Improving treatment options for people with ankylosing spondylitis

Suitable for 14-19-year olds (secondary and high schools, and college), this article and accompanying activity sheet can be used in the classroom, STEM clubs and at home.

This resource links to KS4 and KS5/Grade 9-10 and Grade 11-12 biology.

It can also be used as a careers resource and links to Gatsby Benchmarks (UK):
Gatsby Benchmark 2: Learning from career and labour market information
Gatsby Benchmark 4: Linking curriculum learning to careers

• This teaching resource explains the work of Dr Nigil Haroon from The University of Toronto in Canada. He is Investigating new treatment options for ankylosing spondylitis, a form of spinal arthritis.

• This resource also contains interviews with Nigil and his team of researchers and PhD students, and offers an insight into careers in rheumatology. If your students have questions for Nigil, they can send them through the Futurum Careers website.

• The activity sheet provides ‘talking points’ (based on Bloom’s Taxonomy) to prompt students to reflect on Nigil’s research and challenges them to debate the ethics of animal testing.

This resource was first published by Futurum Careers, a free online resource and magazine aimed at encouraging 14-19-year-olds worldwide to pursue careers in science, tech, engineering, maths, medicine (STEM) and social sciences, humanities and the arts for people and the economy (SHAPE).

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