Goals
The central focus of this unit are: human blood properties and blood donation.
Participating students will improve their knowledge of human biology and technologies that help in situations where a human life is endangered by blood loss or disease. They will
- study facts about blood and blood donation from different aspects;
- get in touch with a transfusion center staff;
- become familiar with medical products that are used during blood donation, blood storage and transfusion;
- work as a team in variable groups, practise communication and presentation skills;
- be able to convey the acquired information about blood and its donation to others;
- model and get to know properties of blood.
Outputs
At the end of this unit, the students should be able to:
- ask questions about blood that can only be answered based on research;
- find out what aids are used by medical staff for handling of blood, where and how these aids are made and why they have to be sterile;
- describe composition of blood;
- explain the blood types and why patient must not be given any blood;
- explain, using an example, how blood types are determined;
- explain, using an example, how blood types are inherited;
- understand who needs blood and who can donate it;
- model sedimentation;
- prepare and carry out presentation in front of their peers at “a scientific conference“ and discuss the presented paper;
- consider the importance of blood donation, prepare a magazine article and a TV interview about the topic in the form of a didactic game.
It occasionally happens that some students of upper secondary or grammar school who meet the requirements for blood donation (age, health condition) decide to donate blood after learning about this topic.