Watch the videos and take notes on The Human Body and What’s Really Killing Us? (

1.11 Introduction

The human body is an incredible symphony of organ systems that work together to power, grow and reproduce, and protect. This introductory week we will go over the course structure and contents, an overview of the human body and some statistics about what causes us to die.

To successfully complete Part 1, students will complete the following tasks:

1. Watch the videos and take notes on The Human Body and What’s Really Killing Us? (can be hand written and a photo uploaded, or ipad hand written). Be sure to highlight the sections for each video so I can tell you covered all the videos.

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2. Turn in your notes from the videos

3. Take a quiz on the videos. These are untimed and you will be graded on the best of 3 tries.

Major concepts for quiz and (eventually) exam 1:

Humans are made of interacting organ systems, which are made of specialized organs, which are made of tissues, which are made of cells specialized for their different functions.

Know the following tissue and organ systems (what they do, what they are made of, how they work, as it is explained in Dr. Decker’s video): TISSUES: epithelial, connective, muscle, nervous, ORGAN SYSTEMS: digestive. reproductive, urinary (aka excretory), respiratory, skeletal, muscular, integumentary, cardiovascular, endocrine, nervous, lymphatic and immune

Know some examples of homeostasis and what it is.

What are WHO and CDC? Different age groups have different causes of death
Ischaemic Heart disease (coronary artery disease), Stroke, Hypertensive heart disease, Dementias, cancers (especially lung) , COPD, respiratory infections, COVID 19 in 2020.
Pregnancy and childbirth is still very dangerous, and so is being under 5 or over 65
Living in a poor country has some different risks than living in a wealthy one
Water borne diseases are still a large problem with systemic solutions.

Why are heart disease and dementias so deadly in America but not places where the lifespan is shorter?

What are some causes of death in less developed countries that are preventable with modern infrastructure and health upgrades and what are those upgrades?

What does “flatten the curve” mean and how was it used in the early days of Covid-19?

What is the swiss cheese model of transmission?

What is the difference between communicable and non communicable diseases? Be able to identify examples of each.

1.12 Notes 1: Take notes on The Human Body and What is Really Killing Us? Please take notes by hand and upload.

Important: Make bold or highlighted headers: The Human Body and What is Really Killing Us? so I can easily see that you completed your notes for both videos.

Notes can be outlines, bullet points, or full sentences, it’s up to you what works. I will be checking that you cover the material completely. The quality is dependent on your own needs for the quiz and exam.

Week 2
1.31 Introduction

This week, we will be covering the Scientific Method, which is a way of testing reasoned explanations for things we observe. We will also cover the process of doing science, and the three phases of trials that vaccines go through to get approved in the USA. We will also cover epidemiology, which is how public health is examined and the population-level studies that are done. Finally we will discuss Ad Hoc hypotheses and how to spot pseudoscience.

To successfully complete this section, students will complete the following tasks:

1. Watch these three videos and take notes, being careful to make clear headers so Dr. Decker can easily see that you took notes on all three.

Video 1 The Scientific Method

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Video 2. Epidemiology

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Video 3. Ad Hoc Hypothesis and Pseudoscience

Click here to watch this video on Ad Hoc hypotheses and pseudoscience.

2. Turn in your notes from the videos

3. Take a quiz on the videos. These are untimed and you will be graded on the best of 3 tries.

Major concepts for quiz and (eventually) exam 1:

Video 1: The Scientific Method

What are the steps of the scientific method, be able to identify examples of each (careful to distinguish hypothesis from prediction, this one tends to be tricky)

What are the limitations of science?

Identify parts of a good experiment including: data, variable, control and experimental groups, randomization, bias, double-blind study, what is the difference between sample replicate and repeatability, sample, sample size, probability and significance (why we do statistics on the results)

What needs to happen in order to get a vaccine approved? (3 phases)

What is a model organism? What is epidemiology?

Identify the correlation vs causation fallacy

What is the process of science beyond the scientific method?

Know parts of a graph (x and y axes)

Video 2: Epidemiology

Define the following and be able to identify examples: epidemiology, epidemic, outbreak, cluster, endemic, pandemic, rate, descriiptive epidemiology, analytic epidemiology

What are some organizations that conduct epidemiology, what do epidemiologists do?

What are the factors in the epidemiological triangle?

Know the examples: tractor deaths in Georgia, Legionaries outbreak

Know epidemiological study types and be able to identify examples

Know examples and types of data sources

Know and be able to give examples of the following study types: cross-sectional, case-control, cohort

What are the 10 steps of investigating an outbreak (Legionnaire’s example)

Video 3: Ad Hoc Hypotheses and Pseudoscience

How did Rich Lund falsify the hypothesis that the green food coloring is made on just one chemical, the “Green molecule hypothesis”? How did he falsify the ad hoc hypothesis?

What “Ad hoc hypothesis” did he come up with to support the “green molecule hypothesis even after it was debunked?

What is a valid use of an Ad Hoc hypothesis and how is it different from an invalid or nonscientific use of one?

Why are a string of ad hocs a warning sign that you may be dealing with pseudoscience?

What real-life example was used by Rich Lund to show how ad hoc is used to support pseudoscience?

What are the warning signs that you are dealing with peudoscience?

1.32 Notes 2 Take notes on The Scientific Method, Epidemiology, and Ad Hoc Hypothesis? You may take notes by hand and upload. You can take notes by hand and take a picture if you like.

Important: Make bold or highlighted headers so I can easily see that you completed your notes for all videos.

Notes can be outlines, bullet points, or full sentences, it’s up to you what works. I will be checking that you cover the material completely. The quality is dependent on your own needs for the quiz and exam.

1.41

Introduction

This week, we will be covering the Immune System, including diseases of the immune system and how vaccines are used to strengthen the immune system for different diseases.

To successfully complete this week’s work, students will complete the following tasks:

1. Watch these four videos and take notes, being careful to make clear headers so Dr. Decker can easily see that you took notes on all three.

Videos 1a and b The Immune System, Diseases of the Immune System, Introduction to Vaccines

Video 1a – NON specific immunity

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Video 1b Specific Immunity Vaccines, and Diseases of the Immune System

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Video 2. The Vaccine Wars

Video 3. mRNA vaccine development

Optional Video 4: A three minute history of innoculation in Revolutionary War America

2. Turn in your notes from the videos

3. Take a quiz on the videos. These are untimed and you will be graded on the best of 3 tries.

Major concepts for quiz and (eventually) Exam 1:

Video 1: The Immune System, Intro to Vaccines, Diseases of the Immune System

Video 1a.

Pathogen, Infection, transmission

What are types of transmission

Contrast specific and non- specific immune systems

What are the 3 lines of defense against pathogenic invaders?

First line of defense:

In what ways do skin, mucus membranes, tears, saliva, earwax, digestive enzymes defend against pathogens?

Second line of defense: Non Specific Response (What does that mean? In what situations is it active? Know that it is involved with inflammation, fever, and involves white blood cells, proteins, and Mast cells)

Know the listed 6 types of white blood cells and what they do for the non specific immune response

What does it mean if a white blood cell is phagocytic?

What swells up when your body is amounting a response to an attacking pathogen?

Know the inflammation response when you get a wound.

What are the two types of proteins and what do they do? (Interferons, Complement)

Know how a fever happens.

Video 1b.

Third line of defense: lymphocytes.

Know the two types of lymphocytes, where they mature, where they “patrol” for pathogens

Terms to understand in the context of the lecture: B cells, T cells, receptors, thymus, bone marrow, antigen, major histocompatability proteins

What happens when lymphocytes encounter a new antigen? How do vaccines use this to create immunity?

Know the inappropriate immune responses and the general ways to treat if discussed: MS, allergies, donated organ rejection, lupus, asthma, insulin-resistant diabetes, Rheumatoid arthritis

What is humoral immunity? What is cell mediated immunity? Which cell type does each?

Know that both cell types make clonal memory cells, know which makes antibodies, know the three types of cells T cells make

What does an “antigen presenting cell” do?

Video 2: The Vaccine Wars

Why are vaccines considered once of medicines major successes? Why are vaccines also considered a victim of their own success when it comes to parents opting out?

Know about the 2014 measles outbreak in the US after measles had been eradicated from the US 15 years earlier and how it happened through one unvaccinated child travelling from Switzerland.

Know the role of “Personal belief exemptions” in outbreaks of vaccine preventable diseases.

Weigh the evidence in the documentary that vaccines are linked to autism using your knowledge of correlation vs causation, the scientific method, ad hoc hypotheses, and pseudoscience.

Why was Andrew Wakefield’s paper retracted and his medical license pulled? Why was that not enough for the anti vaccination movement?

Why is it unethical to do a controlled double blind study on vaccines we know save lives?

How does the internet exacerbate unfounded fears about vaccines?

Know that some kids are unable to get vaccines because of things like young and old age, immunocomprise and allergies and that people who choose not to vaccinate endanger them.

This documentary was made in 2015. Do you think there are lessons that are valid today?

Herd immunity protects the vulnerable in the community and vaccination provides that.

Ethics says parents need to keep their chilren safe, including by vaccine-preventable disease.

(Interestingly, in this documentary Marin County had a high level of vaccine exemption but since covid has one of the highest vaccination rates in the country)

Video 3: mRNA vaccine development

Know the main reasons why scientists were able to develop a covid vaccine so fast.

Know the difference between DNA and mRNA and basically what they do (as discussed in the video)

Know how vaccines work and the different types of vaccines as described in the video (some vocabulary: pathogen, antigen, killed pathogen, weakened pathogen, surface protein of pathogen, viral vector (uses the coat of a virus without he dangerous stuff inside), mRNA

How long have scientists been working on mRNA technology?

How does the mRNA vaccines work?

What were some major challenges and solutions? (mRNA stability, delivery into cells, stability, safety from attack by the cell itself)

What are the advantages of an mRNA vaccine? (development time of months instead of years or decades, no adjuvants needed (like thimerosal) Just need an RNA sequence of any new pathogen.

1.42 notes 3

Take notes on The Immune System (Parts A and B), The Vaccine Wars, and mRNA. Please take notes by hand and upload.

Important: Make bold or highlighted headers: The Immune System Parts A and B, The Vaccine Wars, and mRNA. so I can easily see that you completed your notes for both videos.

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