Target
 SWBAT Translate quantitative or technical information expressed in words in a text into visual form. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RST.9-10.7
Pre-Reading
 Anticipation Guide o Successful laboratory scientists have advanced college degrees. o The most important learning happens in school. o Teenagers mostly think about relatively unimportant things. o Discovering that a loved one has cancer is one of the most devastating things a person can experience. o Someday there will be a cure for cancer.
 Video about Jack Andracka o http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19291258 o http://www.smithsonianmag.com/multimedia/videos/Jack-Andrakas-Pancreatic-
Cancer-Breakthrough.html
o How many of you are 15 years old? As you’re watching, listen for the reason Jack won $75,000.
 Video discussion o Why did Jack win $75,000? o What do you think about this? Have you ever dreamed of changing the world?
 Intro to technical text o Our task is to figure out the science behind Jack’s discovery. o What makes science textbooks hard to read?
 Technical vocabulary
 Complex, unfamiliar concepts o What can you do when you get stuck in a scientific text? (List of possible responses) o Show sample text vs. images. Which is easier to make sense of? o Reading strategy – creating visuals from a text

Cancer results from a series of molecular events that fundamentally alter the normal properties of cells. In cancer cells the normal control systems that prevent cell overgrowth and the invasion of other tissues are disabled. These altered cells divide and grow in the presence of signals that normally inhibit cell growth; therefore, they no longer require special signals to induce cell growth and division. As these cells grow they develop new characteristics, including changes in cell structure, decreased cell adhesion, and production of new enzymes. These heritable changes allow the cell and its progeny to divide and grow, even in the presence of normal cells that typically inhibit the growth of nearby cells. Such changes allow the cancer cells to spread and invade other tissues.
The abnormalities in cancer cells usually result from mutations in protein-encoding genes that regulate cell division. Over time more genes become mutated. This is often because the genes that make the proteins that normally repair DNA damage are themselves not functioning normally because they are also mutated. Consequently, mutations begin to increase in the cell, causing further abnormalities in that cell and the daughter cells. Some of these mutated cells die, but other alterations may give the abnormal cell a selective advantage that allows it to multiply much more rapidly than the normal cells. This enhanced growth describes most cancer cells, which have gained functions repressed in the normal, healthy cells. As long as these cells remain in their original location, they are considered benign; if they become invasive, they are considered malignant. Cancer cells in malignant tumors can often metastasize, sending cancer cells to distant sites in the body where new tumors may form. www.learner.org/courses/biology/support/8_cancer.pdf
http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/cancerlibrary/what-is-cancer

http://www.webbooks.com/eLibrary/Books/B0/B18/MAIN/images/image009.jpg
 Model how to create a visual from a text o Andraka’s diagnostic breakthrough is a humble piece of filter paper, except that it is dipped in a solution of carbon nanotubes, which are hollow cylinders with walls the thickness of a single atom, coated with a specific antibody designed to bind with the virus or protein you’re looking for. Andraka’s key insight is that there are noticeable changes in the electrical conductivity of the nanotubes when the distances between them changes. When the antibodies on the surface of the nanotubes come in contact with a target protein, the proteins bind to the tubes and spread them apart a tiny bit. That shift in the spaces between tubes can be detected by an electrical meter. Andraka used a $50 meter from the Home Depot to do the trick but, he says, doctors can just as easily insert his test-strips into the kinds of devices used by millions of diabetics around the world. http://www.forbes.com/sites/bruceupbin/2012/06/18/wait-did-this-15-year-old-frommaryland-just-change-cancer-treatment/
 Explain the task – With your partner(s), your job is to do the same thing. Read this paragraph and create a visual to represent the content. This text has a lot of comparisons, so you might choose to create some sort of graph or chart. It’s up to you.
During Reading

