Literacy in immunology

Literacy is an important part of the curriculum. Students need to have good reading and writing skills to be able to adequately address other areas of the curriculum such as science. In this activity, students use the medium of literacy to further explore and consolidate ideas about the immune system and immune response.

Some mind maps, poems and stories from year 5–6 students are included as examples.

Rights: The University of Waikato Te Whare Wānanga o Waikato

Student mind map

Use this example of a student's mind map to encourage your students to draw their own mind map depicting the immune system. Ask them to show the various cells with ideas about them including their function and relatedness to others.

By the end of this activity, students should be able to:

• draw a mind map showing the interrelatedness and function of some of the immune cells
• write a poem about immune cells and their function
• write a fictional story using scientific knowledge of the immune system and immune response

Download the Word file (see below) for:

• introduction/background notes
• what you need
• what to do.