Lewis/Life - Teaching Techniques

Chapter 12 - Teaching Techniques

A. General Tips
Most students will find this chapter fascinating. Be prepared for questions you may not be able to answer. It seems this material always brings out questions and concerns intimately related to the very essence of humanity and if you have a good rapport with your students, you may be surprised at the types of problems they will ask about.
You might wish to copy and distribute to your students the Overview of Chapter Objectives flowchart found at the beginning of this Instructor's Manual Chapter.
B. Possible Approaches to the Chapter
This chapter lends itself well to the non-quiz. For the non-quiz you might ask questions on causes of infertility, percent of pregnancies ending in miscarriage (spontaneous abortion), donors and recipients in technological reproduction, effectiveness of birth control methods, and modes of transmission of AIDS. Be prepared for some surprises.
Because this is such an interesting chapter and because students have at least a rudimentary familiarity with the material, you could assign this section for completion outside of class time. The students could write to hand in an annotated outline covering all the major topics.
C. Hints Related to Specific Chapter Topics
- I. Although most everyone has heard of the body rejecting a transplanted organ, very few of your students will have thought about the possibility of a woman's immune system attacking either her partner's sperm or a developing embryo.
- II.C. Point out the numbers of sperm per ejaculate, as well as some of the abnormalities mentioned in this section.
  The primary cause of blocked fallopian tubes is either gonorrhea or one of the other pelvic inflammatory diseases.
  Sometimes when science cannot pinpoint the reason a couple cannot conceive, it is speculated that there might be a lethal gene involved. For instance, if both the man and the woman carry the same lethal recessive gene, neither of them would be affected. But, if these two genes paired up at fertilization, the effects might include the failure of the pre-embryo to begin the developmental process.
- IV.A. The term ectopic pregnancy is used. This is usually a point of great curiosity. An ectopic pregnancy is one which occurs any place except the uterus, although the fallopian tube is the most common site.
  I suggest you use a diagram of the female reproductive system to show where ectopic pregnancies can occur. Also, show how a partial blockage of the fallopian tube could allow the very tiny sperm to pass through but might not be sufficiently large to permit the passage of the large fertilized ovum.
- IV.B. Some books say that any baby under 5-1/2 pounds is premature. A century ago the cut off was 4-1/2 pounds.
- IV.C. Most will find this section on birth defects to be very interesting. You might consider assigning, either as a regular assignment or as extra credit, some independent research on birth defects.
  Some very promising research is presently being done on rehabilitating children who were born addicted. This is another prime topic for outside research.
- IV.C.2. An interesting, and as yet unanswered, question about fetal alcohol syndrome is why some babies are affected and others are not. There is definitely a missing link. Some women who are chronic alcoholics throughout their pregnancies have babies unaffected by FAS. Others who drank very little have severely affected FAS babies.
- IV.C.3. A major post-natal problem with cocaine (and other drugs) is withdrawal. These babies are coming down from major trips.
- IV.C.7. Yes, there have been attempts to link excessive use of computer screens by pregnant women with increases in birth defects. As of this moment, there are no definitive studies.
- V.C. There will always be people who want to argue about abortion from the religious or moral standpoint. It is usually not a good idea to do so in the classroom. Very few students -- on either side of this issue -- can carry on a scientific discussion about abortion; most have strong feelings and the inquiry ceases to be scientific and begins to be personal, psychological, sociological, or religious, to name a few. I suggest you present this material with scientific detachment.
- VI.A. It is estimated that most everyone has been exposed to some form of herpes (this includes the cold sore) by the age of six months. Why do some people never get a cold sore, while others have them repeatedly? Lewis points out that stress seems to precipitate recurrences of herpes infections. This is certainly true but two questions are still unanswered. Why do some people under tremendous stress never get a recurrence of a herpes infections? And, why do some people who seem to live a stress-less life seem to be plagued with herpes problems? Note that the relationship between stress and herpes is certainly correlative, but there is no evidence that stress is directly causative.
- VII. It is said that when Queen Victoria was approving certain laws, she told the lawmakers to take out the references to lesbian sex because "women didn't do that kind of thing."
- VII.B. Some new evidence on the biological aspects of homosexuality is trying to relate birth order to homosexual tendencies. The question is asked if this is related to the hormone levels of the mother during different pregnancies. Nothing is definite.
- ** VII. Between 2 and 10% of your students will be gay or lesbian. A few might be flagrantly "making a statement", while some will be going to great lengths to hide their sexual identity. Almost all of your students, gay and straight alike, will have strong feelings about homosexuality; all will definitely have friends or relatives who are struggling with sexual orientation issues. Where do you, as an educator, fit into this? I urge you:
  - 1. Know your facts.
  - 2. Present homosexual reality with dignity and empathy, even if you personally have problems with it. You have students who may be suffering; they come first.
  - 3. Know your community resources so you can direct students who may come to you with problems.