A nanotube sensor with a targeted antibody is extremely sensitive. In a single-blinded test of 100 patient samples, Andraka’s sensor spotted the presence of mesothelin, a protein commonly used as a biomarker for pancreatic cancer, at a limit of 0.156 nano grams per milliliter, well below the
10 ng/mL considered an overexpression of mesothelin consistent with pancreatic cancer. It’s also 100 times more selective than existing diagnostic tests, which means no false positives or false negatives. It ignored healthy patient samples as well as those with mere pancreatitis. Compared with the 60-year-old diagnostic technique called enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (or ELISA), used in pregnancy test strips and viral checks for HIV, West
Nile and hepatitis B, Andraka’s sensor is 168 times faster, 26,667 times less expensive, and 400 times more sensitive. It can spot the presence of the cancer-linked protein well before the cancer itself becomes invasive. This could save the lives of thousands of pancreatic cancer victims each year. The sensor costs $3 (ELISA can cost up to $800) and ten tests can be performed per strip, with each test taking five minutes. It can be used also to monitor resistance to antibiotics and follow the progression of treatment of cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy or radiation. http://www.forbes.com/sites/bruceupbin/2012/06/18/wait-did-this-15-year-old-frommaryland-just-change-cancer-treatment/
 Circulate and observe student work. Mentors can assist with comprehension questions.
 While reading, students will be creating a visual representation.
Post-Reading
 Share visuals with another group.
 What did you learn?
 What was hard about this text? What was easy? How did you deal with difficult words?
 What are the benefits and drawbacks of creating a visual representation of a text?
 Follow-up assignment -

Name:
Create a Visual Representation of this text in the space below (or use another sheet of paper)
Jack Andraka claimed the $75,000 prize, given in honor of Intel cofounder Gordon E. Moore.
A family tragedy motivated Andraka, a 15-year-old from Crownsville, Md., to create strips of paper that can help detect pancreatic cancer.
“My uncle died of pancreatic cancer 10 months ago,” Andraka said.
Nearly 44,000 Americans will be diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2012, the National
Cancer Institute estimates. High levels of a protein called mesothelin in the blood can reveal the presence of such tumors. But the lack of a quick, cheap diagnostic test for the protein means that the disease tends to be caught late, making it an especially lethal cancer.
Searching for a better detector for mesothelin, Andraka coated paper with tiny tubes of atom-thick carbon. Antibodies stuck to the carbon nanotubes can grab the telltale protein and spread the tubes apart. The carbon’s resistance to the flow of electricity drops measurably as more protein attaches. Tests of the paper using blood samples from 100 people with cancer at different stages of the disease identified the presence of cancer every time, Andraka reported. http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/340834/description/From_cancer_to_quantum
_teens_scientific_feats_celebrated

1. As a group, create a visual representation of this text
A nanotube sensor with a targeted antibody is extremely sensitive. In a single-blinded test of
100 patient samples, Andraka’s sensor spotted the presence of mesothelin, a protein commonly used as a biomarker for pancreatic cancer, at a limit of 0.156 nano grams per milliliter, well below the 10 ng/mL considered an overexpression of mesothelin consistent with pancreatic cancer. It’s also 100 times more selective than existing diagnostic tests, which means no false positives or false negatives. It ignored healthy patient samples as well as those with mere pancreatitis. Compared with the 60-year-old diagnostic technique called enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (or ELISA), used in pregnancy test strips and viral checks for HIV, West Nile and hepatitis B, Andraka’s sensor is 168 times faster, 26,667 times less expensive, and 400 times more sensitive. It can spot the presence of the cancer-linked protein well before the cancer itself becomes invasive. This could save the lives of thousands of pancreatic cancer victims each year. The sensor costs $3 (ELISA can cost up to $800) and ten tests can be performed per strip, with each test taking five minutes. It can be used also to monitor resistance to antibiotics and follow the progression of treatment of cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy or radiation. http://www.forbes.com/sites/bruceupbin/2012/06/18/wait-did-this-15-year-old-frommaryland-just-change-cancer-treatment/