In this unit, students learn about the form and function of the human heart through lecture, research and dissection. Following the steps of the Legacy Cycle, students brainstorm, research, design and present viable solutions to various heart conditions as presented through a unit challenge. Additionally, students study how heart valves work and investigate how faulty valves can be replaced with new ones through advancements in engineering and technology. This unit demonstrates to students how and why the heart is such a powerful organ in our bodies

By the end of this unit, students will be able to…-                      Describe what it means for an animal to be ‘healthy’.-                      Determine the difference between an infectious and a noninfectious disease.-                      Determine the difference between a contagious and a non-contagious disease.-                      Define: disease, pathogen, host, vector, virulence, environment.-                      Summarize how a host’s defense mechanisms prevent a disease from occurring and why these mechanisms sometimes break down.-                      Identify and explain the parts of a disease triangle and how they affect disease transmission.-                      Summarize the difference between resistance and immunity.-                      Summarize the difference between active and passive immunity as well as natural and artificial active immunity.-                      Explain how antigens and antibodies interact in order to create immunity in an organism.-                      Summarize how herd immunity works and how it affects the health of a group of organisms.-                      Define and explain the differences between each of the following:-                      a. Pandemic   b. Endemic   c. Epidemic   d. Zoonotic-                      Identify and categorize each of the following by the unique characteristics and identifying traits:o   a. Bacteria   b.  Viruses   c.  Fungi   d.  Protozoa   e.  Helminth-                      Define a prion and explain the characteristics that make this class of pathogens unique.-                      Compare and contrast prokaryotic and eukaryotic organisms.-                      Summarize how to classify bacteria, including by shape, aerobic/anaerobic, and by gram stain.-                      Compare and contrast the differences between gram negative and gram positive bacteria, particularly in regards to cell membranes and cell walls, susceptibility to antibiotics, and endotoxins vs. exotoxins.-                      Compare and contrast the properties of endotoxins vs. those of exotoxins.-                      Summarize the properties of peptidoglycan and relate how these properties affect the susceptibility of some bacteria to antibiotics.-                      Summarize the properties and characteristics of the membrane outside of the cell wall of some bacteria in regards to susceptibility to antibiotics, infection of a host, and resistance to host defenses.-                      Summarize how a bacterial infection can lead to the death of a host via sepsis and septic shock.-                      Explain why a virus is not considered to be a living species.-                      Summarize how viral reproduction occurs.-                      Compare and contrast a retrovirus to a standard virus.-                      Identify the kingdom of life in which fungi are classified.-                      Summarize the key traits of protozoa.-                      Explain how the symptoms diseases caused by helminths differ from many other pathogens.-                      Outline the method by which a prion causes a disease and identify practices that increase the likelihood of a prion infection.-                      Describe the existing treatments and/or cures for a prion disease.-                      Summarize the mechanisms and strategies that comprise each of the following: a. continual forms of nonspecific immunity; b. selective forms of nonspecific immunity; c. specific immunity.-                      Compare and contrast the properties of the three kinds of continual nonspecific immunity, including: a. mechanical; b. physical; c. chemical. -                      Summarize the identifying characteristics of all forms of selective nonspecific immunity, including: a. Phagocytosis  b.  Inflammation  c.  Pyrexia  d.  Protective proteins  e.  NK Cells-                      Summarize the function of interferons and complement proteins.-                      Summarize how specific immunity differs from all forms of nonspecific immunity.-                      Explain how the body uses antigens and antibodies to fight a disease.-                      Identify the key traits that comprise each of the following: a.   Genetic specific immunity    b.  Acquired specific immunity   c.  Nonspecific immunity-                      Summarize the difference between active acquired immunity and passive acquired immunity.-                      Explain how a vaccination works to reduce the rate of contraction of a disease.-                      Identify the key characteristics of each of the following kinds of vaccinations:o   a. Live    b.  Killed/Inactivated   c.  Toxoid   d.  Biosynthetic-                      Define colostrum, and explain why it is a valuable part of a production animal operation.-                      Summarize why adult vaccination is necessary for herd health using examples.-                      Define VCPR and explain why it is necessary for an animal operation.-                      Compare and contrast the function and properties of antibiotics and vaccines.-                      Describe the most common methods by which an antibiotic destroys bacteria.-                      Describe the most common bacterial mechanisms of antibiotic resistance.-                      Summarize the difference between Inherent (natural) Bacterial Resistance and Acquired Resistance.

In this simulation of a doctor's office, students play the roles of physician, nurse, patients, and time-keeper, with the objective to improve the patient waiting time. They collect and graph data as part of their analysis. This serves as a hands-on example of using engineering principles and engineering design approaches (such as models and simulations) to research, analyze, test and improve processes.

In this inquiry activity, students generate investigable questions to explore the link between hygiene/cleanliness and bacteria growth/population. The students will present their conclusions, and video clips containing additional information will be discussed.

Human beings are fascinating and complex living organisms a symphony of different functional systems working in concert. Through a 10-lesson series with hands-on activities students are introduced to seven systems of the human body skeletal, muscular, circulatory, respiratory, digestive, sensory, and reproductive as well as genetics. At every stage, they are also introduced to engineers' creative, real-world involvement in caring for the human body.

