Lesson plan - Cancer and viruses
Overview
Students will be introduced to the concept of vaccination. Building on their previous knowledge of the biology of cancer, students will become aware of the role viruses have in some cancers. Through role-play and group discussion, students will become familiar with the controversy surrounding the cervical cancer vaccine.
This lesson plan has strong links with the GCSE Science, Citizenship and PSHE curriculum.
All of our lesson plans have been fully evaluated by TEEM - read their content and classroom reports.
| Time | Activity | Resources |
| 15 mins | Split the class into small groups and get students thinking about how diseases can be prevented (Exercise 1) | Hand out disease cards |
| 15 mins | Explain to the class how vaccines work | Whiteboard |
| 20 mins | Use the example of the cervical cancer vaccine - students can read more about this on the worksheet (Exercise 2) | Newspaper article comprehension worksheet |
| 20 mins | Split class into small group and give out role-play descriptions. Once the small groups have debated the pros and cons of the vaccine, get them to feed back to the rest of the class (Exercise 3) | Role-play character descriptions |
Useful resources
Find out more about the HPV vaccine, people's attitudes towards the vaccine, and the national vaccination programme.
For general information about cancer, use our What is cancer? lesson plan. Log on to our Latest from the lab pages for more information about cancer and its causes.
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