6.2 Antibiotics and painkillers NEW GCSE biology

This lesson content is for the NEW AQA GCSE biology specification.
GCSE biology lesson plan/PowerPoint presentation contains all of the activities and resources (in one file!) to achieve the following learning objectives:

1. Describe what medicines are and how some of them work - Starter: cartoon of patient and doctor to stimulate discussion about how we can’t fix all disease as easily as using photoshop or you may choose to hit the Youtube link to a video to stimulate enthusiasm for the topic in your learners; Main activity: Doctor, doctor game (6 x Patient cards and 5 x Action cards per pair - ready for printing).

2. Explain that painkillers and other medicines treat disease symptoms but do not kill pathogens - Activity 2: follow-up differentiated questions based on the decisions made during the game (answers are conveniently provided in the PowerPoint for peer or self-assessment); Activity 3: sorting task on antibiotics and painkillers (answers provided) help box with hints and tips for lower ability students and an extension/challenge ideas box.

3. Evaluate the ways in which antibiotics can and cannot be used - Activity 4: passage on antibiotic resistance with word bank (answers included in the PowerPoint) this is for lower ability students. This same learning objective is also acheived in answering the challenge questions provided in Activity 2.