How can you tell if harmful bacteria are in your food or water that might make you sick? What you eat or drink can be contaminated with bacteria, viruses, parasites and toxins—pathogens that can be harmful or even fatal. Students learn which contaminants have the greatest health risks and how they enter the food supply. While food supply contaminants can be identified from cultures grown in labs, bioengineers are creating technologies to make the detection of contaminated food quicker, easier and more effective.

Students are introduced to the circulatory system with an emphasis on the blood clotting process, including coagulation and the formation and degradation of polymers through their underlying atomic properties. They learn about the medical emergency of strokes the loss of brain function commonly due to blood clots including various causes and the different effects depending on the brain location, as well as blood clot removal devices designed by biomedical engineers.

Students study how heart valves work and investigate how valves that become faulty over time can be replaced with advancements in engineering and technology. Learning about the flow of blood through the heart, students are able to fully understand how and why the heart is such a powerful organ in our bodies.

Students examine an image produced by a cabinet x-ray system to determine if it is a quality bone mineral density image. They write in their journals about what they need to know to be able to make this judgment. Students learn about what bone mineral density is, how a BMD image can be obtained, and how it is related to the x-ray field. Students examine the process used to obtain a BMD image and how this process is related to mathematics, primarily through logarithmic functions. They study the relationship between logarithms and exponents, the properties of logarithms, common and natural logarithms, solving exponential equations and Beer's law.

In this lesson, the students look at the components of cells and their functions. The lesson focuses on the difference between prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells. Each part of the cell performs a specific function that is vital for the cell's survival. Bacteria are single-celled organisms that are very important to engineers. Engineers can use bacteria to break down toxic materials in a process called bioremediation, and they can also kill or disable harmful bacteria through disinfection.

This is a course for those who are interested in the challenge posed by massive and persistent world poverty, and are hopeful that economists might have something useful to say about this challenge. The questions we will take up include: Is extreme poverty a thing of the past? What is economic life like when living under a dollar per day? Why do some countries grow fast and others fall further behind? Does growth help the poor? Are famines unavoidable? How can we end child labor - or should we? How do we make schools work for poor citizens? How do we deal with the disease burden? Is micro finance invaluable or overrated? Without property rights, is life destined to be "nasty, brutish and short"? Has globalization been good to the poor? Should we leave economic development to the market? Should we leave economic development to non-governmental organizations (NGOs)? Does foreign aid help or hinder? Where is the best place to intervene?

This course addresses the challenges of defining a relationship between exposure to environmental chemicals and human disease. Course topics include epidemiological approaches to understanding disease causation; biostatistical methods; evaluation of human exposure to chemicals, and their internal distribution, metabolism, reactions with cellular components, and biological effects; and qualitative and quantitative health risk assessment methods used in the U.S. as bases for regulatory decision-making. Throughout the term, students consider case studies of local and national interest.

This course addresses the challenges of defining a relationship between exposure to environmental chemicals and human disease. Course topics include epidemiological approaches to understanding disease causation; biostatistical methods; evaluation of human exposure to chemicals, and their internal distribution, metabolism, reactions with cellular components, and biological effects; and qualitative and quantitative health risk assessment methods used in the U.S. as bases for regulatory decision-making. Throughout the term, students consider case studies of local and national interest.

Following the steps of the engineering design process and acting as biomedical engineers, student teams use everyday materials to design and develop devices and approaches to unclog blood vessels. Through this open-ended design project, they learn about the circulatory system, biomedical engineering, and conditions that lead to heart attacks and strokes.

This course enhances cross-cultural understanding through the discussion of practical, ethical, and epistemological issues in conducting social science and applied research in foreign countries or unfamiliar communities. It includes a research practicum to help students develop interviewing, participant-observation, and other qualitative research skills, as well as critical discussion of case studies. The course is open to all interested students, but intended particularly for those planning to undertake exploratory research or applied work abroad. Students taking the graduate version complete additional assignments.

Using a website simulation tool, students build on their understanding of random processes on networks to interact with the graph of a social network of individuals and simulate the spread of a disease. They decide which two individuals on the network are the best to vaccinate in an attempt to minimize the number of people infected and "curb the epidemic." Since the results are random, they run multiple simulations and compute the average number of infected individuals before analyzing the results and assessing the effectiveness of their vaccination strategies.

Students learn about biomedical engineering while designing, building and testing prototype surgical tools to treat cancer. Students also learn that if cancer cells are not removed quickly enough during testing, a cancerous tumor may grow exponentially and become more challenging to eliminate. Students practice iterative design as they improve their surgical tools during the activity.

This course focuses on Third World development using case studies and team collaboration. Students draw lessons from success stories and identify challenges, unintended consequences and failures in implementing technologies, projects and policies. Students acquire skills in the building of partnerships and learn how to pilot, implement, and scale-up a selected innovation for the common good. Teams develop an idea, project or business plan that is ready to roll by semester's end.

D-Lab: Water, Climate Change, and Health is a project-based, experiential, and transdisciplinary course. Together with peers and experts, we will explore the vitally important interface of water, climate change, and health. This course addresses mitigation and adaptation to climate change as it pertains to water and health. Water-borne illness, malnutrition, and vector-borne diseases represent the top three causes of morbidity and mortality in regions of our focus. Students submit a term project, setting the stage for a lifelong commitment to communicating climate science to a broad public.

In this visualization adapted from the University of Massachusetts Medical School, discover the role that dengue viral proteins play in a human cell as the virus prepares to replicate.