Download Lesson Plan I: March 17, March 19

Lesson Plan I: March 17, March 19
5th Grade
What happens to your body when you take a drug?
A look at ADME
Backward Design
Enduring Knowledge:
Students will be able to identify what a drug is.
Student will identify and differentiate between the four
components of drug processing: Absorption, Distribution,
Metabolism, Excretion
Student will explain which parts of the body carry out each
process and the relationship between those parts
Important to Know:
Students will be able to explain how an enzyme works on a
substrate to produce a product, particularly to produce a drug
metabolite.
Students will be able to explain how drugs leave the blood
stream at the site of an injury through the capillary beds.
Worth Being Familiar With:
Students will be differentiate between forms of administration
PART I: Introduction (5 minutes)
1. Who we are, who the students are.
2. Today we will learn about drugs and how they function in
our body.
PART II: Notes (25 minutes)
Hand out a worksheet to help with note-taking that includes most
of the questions asked in the outline with blank space to fill
in answers.
Teaching aids:
http://www.medtropolis.com/VBody.asp
WHAT IS A DRUG?
1. “A drug is any absorbed or applied substance that
changes or enhances any physical or psychological
function in the body.”
2. Drug or Not?
a. Apple?
b. Tylenol?
c. Coffee (caffeinated)
d. Cigarette?
e. Water?
ADMINISTRATION: THE MOUTH, OUTER BODY
1. There are many different ways of administrating drugs – how
many can you name?
 Most Common Ways: Oral (mouth), Injection (blood),
Inhalation (blood), Drops
2. Let’s focus on oral administration. How fast do you think
it is? How long do you have to wait before you feel the
effects of a pill?
 Taking medication orally is the second-fastest form of
taking medicine.
 Think about the last time you had a headache and you
took a Tylenol. Can you remember how long it took
before your head felt better? (About 20 minutes).
 Oral is effective, and the easiest form of
administering drugs, which is why most medicines come
in pill form.
DISTRIBUTION: THE BLOOD
1. Can you name the system that defines blood flow in the
body? (Circulatory)
2. What structures of blood vessels help with distribution?
 Our blood vessels include three different kinds of
passageways – veins, arteries, and capillaries.
 Capillaries are the smallest kind of vessel in our
system, and allow oxygen-rich blood pumped from the
heart to diffuse into tissue cells.
 Capillaries also reabsorb blood from tissue cells once
it has released its oxygen and brings them back to the
lungs for more O2.
3.
What is important about the capillaries?
 When a part of the body is injured – when you stub
your toe, for example – the blood vessels in that area
break. In order for our body to repair the damage, it
pumps more blood to that area, causing inflammation.
(This is what happens when your toe swells).
 It is through these breaks in the capillaries and
blood vessels that the blood carrying your drug can
reach your injury. The drug circulates throughout your
body in order to reach the spot that you intend it to
reach - it does not just congregate automatically


where you want it to go - which is why it is important
not to take a drug unless you really need it.
As part of your immune response to an injury, the
capillary beds open up, allowing white blood cells to
enter the area. If a drug is being carried in the
blood, it will also through these openings in the
capillaries.
Once the drug has served its purpose at the site of
injury, it is taken to the liver to be metabolized.
METABOLISM: THE LIVER
1. Can you point out the liver on your body?
 http://www.medtropolis.com/VBody.asp
 The liver is the largest internal organ in our
bodies, and part of its function is to break down
the chemicals in the food and drugs we digest.
2. How does a drug change when it enters the body?
 When a drug enters the liver, special proteins called
enzymes bind to the drug and break it down. Enzymes
break down a drug to either dispose of it or react
with it to produce an effect in the body.
 Each enzyme in your liver has a different shape that
fits with a specific drug, like a lock and key.
Scientists develop drugs so that they react in
specific ways with specific enzymes; metabolism is the
most important part of ADME.
3. How do you know how much of a drug to take?
 The amount of a drug you take depends on how long your
body takes to absorb it. For example, if you have a
splitting headache, a doctor might recommend that you
take two Tylenol instead of one because your body will
retain the medicine longer.
4. Why do kids take lower dosages than adults?
 Biovariability determines how drugs work in the body
by pointing out the differences between people who
take the same drug. Do you recognize any parts of
biovariability? What does Bio mean? (Life) What is a
variable? (Something that changes, like a variable in
an experiment)
 There are differences in drug reactions between people
depending on many factors like age, gender, weight,
and general health. So, for example, if a doctor
prescribes the same medication to an 80 year old man
who is overweight and a 10 year old girl who is a
healthy weight, their doses would not be the same.

Each person’s individual experience affects what
happens when he or she takes a drug, so it is
important that when you take medicine that you think
about what is best for your body.
EXCRETION: THE KIDNEY
1. Can you indicate where the kidney is in the body?
2. When a drug leaves your body, can you still tell what it
is?
 Even though the liver enzymes thoroughly break down
the drug, drugs can still be detected once they leave
the body. Can you think of any examples of drug
testing that would prove this point? (For example,
professional athletes are often asked to provide urine
samples to make sure that they are competing without
using steroids).
PART III: Activity (25 minutes)
Materials:
 Large cardboard cutouts of four different parts of the
body representing the four steps of ADME:
 Administration:
Mouth
 Distribution: Blood Vessels and Capillaries
 Metabolism:
Liver
 Excretion:
Kidney
1. Students are divided equally into four groups and each
group is given one of the giant pictures to represent them.
2. Each group is asked to identify which step in the process
its body part corresponds to (i.e. “We are the liver, so we
represent metabolism,” etc.), and then put the steps in
order.
3. Finally, each group is asked to explain briefly what
function its part performs and why it is necessary in the
overall process.


This activity will serve as both group work and a way of
evaluating students’ understanding of the material by
having them repeat back to us the key elements of ADME.
We hope that the worksheet will be able to help students in
this group activity, since they will be able to refer to it
and it will be based around and reinforce the same major
themes as the group activity.
PART IV: Closing and Questions (5 minutes)
1. Do you have any questions?
2. When we come back, we will do a case study of how Tylenol
works in the body.