In November, students completed the unit on diabetes. They explored numerous careers of those who treat people with diabetes (among others) and learned from a guest speaker about what it is like to live with type I diabetes. Next, they began exploring complications with diabetes. They started by modeling what happens to cells with normal blood glucose levels, hyperglycemia, and hypoglycemia. They learned about osmosis when they discovered hyperglycemia can cause cells to shrink due to loss of water and hypoglycemia can cause cells to swell because these conditions cause water to go into the cell. The osmosis lab lead to a discussion regarding other complications of diabetes. Students worked in groups to investigate a particular complication of diabetes including eye complications, foot complications, skin complications, high blood pressure, hearing loss, oral health problems, gastroparesis, ketoacidosis, neuropathy, kidney disease, peripheral artery disease, stroke, and stress. They presented their findings to the class.
