Annotated Bibliography

These books will be to supplement a microbiology unit.  In this unit will cover bacteria and viruses.  These have shaped our history and they will continue to shape our future.  First students will need to know anatomy of cells and viruses and the mechanisms that create diseases.  Then we will need to emphasize that not all bacteria are and viruses are harmful to humans and that there are a select few that are harmful. 

The trade books contain much of the same factual information that the students will learn in a textbook, but it is delivered in a story telling way.  Students will be able to read this more readily rather than trying to read a book that is focusing on just delivering facts and vocabulary words.  The trade books also focus on the social impact of disease and there fore will show students how the world of cells and viruses have shaped our world.

Demon in the Freezer

          Smallpox is the only disease that has ever had a god as its consequence. This books central theme is about biowarfare.   It starts out describing the 2001 terrorist attack of sending a letter to a US senator killing 5 people as a consequence.  The book lead into talking about small pox because a major concern with the letter was that the Anthrax was laced with smallpox, but it was not.  It talked about the history of small pox from the origination of a transpecies jump to humans many years ago when agrarian life was first established, the eradication of smallpox and to modern day experimentation with it.  The Eradication was talk about in great depth and how they used a ring pattern of immunizations to stop the spread.  The modern perspective is the about smallpox research and the individuals that wanted to research a more effective and safer vaccination.

            This is for the students that are more science oriented.  It is a fascinating book that describes diseases in great detail. Students will need to be introduced to some of the topics about disease and viruses.  This way a student will understand what spores are and how they are formed.  This book is a good supplemental reading for students to read and incorporate into the learning of a subject.  Instead of having the students regurgitate the facts from the textbook they can use the context of the book for to support their explanations.

Henrietta Lacks,

          This is a documentary about Henrietta Lack, the women that the famous HeLa cells came from.  HeLa cells are a type of cancer cell that has a growth pattern that is like no other cell we have seen. They will continue to grow and divide as long as there are nutriance and will not die. This makes them very important in the medical research field.  The book starts out of a student that learned about where HeLa cells came from and from there on she wanted to learn more about his women that no one knew anything about.  We go on a journey with the author Rebecca Skloot tracking down the Lacks family and her doctors.  We find out that her cells were taken with out her permission and the struggles and inequalities that happen to the poor.  This book takes place in the heart of Baltimore and John Hopkins.

            This book, students will see things that they can connect with.  It takes place in Baltimore and at John Hopkins Hospital.  This is the stories of how just a few cells could shape science, as we know it.  With out these cells we would not have most of the cancer drugs and vaccines that we use to this day.  Once we would start to cover cells and how they divide we could start to read this book. Having the lesson cover how cells reproduce and what cancer it, this book will give them a more personal aspect to the lesson. It is always important for students to know how far we come. It will not show the leaps and bounds the science community has improved with its ethics, but still how much further we still have.

Dr. Jenner and the Speckled Monster

          This book focuses on the history of the smallpox disease.  The book starts out talking about the devastation that smallpox has had on many civilizations.  It is the only disease that had gods named after it.  The “Speckled Monster” gives a brief description on how the human smallpox arose.  I talks about how we moved from hunters and gatherers and how disease had a hard time taking a hold of a species until we became agrarian and kept livestock in close quarters with us, this lead to a virus jumping species.  Then it talked about Dr. Jenner, he was a surgeon, not a doctor, and was very studious about his work.  He met a milkmaid one day and she gave him the idea of vaccinating people with cowpox to prevent smallpox.  This was the start of his quest and it worked.  With his work we were able to use this same technique to complete the eradication of the smallpox virus.

            This book is written at a lower level then the other two novels that were selected for the microbiology lesson plan.  I would use this book with students that might not be reading on par with the grade level.  It will also be accessible to all students in the classroom for another reference book.  In the back it also lists some websites that would be useful to use in the class, to show how to research material like this.

Website 1, Anatomy of a cell

On this site there are pages for every part of the cell.  This has show easy to read and understand diagrams and pictures.  This site covers both animal and plant cell parts, so this site would be a one stop visit with the cell basics.

Sometimes explanations in textbooks are not as clear as students would like. This website is a great supplemental reading to either use in class or have the students explore outside of class for a further understanding of the subject. There are pages on this site that give an in depth reading on the parts of a cell and also provide labeled diagrams.

Website 2, Mitosis

            This site was designed by M. Davidson at the University of Florida for instructional use.  Here you can see all the phases of cell division.  These can all be seen in one layer of an onion skin under a microscope.  There are pictures under each of the description of the phases.  This provides a good understanding of what is happening in the mitosis in a cell.

A good hands-on lab where students get to see mitosis in progress is looking a layer of an onion.  Most labs have you draw out the stages of the cell in class and answer questions about cell division.  This would be a great reference before a test, so students can compare their drawings and notes of the onion cells to actual pictures.

1. Preston, Richard. (2003). The Demon in the Freezer: A True Story. Random House      Publishing Group.
2. Skloot, Rebecca. (2011). The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. Crown Publishing Group.
3. Marrin, Albert. (2002). Dr Jenner and the Speckled Monster: The Search for the Smallpox Vaccine. Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated.