EXEMPLAR LESSON
THE HUMAN HEART
,Acknowledgements
The Ministry of Education, Ghana, for their oversight,
support and guidance which has been essential in
ensuring that OpenSTEM Africa aligns with and
complements other education initiatives and
programmes.
Ministry of Education
CENDLOS, Ghana, for their collaboration and innovation
in providing essential avenues for OpenSTEM Africa to
reach learners and teachers.
Ghana Education Service, and the expert SHS science
teachers, for their expertise in producing materials that
are rooted in the Ghanaian school context, accessible and
useful to learners and teachers.
For information on OpenSTEM Africa see:
www.open.edu/openlearncreate/OpenSTEM_Africa
OPITO for their generous support, which has
made OpenSTEM Africa and the development
of the Virtual Laboratory and these materials
possible.
© The Open University, October 2019. Except for
third-party materials and otherwise stated, this
content is made available under a Creative
Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 licence:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
, Contents
Contents ............................................................................................................................... 1
Exemplar lessons for the OpenSTEM Africa Virtual Laboratory applications ......................... 2
The human heart................................................................................................................... 3
Lesson objectives ................................................................................................................. 3
Background........................................................................................................................... 4
Practical activity .................................................................................................................. 12
Summary ............................................................................................................................ 19
Quiz .................................................................................................................................... 21
Glossary.............................................................................................................................. 22
Appendix 1: Teacher notes – organisation of the lesson ..................................................... 24
Appendix 2 Teacher notes – outputs of the lesson .............................................................. 26
Appendix 3: In-text question answers .................................................................................. 28
Appendix 4: Quiz answers................................................................................................... 31
1
, Exemplar lessons for the OpenSTEM
Africa Virtual Laboratory applications
All the exemplar lessons are examples of lessons which could be used both individually and
by whole classes of Senior High School (SHS) students in the elective sciences of Biology,
Chemistry and Physics. Each of the lessons is linked specifically to one of the applications in
the OpenSTEM Africa Virtual Laboratory. The exemplar lesson is created to give, both to
SHS students and to SHS teachers, a clear example of the ways in which the applications
can be used in the learning and teaching of practical science. There is a focus throughout
the lesson on the student’s development of the practical and experimental skills which, along
with knowledge and understanding, are integral to the profile of learning, teaching and
assessment in SHS sciences.
The ‘you’ in this lesson is ‘you’, the Senior High School student. Remember that you can
repeat the experiments and activities in this lesson as often as you have time for in class.
This freedom to repeat experiments and activities is also important if you are accessing the
lesson outside the classroom, for example for homework. Every application in the
OpenSTEM Africa Virtual Laboratory contains real data – the experiments are real
experiments. This means you might make mistakes the first or second or third time you try
an experiment or an activity – and that is exactly what often happens in the real world in the
sciences. So, it is helpful for you as a student to share in some of the real-world trial and
error of science as you develop your skills as a scientist.
The exemplar lesson also contains a set of teaching notes at the end of this document for
‘you’ the SHS science teacher, to suggest how you might want to set up this particular
lesson with one of your classes. Hopefully it will also generate ideas for other lessons on the
same topic, or other lessons which use the same OpenSTEM Africa Virtual Laboratory
application.
2
THE HUMAN HEART
,Acknowledgements
The Ministry of Education, Ghana, for their oversight,
support and guidance which has been essential in
ensuring that OpenSTEM Africa aligns with and
complements other education initiatives and
programmes.
Ministry of Education
CENDLOS, Ghana, for their collaboration and innovation
in providing essential avenues for OpenSTEM Africa to
reach learners and teachers.
Ghana Education Service, and the expert SHS science
teachers, for their expertise in producing materials that
are rooted in the Ghanaian school context, accessible and
useful to learners and teachers.
For information on OpenSTEM Africa see:
www.open.edu/openlearncreate/OpenSTEM_Africa
OPITO for their generous support, which has
made OpenSTEM Africa and the development
of the Virtual Laboratory and these materials
possible.
© The Open University, October 2019. Except for
third-party materials and otherwise stated, this
content is made available under a Creative
Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 licence:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
, Contents
Contents ............................................................................................................................... 1
Exemplar lessons for the OpenSTEM Africa Virtual Laboratory applications ......................... 2
The human heart................................................................................................................... 3
Lesson objectives ................................................................................................................. 3
Background........................................................................................................................... 4
Practical activity .................................................................................................................. 12
Summary ............................................................................................................................ 19
Quiz .................................................................................................................................... 21
Glossary.............................................................................................................................. 22
Appendix 1: Teacher notes – organisation of the lesson ..................................................... 24
Appendix 2 Teacher notes – outputs of the lesson .............................................................. 26
Appendix 3: In-text question answers .................................................................................. 28
Appendix 4: Quiz answers................................................................................................... 31
1
, Exemplar lessons for the OpenSTEM
Africa Virtual Laboratory applications
All the exemplar lessons are examples of lessons which could be used both individually and
by whole classes of Senior High School (SHS) students in the elective sciences of Biology,
Chemistry and Physics. Each of the lessons is linked specifically to one of the applications in
the OpenSTEM Africa Virtual Laboratory. The exemplar lesson is created to give, both to
SHS students and to SHS teachers, a clear example of the ways in which the applications
can be used in the learning and teaching of practical science. There is a focus throughout
the lesson on the student’s development of the practical and experimental skills which, along
with knowledge and understanding, are integral to the profile of learning, teaching and
assessment in SHS sciences.
The ‘you’ in this lesson is ‘you’, the Senior High School student. Remember that you can
repeat the experiments and activities in this lesson as often as you have time for in class.
This freedom to repeat experiments and activities is also important if you are accessing the
lesson outside the classroom, for example for homework. Every application in the
OpenSTEM Africa Virtual Laboratory contains real data – the experiments are real
experiments. This means you might make mistakes the first or second or third time you try
an experiment or an activity – and that is exactly what often happens in the real world in the
sciences. So, it is helpful for you as a student to share in some of the real-world trial and
error of science as you develop your skills as a scientist.
The exemplar lesson also contains a set of teaching notes at the end of this document for
‘you’ the SHS science teacher, to suggest how you might want to set up this particular
lesson with one of your classes. Hopefully it will also generate ideas for other lessons on the
same topic, or other lessons which use the same OpenSTEM Africa Virtual Laboratory
application.
2
