Transcript The Scottish Science Challenge

George Cleghorn
• 1716 – 1794, Doctor
• George Cleghorn was born in Edinburgh, and
went to Edinburgh University to study
medicine. He was a surgeon in the army, and
was sent to work on the island of Minorca,
near Spain. When he went back to Edinburgh
he wrote a book about all the diseases and
medical conditions that he had seen on the
island.
A cure for malaria
• In the book he said that quinine, which came
from the bark of the cinchona tree, acted as a
cure for malaria. Malaria is a disease that you
can get if you are bitten by a mosquito.
• Mosquitoes are little flies that are found in
warm countries.
• Malaria gives you a headache and a fever and
can make you very ill.
A cure for malaria
• Lots of people die of malaria every year,
mostly children in Africa.
• Malaria isn’t found in Britain at the moment,
but it was very common at the time when
George Cleghorn lived, and killed lots of
people.
• It is very important to wear mosquito
repellent and keep your skin covered if you go
to a place where there are mosquitoes.
A cure for malaria
• George Cleghorn’s book was published in 1751
and was called ‘Observations on the
Epidemical Diseases in Minorca from the year
1744 to 1749’.
• When people started using quinine to treat
malaria, far fewer people died of the disease.
• Quinine can still be used to treat malaria
today, although more effective medicines are
available now.
Germs and diseases
• George Cleghorn investigated malaria, which is
spread by mosquitoes. But not all diseases are
spread by insects, so how do they spread?
• Some diseases are spread by germs. Germs are
tiny little bugs that live everywhere. Germs are
really small, so we can’t see them unless we use a
microscope. But even though they are small,
they can be very dangerous, because these tiny
little germs can spread very nasty diseases.
Germs and diseases
• You have probably seen advertisements on TV for
cleaning products that kill germs.
• Germs are usually shown as little creatures with
arms and legs and an evil looking face. But this is
not what germs really look like. They are actually
tiny little cells with no arms and legs, and no evil
face.
• Lots of illnesses are caused by germs, such as
sore throats, ear ache, flu and measles. When
germs get inside our bodies they start to multiply
and spread through the body, making us ill.
Germs and diseases
• Germs can be spread by coughing and
sneezing.
• They can also live on surfaces like door
handles and bins.
• This is why it is important to wash your hands
after going to the toilet, and to cover your
mouth and nose if you are coughing and
sneezing.
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The George Cleghorn challenge
1. Name two ways that germs can spread.
2. Name two places at home that germs could
live
3. Name two places at school that germs could
live.
4. Name two illnesses that are caused by
germs.
The George Cleghorn challenge
(answers)
1. Coughing, sneezing or touching hands
2. TV remote control, kitchen surface, bath, food,
bins
3. Computer keyboard, door handles, tables, chairs,
toilets
4. sore throat, ear ache, measles, chicken pox, flu
James Lind
• 1716 – 1794, Doctor
• James Lind was born in Edinburgh. He served
as a surgeon in the navy before doing a medical
degree at Edinburgh University.
• At the time, scurvy was the biggest killer of
sailors.
Scurvy
• Scurvy was a very nasty disease.
• The sailors would get bleeding gums, their
muscles would waste away so they felt weak
and tired, and their joints would be swollen.
• Their skin would also feel tender, their teeth
would become loose and fall out, and if they
cut themselves the wounds wouldn’t heal
properly, so they could become infected.
A cure for scurvy
• Scurvy is caused by not getting enough
vitamin C.
• Vitamin C is found in citrus fruits like
oranges, and it is very important that
we get enough vitamin C in our diet.
• Lind said that the navy should give
lemons and limes to the sailors, but
they didn’t listen to him.
• 40 years later, after Lind had died, they
tried giving fruit to sailors, and straight
away they stopped getting scurvy.
A balanced diet
• There are lots of other vitamins that we get from
our foods, and it is important to have a balanced
diet so that we are healthy and get all the
vitamins that we need.
• All foods can be divided into five groups:
–
–
–
–
–
Fruits and vegetables
Starchy foods such as bread, rice, potatoes and pasta
Meat, fish, eggs and beans
Milk and dairy foods
Foods containing fat and sugar
HWB 1-30a
The James Lind challenge
• Play the James Lind lotto game to learn which group
different foods belong to.
• The game can be played in groups of up to six pupils. Each
pupil will need a lotto board.
• The aim of the game is to collect all the cards for your
board.
• You could spread all the cards face down on the table and
get pupils to turn over a card in turn, giving the card to the
person who needs it for their board.
• Or someone (the teacher for example) can be the ‘caller’
and turn over all the cards one by one, allocating them to
the correct person.
• The first person to complete their board is the winner.