SHS1 Biomedical Science · Semester 1 Week 18: Diseases and Disorders

Lesson notes

Learning Objectives

Indicator: 1.2.2.LI.2 - Explore how initial symptoms of an illness lead to diagnosis and treatment.

By the end of the lesson, learners can:

Define diagnosis and treatment in their own words and distinguish between the two terms.
Sequence the steps from initial symptom recognition to final treatment for at least three common diseases (malaria, typhoid fever, and hypertension).
Explain how at least two diagnostic tests (such as a blood film, rapid diagnostic test, or blood pressure check) confirm or rule out a suspected illness.
Role-play a clinical consultation that demonstrates how a health worker uses symptoms, history, and tests to arrive at a diagnosis and prescribe treatment.
Evaluate why treating based on symptoms alone, without proper diagnosis, is risky, using at least one example.

This lesson builds directly on Week 17 where learners defined disease and identified symptoms of common conditions. The focus here is the journey from symptom to diagnosis to treatment. The detailed study of sickle cell disease is reserved for Week 19, so this lesson mentions it only in passing as one example of a chronic condition.

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Curriculum details

Strand: Human Body Systems (Strand 2)
Sub-strand: Diseases and Disorders (2.2)
Content standard: 1.2.2.CS.1 - Show an understanding of common diseases and conditions that can disrupt the functioning of cells, tissues and organs within the body. 1.2.2.LO.1 Explain what a disease is with examples, identify the symptoms of common diseases and illustrate how the symptoms of diseases lead to diagnosis.
Indicator: 1.2.2.LI.2 - Explore how initial symptoms of an illness lead to diagnosis and treatment.
Suggested placement: Semester 1, Week 18 (Week 18 of the year)
Our suggestion, laid out in curriculum order across three terms of twelve weeks. NaCCA does not fix the week, so follow your school's scheme of learning.
Curriculum reference: NaCCA curriculum document, p. 37

Exemplars (from the NaCCA curriculum)

Demonstrative Learning: Learners are put in groups to do a role-play on diagnosing and treating illness.
Exploratory Learning:
- After the role-play, review the whole process of how diagnosis and treatments are deduced from initial symptoms.
- Learners are made to further research how this is done in real-life settings and present their findings to the class.
Teaching and Learning Resources:
- Computer
- Projector
- Video
- Flash cards with names of a common diseases
- Tablets or mobile phones
- Online resources
- Textbooks
Assessment (1.2.2.AS.2). The document marks these depth-of-knowledge levels for this indicator: Level 1 Recall; Level 2 Skills of conceptual understanding; Level 3 Strategic reasoning; Level 4 Extended critical thinking and reasoning.