Do you know anyone who has had cancer? About 40% of people develop
some form of cancer throughout their life. Your body is made of trillions of cells that are constantly growing, or replicating themselves to replace dead of dying cells. This growth is normally very controlled, but when something goes wrong uncontrolled growth can occur which leads to the formation of a tumor. Many of the ways cancer is treated now such as chemotherapy and radiation are very harmful to a patient’s healthy cells as well as their cancer cells. Research is being conducted to develop better treatments that are more effective and less harmful. To develop the best treatments body conditions need to be modeled in the lab as much as possible. One way to do this is to make cell clusters which are like tumors.
The student handout will be given to all students working on the design
challenge. It gives a brief recap of the story, it helps the students identify what they are attempting to achieve, and it recaps the design process.
Cell Clusters TEK8 Instructor’s Guide
This Instructor’s Guide provides the instructor additional information on how to run the design challenge with alternatives for materials and test setups as well as information to help make the design challenge a good educational experience.
The Telling the Story Video conveys the societal impact of the student’s research that is the basis for the design challenge and will set the problem-solving context for students.
The Design Challenge Video leads students through the design process. It indicates materials available, states what the criteria are for success and any constraints. It also gives a second ‘level’ of the design challenge that allows ‘early completers’ to move on to a slightly more difficult challenge.
The presentation can be used in conjunction or in place of the Design Challenge Video.