Summary of Unit
In this module students develop skills and understanding associated with Biomedical Innovations and how an Australian business Ampcontrol responded in supporting the NSW Department of Health during the high of COVID-19 in Australia.
Students will immerse themselves in a real-world scenario to developing skills and understanding on how biomedical innovations are created through applying the STEM process to create solutions in a global crisis.
Students will address the inquiry question of “How can Australian Industry contribute to Biomedical Innovation?”.
STEM Learning Activity – Ampcontrol Emergency Ventilator Project
In this module students develop skills and understanding associated with Biomedical Innovation, specifically design of a medical innovation and biomedical engineering.
In the Ampcontrol Emergency Ventilator module, students are to develop skills and understanding associated with a biomedical innovation. Students will utilise inquiry and problem-based learning strategies to investigate the worldwide pandemic COVID-19, which has affected the way we live and medically treat patients who have contracted the virus. Students roleplay engineers who have been approached by NSW Health to investigate and design a basic biomedical ventilation system, to assist the increased demand for respiratory care and support for the increasing number of patients requiring medical support.
TOPIC 1: Introduction to Ampcontrol and COVID-19
Back Story:
“You are a Biomedical Engineer working at Ampcontrol and your supervisors have just called you in. They inform you that you will be a part of one of the teams working to develop a ventilator in response to COVID-19. The time frame is strict and you will be required to work quickly. You and your team have never faced such a problem and the following lessons have been designed to give you the relevant knowledge and skills to undertake the task you have been assigned. In this lesson you will be required to investigate the lung volume, breaths per minute and Inhale: Exhale ratio of a human being. You will also need to deduce the relevance and significance of your findings.”
Resources
Student workbook for the Ampcontrol Emergency Ventilator Project
ACTIVITY 1 Worksheet – Lung Volume Investigation
- Collaborate and conduct experimentation of lung volume within control/ variable groups
- Collate findings of scientific experiment
- Graph results of number of breaths vs volume of air in balloon
TOPIC 2: Lung volume, respiratory rate, inspiratory-expiratory ratio
Backstory:
“You need to do some basic investigations into the lungs and different breathing patterns in order to help you design the ventilator, and program it to deliver the right breaths to a patient. Context is extremely important for engineering, and your boss wants to make sure you know everything you can before you start to design anything. You will need to research the effect if COVID-19 on the lungs, and what current measures are being taken by doctors to help treat patients. Now that you know what kinds of things you want to investigate (breaths per minute, inspiratory/expiratory ratio (inhale : exhale ratio)), and why this is helpful to your design process, your boss wants you to design these investigations and perform them, with the help of your coworkers.”
Resources
Coding Program: www.onlinegdb.com
TOPIC 3: Lung compliance
Backstory
“Every single person’s lungs are different. Not only does everyone have a different lung volume, everybody also has a different respiratory rate, both demonstrated by previous investigations. What causes this? What else differs between peoples lungs, and is there a difference between one individual’s two lungs? What is lung compliance?”
Resources
TOPIC 4: Building a ventilation system
Backstory
You are an engineer at Ampcontrol, employed to assist in creating a ventilation system. With the information that has been learn in the last 3 Topics, design a system that simulates ventilation and air flow that could assist a person who has contracted COVID-19
Resources
Coding Program: microbit.org
Topic 5: Presentation and engineering report
Downloads
Videos
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