Download Dynamic Cell, Exploring Organelle Function (PowerPoint)

First Contact
Teachable Unit: The Dynamic Cell: Exploring organelle
function in the context of dynamic cellular processes
Participants of the Coolest Group:
Kent State University - Gail Fraizer, Doug Kline;
Texas Tech University - Michael Dini, Lauren Gollahon;
University of California - Irvine - Jorge Busciglio, Diane
O'Dowd
Facilitator - Randy Phillis
Fig. 7.7
Copy right © 2002 Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Benjamin Cumm ings
Case scenario:
It is bring a family member to work week. You are shadowing your
older brother Ken at his job for the week. He is a Medical Technician
at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center finishing his normal predawn rounds
collecting blood samples from patients receiving chemotherapy. The
last patient is an elderly little man with Albert Einstein hair, that
everyone loves, called Franfy. Franfy is a lung cancer patient receiving
Taxol as part of his chemotherapy treatment. While Ken is taking a
routine blood sample, you notice that he is not is usual jovial self.
Instead, he seems listless and irritable. He also appears flushed and
there is inflammation around the IV insertion site.
After taking the sample, you and Ken hurry to the pathology lab to give
the samples to the pathologist, who just happens to be your older sister
Barbi. You mention Franfy’s state to Barbi as she prepares to analyze
his blood samples. You are running late for your Introductory Biology
course across town at Rice University. So ken offers to drive you.
When you get to class, this is the material covered…
Human white blood cell crawling among
red blood cells and chasing bacteria
White blood cell
What happens during this sequence?
http://www.chem.uic.edu/fenteany/research/cell_migration/neutrophil.html
Which of these cellular components senses the bacteria?
Moving labeled with fluorescent actin
http://cellix.imolbio.oeaw.ac.at/Videotour/Movies/fig8.mov
actin filaments
nucleus
mitochondria
You take 3 cross-town buses to get back to the lab and see
what happened with Frany. Barbi has you come over to take a
look in the microscope at the blood cells. What you see is a
lot of RBCs, a lot of small pepper-like dots, moving all over
the place, and a few large, round cells. You figure the small
dots are bacteria. But there are so many of them. You ask
Barbi what is going on. She says she will take you out for a
beer if you can figure it out. So…. You start to think about
class today.
Related to our case study; Barbi’s examination of the patient’s
white blood cells yields the following results:
Normal
100
Patient’s
100
% engulfed bact. killed
100
100
Number of bacteria
engulfed/minute
21
2
Time from activation
to engulfment
23
5
WBC turns/minute
39
0
% activated WBC
What might be happening to Franfy’s white blood
cells due to the Taxol treatment?
Barbi looks at you, smiles and says
“Let’s go get a beer!”
Acknowledgements
The National Academies
HHMI
U Wisc personnel and facilities
Randy Phillis - Best Facilitator in the Universe for
providing chocolate bars on steroids
Kent State University
Texas Tech University
University of California
Teachable Unit: The Dynamic Cell: Exploring organelle
function in the context of dynamic cellular processes
Unit Goal: Fix the “Tour of the Cell” presented early
in the Introductory Biology Course
Problems to be fixed:
1. The “Tour of the Cell” is dull, boring and static
2. As presented, students do not grasp the dynamics of cellular
processes; That cellular functions change in space and time
Learning Objectives
Skill Acquisition: Students will participate in a variety of active
learning strategies designed to:
Improve scientific thinking skills including observation,
hypothesis generation, interpretation of results
Interpret results and compare to the predictions of the hypothesis
through in-class questions, case-based learning
Predict outcomes of model-based reasoning
Promote peer-teaching and learning through in-class discussion
Improve communication skills with peers
Overarching Goal for Student Mastery in Teachable Unit:
Students should discover and understand how cellular components
function in cellular processes
Objectives to achieve this Goal
Content-
Students should understand the following:
That cell function is dynamic
How cellular functions can change under specific conditions
That the cell is really 4-dimensional (Space and Time)
Actin filaments
WBC before recruitment
WBC after recruitment