk
robert_kirk@hesperia.k12.ca.us

For other WebQuest that are aligned with the California Academic Academic Standards click on this SCORE Website Link.

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