Uzma Shah

Uzma Shah is a third year science teacher at Baruch College Campus High School (BCCHS), a public school  in Midtown Manhattan. She has taught Environmental Science and Health and currently teaches 9th grade Living Environment. Uzma received her Bachelors degree from the University of Rochester in Biology and Religion and completed a Masters in Secondary Science Education from Teachers College, Columbia University.  In addition to imparting knowledge, she strives to instill an appreciation of nature in her students by designing curriculum that exposes them to the diversity and beauty of life in New York City.

The aim of this project was to integrate a visit to the American Museum of Natural History with a unit focusing on the issues of biodiversity and microbiology. I designed these activities with my students in mind. Baruch is a magnet school with a focus on college prep and thus all the classes are meant to be rigorous and ideally taught at an honors level. Most of the students come fairly well prepared and show interest in science. Although many of our students apply to the school, a significant number are also randomly selected. Thus we serve a variety of academic levels in the same classroom. The students also represent a variety of socio-economic levels and ethnicities. I teach three biology sections each of which is comprised of approximately thirty-five students. All of them will be visiting the “Epidemic” exhibit located on the AMNH website.  This activity is meant as an introduction to a unit on Immunology and disease. The students will be exposed to a great deal of information, which will be further expanded upon  in class and through lab activities. Throughout the unit they will have the guide to refer back to, however. Additionally, I hope that it will also serve as a “hook” that gets them interested in the topic. 

The content of this unit focuses primarily on immunology and disease but also requires students to make connections to their knowledge of genetics and evolution. The following key ideas (from the Living Environment standards) are supported through this unit:

Key idea #5: Organisms maintain a dynamic equilibrium that sustains life.

Key idea #3: Individuals and species change over time.

 In addition to the online museum visit, the following resources will be used:

§         Articles from the Epidemic! book published by the museum

§         Video segments from the PBS Evolution series and possibly a video on the immune system

§         Lab activities involving the study of microbes and antibacterial agents

The museum resources that were used to develop this unit were the Epidemic! book, the website and a student packet (“Infection, Detection, Protection”) that was made available at the museum exhibit.

Pre-Visit Activities

Prior to the start of any unit, I try to assess students' previous knowledge on the topic. I find this is to be an enormously helpful  teaching tool. In addition, it helps students become more comfortable with a new topic and helps them to realize that they already have some knowledge or experience with it. The following link will provide you with some of the activities I use to assess students' previous knowledge. 

Overview of the Museum Visit

The Epidemic! exhibit was a temporary exhibition at the Museum. Since its departure,  it can be accessed on the museum website. This activity is an investigation of the exhibit and also introduces students to microbes, disease, the immune system, vaccines and antibiotics, epidemics and a plethora of other information. To see the activity that I designed as well as standards and essential questions please click here. 

Post-Visit Activities

As my post-visit activity I chose to create a lab in which students collect bacterial samples, culture the bacteria, and then expose them to common antibacterial agents such as soaps and lotions. To see this activity click here. In addition there will be many other post-visit activities which may include the following:

§         Readings from Epidemic!

§         Current events articles from the New York Times

§         A video on the immune system

§         A video on the evolution of microbes

§         Discussion on the use of antibiotics, vaccines, the resurgence of TB in NYC, and the AIDS epidemic.

§         Group project/presentation on a disease, how it affects the body, the body’s response and available treatments and how they work to restore homeostasis.

§         Gram staining

§         Bacterial transformation

§         Lab activities on bacterial growth in the presence of common household antibacterial products.