Title: No Ordinary Coronary

The lesson described in this article helps students to better understand how arteries may be clogged and lead to heart attacks, how stents might be used to alleviate this problem, and how pl... See More

The lesson described in this article helps students to better understand how arteries may be clogged and lead to heart attacks, how stents might be used to alleviate this problem, and how plaque in arteries can lead to other problems like strokes through the use of an inquiry lesson where students try to unblock a model artery. They tied this to NGSS by using it as a vehicle to examine the role of systems and how they are interconnected. I would not only recommend this for middle school, I shared it with the teacher at the high school teaching biomedicine as well.

Teaching about coronary arteries and stents

Excellent article! Many students know of someone who has had to have a stent put into their heart to unblock a coronary artery. The project described in this article has the students design ... See More

Excellent article! Many students know of someone who has had to have a stent put into their heart to unblock a coronary artery. The project described in this article has the students design a model to show a blood-flow pathway. It provides a Project rubric, a Student Activity sheet, and a Teacher information sheet as an on-line resource. Within the article, each step of the design process is explained and pictures are shown to further illustrate the process. The resources listed at the end of the article also add incredibly to the informational value of this article. I highly recommend this article for everyone, not just teachers.