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Authors:
Alexandra Manaia and Julia Willingale-Theune
Description:
Cells are the basic building blocks of the human body.
They make up the skin, muscles, bones and all of the
internal organs. They also hold many of the keys to
how our bodies function.
Like the body itself, cells have a finite life span;
they eventually die. Most of the body's cells divide
and duplicate throughout life, but some cells either
don't replenish themselves or do so in such small numbers
that they cannot replace themselves fast enough to combat
disease.
Scientists first discovered stem cells in mice in the
1970s. They soon began to recognize the amazing versatility
of these primitive cells, which exist for only a short
time before differentiating into the many cell types
of the body. However, it wasn't until 1998 that the
first human stem cells were isolated by James Thomson
at the University of Wisconsin and John Gearhart at
The Johns Hopkins University.
Stem cells have the remarkable potential to develop
into many different cell types in the body. Serving
as a sort of repair system for the body, they can theoretically
divide without limit to replenish other cells as long
as the person or animal is still alive. When a stem
cell divides, each new cell has the potential to either
remain a stem cell or become another type of cell with
a more specialized function, such as a muscle cell,
a red blood cell, or a brain cell.
Target Audience:
Age 16-18 years
Objective:
'The Stem Cell Game' presents a basic A to Z of stem
cells, reviewing where they are found in the body, the
different types, how they are cultured and examples
of stem cell therapy that rely on replacing diseased
or dysfunctional cells with healthy, functioning ones.
It is designed as a non-formal teaching aid to reinforce
the syllabus.
GCSE Syllabus:
Advanced Subsidiary GCE and Advance GCE specifications
for Human Biology
This activity can be used to review and reinforce concepts
taught in the module:
The Developing Cell
'Using stem cell technology'
Candidates should be able to:
a. define the term stem cell
b. explain the term differentiation
c. define how stem cells are cultured and discuss the
potential benefits of stem cell technology.
Materials:
The cardsfront.pdfs are the 'Questions' and the back
.pdf are the corresponding 'Answers'. After printing
them out you will have to stick the questions and answers
together to produce the question cards-the questions
on the front and the answers on the reverse side! The
same procedure needs to be done for the rescue cards.
Rules
Rules [PDF]
Playing Cards
Cards
front 1 [pdf]
Cards
front 2 [pdf]
Cards
front 3 [pdf]
Cards
back [pdf]
Rescue
questions front [pdf]
Rescue
questions back [pdf]
Board
Stem
Cell Game [PDF] |
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