A Cure For Cancer!

Introduction

• You and a group of three other scientists are on a mission which will take you on a three month long journey into the Rain Forest. During this lengthy mission, your group has been asked to search for any plants that may have some medicinal uses to cure modern day illnesses and diseases. Since the rain forest has very humid, arid weather, living under these conditions hasn’t been easy and all of you have had just about enough of it. A week before the journey’s end, you and the others decide to take a walk back into the thick forest to make sure you haven’t left anything behind on the research sites. As you are walking, you come across a plant that none of you have ever seen before. Although you are extremely excited, you are also puzzled and bewildered about its anatomical features. Because of your nagging curiosity, you go against the wishes of the other scientists and sneak a sample back to the make-shift lab to run some tests on it. After you run your initial tests, you are dumbfounded by what you have learned. Not only has this plant not been identified and named, but it also happens to have some compounds in it that are commonly found in those medicines used to combat different types of human cancers. You immediately sneak away and run to mark where you found this plant. You spend your night tossing and turning thinking about all the possibilities of what if…

Task

• You will have three tasks on hand before this webquest is over. Your first task would be to document your findings so that no one can claim they found this plant first. Next, you will need to research your newly discovered plant to make sure you have plenty of proof about it possibly being a cure for cancer. Lastly, your final task would be to compose a portfolio about all you’ve learned to submit to your teacher for a grade.

Process

·   There are five (5) steps you will have to follow in this webquest. Before you begin each activity, you should take a look at the Evaluation page to see what you’ll be graded on during this quest.

·   Step 1: Since you aren’t sure what to do about this new discovery, you will have to work on this webquest alone. First off, you want to document/record your findings so that you’ll have proof you’re the first person to find this plant. Go to your resource page to do this.

·   Step 2: You will need to decide whether or not you’re going to go public with your new discovery. You will want to brainstorm the reasons you should and should not and all the pros and cons concerned with both choices. To help you do this, go to the resources page to read the tutorial on brainstorming.

·   Step 3: Now you’ll need to find proof that this plant has the same compounds as those known to be found in current medicines used to combat cancer. To do this, you will have to visit many websites to learn more about cancer and what is done to combat it now. Go to the resource page for the links required to succeed in this step. Make a list of facts about your discovered plant, found on the research notes page you’ve already typed up here, and those compounds used in medicines used to fight cancer. For the sake of this webquest, we will give our plant the code name “mistletoe”. Check the Evaluation page to make sure you meet this requirement.

·   Step 4: Make a poster incorporating all newly found information and facts so that your teacher may display this information for others to see. Make sure to check the Evaluation page to see what you should include in this poster.

·   Step 5: put all of your work into a portfolio and hand it in to your teacher for a final grade. Check the Evaluation page to make sure you’ve included everything you need to Ace this assignment!

Resources

·   Document your findings here

·   Tutorial for brainstorming, click here

·   For background on what cancer does to the body, click here

·   For more background on cancer, click here

·   Information about medicines used to combat cancer now

·   Facts sheet about your newly discovered plant, click here

Evaluation

·   To check what you’ll be graded on, click on this Evaluation document here

Conclusion

·   Congratulations! You’re the first person to discover, research, and record the cure for cancer! From this point on, your name will be imprinted into the Science texts, journals, magazines, and other printed material as one of the great scientists/discoverers of this time! You’ve just made history.