Plant to Pharmaceutical
How are plant compounds identified, isolated, and manufactured to treat disease?
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AG/ENVIRONMENTAL | UNIT 7
UNIT 8 At a Glance
STORYLINE
- Analyze plants with potential bioactive properties and consider challenges related to biodiversity, conservation, and intellectual property.
PACING
- 9 week unit
- 45-minute classes
FRAMING
- Standards Aligned
- Driving Question
- Engineering Design Process
- Project Based
LESSON PLANS AND LABS
- 8 Lessons with Lab Elements
- 1 Core Lab
- 1 Final Project
Lesson Plans, Labs and Student Capture Sheets
This unit includes lesson plans, labs, student capture sheets that empower educators to engage all students. These lesson bundles can be downloaded, for use in the classroom.
Complete UnitZIP, 189.4 MB
Introduction
Ag/Environmental
Plant to Pharmaceutical
Students will work as part of a pharmaceutical team that has developed a new drug derived from a plant with medicinal properties, before developing a sales pitch with a molecular model, communication plan, and financial analysis.
Lesson 1
Ag/Environmental
Biodiversity on Earth
5 classes
How can maps be used to investigate relationships between stakeholders, their local ecosystems, and potential sources of plant-based medicine? Create a biodiversity map to analyze where plants with bioactive properties might be located.
Lesson 2
Ag/Environmental
Ethical Collaboration
6 classes
How can researchers ethically collaborate with Indigenous communities when developing new intellectual property? Identify and discuss judgements made during drug discovery around biodiversity, conservation, and intellectual property.
Lesson 3
Ag/Environmental
BOTANICAL COLLECTIONS AND iNATURALIST
4 classes
How are botanical collections used to study the taxonomy, genetics, and distribution of plants on Earth? Use evolutionary analysis to hypothesize relationships and medicinal properties of botanical specimens.
Lesson 4
Ag/Environmental
The Role of Traditional Ecological Knowledge in Drug Development
5 classes
How can we design a community plant garden to promote health and healing? Learn about Indigenous Traditional Ecological Knowledge and design a community medicinal plant garden.
Lesson 5
Ag/Environmental
Drug Discovery Using Plant Extracts
5 classes
1 lab
How can we find bioactive compounds in nature? Utilize an assay to identify one example of bioactivity in plants: antibiotic activity.
Lesson 6
Ag/Environmental
Plants and Disease
5 classes
How are plant-based medicines designed for a specific patient population? Identify a bioactive plant compound and the condition treated by that compound using research.
Lesson 7
Ag/Environmental
Plant Medicine Product Development
5 classes
How do individuals collaborate on Project Teams to create models, communication plans, and financial analyses? Collaborate to model a plant-based medicine, identify a patient population, and a plan to scale and manufacture the medicine.
Lesson 8
Ag/Environmental
Product Development: Collaboration, Feedback, and Revisions
5 classes
How do teams communicate to evaluate and improve a product? Give and receive feedback to evaluate and improve plant-based medicine products.
Lesson 9
Ag/Environmental
Product Showcase
5 classes
What supporting evidence do biotech companies use to determine which drugs to bring to market? Use models and marketing plans to provide evidence for why a drug should be produced by a biotech company, based on the needs of a specific patient population.
