First Contact

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First Contact
Teachable Unit The Dynamic Cell Exploring
organelle function in the context of dynamic
cellular processes

• Participants of the Coolest Group
• Kent State University - Gail Fraizer, Doug Kline
  
• Texas Tech University - Michael Dini, Lauren
  Gollahon
• University of California - Irvine - Jorge
  Busciglio, Diane O'Dowd
• Facilitator - Randy Phillis

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Case scenario It is bring a family member to
work week. You are shadowing your older brother
Ken at his job for the week. He is a Medical
Technician at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center
finishing his normal predawn rounds collecting
blood samples from patients receiving
chemotherapy. The last patient is an elderly
little man with Albert Einstein hair, that
everyone loves, called Franfy.

Franfy is a lung cancer patient receiving Taxol
as part of his chemotherapy treatment.

While Ken is taking a
routine blood sample, you notice that he is not
is usual jovial self. Instead, he seems
listless and irritable. He also appears flushed
and there is inflammation around the IV
insertion site.
After taking the sample, you and Ken hurry to the
pathology lab to give the samples to the
pathologist, who just happens to be your older
sister Barbi. You mention Franfys state to
Barbi as she prepares to analyze his blood
samples. You are running late for your
Introductory Biology course across town at Rice
University. So ken offers to drive you. When you
get to class, this is the material covered
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Human white blood cell crawling among red blood
cells and chasing bacteria
White blood cell
What happens during this sequence?
http//www.chem.uic.edu/fenteany/research/cell_mig
ration/neutrophil.html
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Which of these cellular components senses the
bacteria?
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Moving labeled with fluorescent actin
http//cellix.imolbio.oeaw.ac.at/Videotour/Movies/
fig8.mov
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You take 3 cross-town buses to get back to the
lab and see what happened with Frany. Barbi has
you come over to take a look in the microscope at
the blood cells. What you see is a lot of RBCs, a
lot of small pepper-like dots, moving all over
the place, and a few large, round cells. You
figure the small dots are bacteria. But there are
so many of them. You ask Barbi what is going on.
She says she will take you out for a beer if you
can figure it out. So. You start to think about
class today.
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Related to our case study Barbis examination of
the patients white blood cells yields the
following results Normal Patients
activated WBC 100 100
engulfed bact. killed
100 100 Number of bacteria
engulfed/minute 21
2 Time from activation to engulfment
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5 WBC turns/minute 39
0 What might be happening
to Franfys white blood cells due to the Taxol
treatment?
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Barbi looks at you, smiles and says
Lets go get a beer!
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• Acknowledgements
• The National Academies
• HHMI
• U Wisc personnel and facilities
• Randy Phillis - Best Facilitator in the Universe
  for providing chocolate bars on steroids
• Kent State University
• Texas Tech University
• University of California

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Teachable Unit The Dynamic Cell Exploring
organelle function in the context of dynamic
cellular processes
Unit Goal Fix the Tour of the Cell presented
early in the Introductory Biology Course
Problems to be fixed
1. The Tour of the Cell is dull, boring and
static
2. As presented, students do not grasp the
dynamics of cellular processes That cellular
functions change in space and time
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Learning Objectives
Skill Acquisition
Students will
participate in a variety of active learning
strategies designed to

• Improve scientific thinking skills including
  observation,
• hypothesis generation, interpretation of results

• Interpret results and compare to the predictions
  of the hypothesis
• through in-class questions, case-based learning

• Predict outcomes of model-based reasoning

• Promote peer-teaching and learning through
  in-class discussion

• Improve communication skills with peers

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Overarching Goal for Student Mastery in Teachable
Unit
Students should discover and understand how
cellular components function in cellular
processes
Objectives to achieve this Goal
Content-
Students should understand the following

• That cell function is

dynamic

• How cellular functions can change under specific
  conditions

• That the cell is really 4-dimensional (Space and
  Time)

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Actin filaments
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WBC before recruitment
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WBC after recruitment