Medicine through time

Hippocratic Bench, as illustrated in one of Galen’s works.

Surgery being performed on the eye. 1195 AD.

15th century surgical instruments.

Dutch surgeon, circa 1690.

Surgeons tools (German). 1749.

Re-enactment of the first operation that made use of ether as an anaesthetic.

1879. Ugandan image illustrating a birth by caesarian section.

19th century American operating room.

Russian image illustrating amputation. 1907.

Chinese military field unit.1949

All images are part of the wiki commons collection. They are all listed as being public domain images.

Want to get key facts, revision tips and reminders about the course content sent to your mobile phone or instant messager? Follow this simple guide to get regular updates and reminders.

1) Go to https://twitter.com/signup and sign up
2) Then go to http://twitter.com/medthrutime and opt to ‘follow’
3) You can then choose how to get the updates. In Setting’ you can opt to have updates sent to your mobile phone, instant messenger, or you could subscribe to the RSS feed and get the updates that way.

Benefits / info

- You get reminders regularly - and its free.
- Your details are safe and sund within your twitter account, nobody here needs to know your phone number, IM details or anything else about you.

Want to know more about the thinking behind this?

See these blog posts about using twitter in the classroom:

http://apaceofchange.edublogs.org/2007/08/08/promoting-twitteracy-in-the-classroom/

Becoming digitally literate via twitter.

Online archives are a great source of short clips that can be used in lessons. They can be used as nice introductions, e made available on the schol network as additional reference material or made available for pupils working on their own IT based revision materials. The time consming bit, as always, is finding them in the first place. This post is a simple time saver, the following are the clip titles and reference numbers for British Pathe News clips that I’ve used in medicine lessons.

British Pathe clips. How to access them:

Go to the British Pathe website
Select ‘Advanced Search’
Enter the reference number (below) into ‘Film ID’
Add the clip to your basket
Continue searching or proceed to the ‘check out’
If you are in a UK school you should be able to access high quality clips free of charge, if not, select not for profit or education from the use options and you can download a free demo version of the clip (it just has a small banner on it which doesn’t ruin the clip)
Follow the on screen instructions to download the clips to your chosen storage device.

As Pathe may reorganise / renumber items, you should be able to find clips by searching for the clip title if the clip ID is not found.

Pathe Clip names and references:

AMPUTEES LEARN TO USE ARTIFICIAL LIMBS - Clip ID is 1852.38
ANTI POLIO VACCINE - 1666.36
BLOOD BANKS - 1536.53
CAMERA TO SAVE LIFE - 1751.08
CANCER RESEARCH - 3310.01
cancerresearch - 2341.21
CHILDREN_S DENTISTRY 59.08
COFFIN NAILS 1493.03
CYSTIC FIBROSIS 3309.06
DEFENCE AGAINST DISEASE 3382.05
DIPTHERIA TRAILER 1512.37
diseaseofthecentury_overstress 2728.09
EYE OPERATION 3405.06
HEALING - MONOPOLY OR OPEN SHOP 1501.32
HEARING AID MUSEUM 411.03
HEART OPERATION AT THE HEART SURGERY INSTITUTE 2637.02
IMPROVING THE MICROSCOPE 2762.13
INFLUENZA TRAILER 1534.15
MAKING ARTIFICIAL LIMBS 1662.01
MANUFACTURE OF DRUG TO COUNTER 2473.11
MEDICAL SCIENCE CONQUERS POLIO 19.09
Medicine 1884.28
NHS TRAILER 1460.17
OPEN HEART SURGERY 2918.22
OPENING OF NEW CROOKES MIRACLE DRUG LABORATORY 58.39
PENICILLIN DISCOVERY 1944.23
PENICILLIN IN MASS PRODUCTION 2028.22
PLASTIC SURGERY1283.02
RAF INSTITUTE OF AVIATION MEDICINE 2784.17
SCIENCE AIDS MOTHERS 1407.02
SMALLPOX CITY QUEUES FOR VACCINATION 1462.04
SURGERY THROUGH THE AGES 2447.07
SWEEP AWAY ALL SLUMS 693.32
THE DOCTOR_S PROTEST 627.12
THE WAR ON PNEUMONIA 949.47
THREE ROADS TO HEALTH 1378.12
WONDER DRUG CEPORIN 3115.14
WORLD CANCER CONGRESS OPENS 1537.06

Using music in lessons helps some students to remember key points, adds a bit of variety to the delivery of content and is a ‘must’ if you’re getting students to make use of programmes like moviemaker. Music can help to create a mood in the classroom and can calm, energise, engage (or distract!) students. There are plenty of places online to find out about the positive impact of the use of classical music, plenty of examples of songs from, say, the wars, being used - but for a development study like medicine through time, the options can appear to be a litte more difficult.

Here’s a list of the songs I’ve got stored away in my medicine folder. Possible uses are noted underneath each song.

1) Penicillin Penny - Dr Hook and the Medicine Show

Fleming, Florey, Chain etc…

2) Spirit in the sky - Doctor and the Medics

Religious beliefs in the Ancient World

3) Bring me to Life - Evanescence

Black Death

4) Rehab - Amy Winehouse

Modern medicine

5) Sisters are doing it for themselves - Aretha Franklin

Development of nursing

6) Bad medicine - Bon Jovi

Overview - major mistakes or misunderstandings through time?

7) Heroes - David Bowie

Overview - recapping the key people / contributions.

Changes - David Bowie

Overview - continuity / change

9) Do you really want to hurt me - Culture Club

Barber Surgeons

10) Gimme Shelter - The Roling Stones

Public health

11) The Drugs don’t work - The Verve

Fight against infectious disease

12) The Casualty theme tune

Handy as a timing device for starter / plenary tasks

13) Jean Genie - David Bowie

DNA

14) It’s only pain - Katie Melua

Development of anaesthetics

15) The Scientist - Coldplay

Watson and Crick

16) Heaven knows I’m miserable now - The Smiths

Public Health in the Industrial Revolution

17) Spoonful of Sugar - Mary Poppins soundtrack

Treatments through time

18) Everybody Hurts - REM

Various uses

19) Jagged little pill - Alanis Morrisette

Modern medicine / changes in treatments

20) Getting Better - The Beatles

Scientific / technological revolution

21) Hospital Beds - Cold War Kids

Development of hospitals

22) Where’s your head at? - Baseman Jaxx

Trephining

23) Stuck in the middle with you - Bob Dylan

Surgery

24) Take me to the hospital - The Faint

NHS

25) Unwell - Matchbox20

Various

http://www.thackraymuseum.org/
Location: LEEDS
Thackray medical museum is fantastic for GCSE History. A visit there provides brilliant opportunities to develop understanding, particularly of developments during the Industrial Revolution. The museum has a large range of educational resources, teachers packs and was set up with GCSE History groups in mind.

http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/node6500.html
Location: Central LONDON
The Wellcome Trust opened an exhibition centre in June 2007. If its half as good as the website suggests, then it ought to feature in many schools itineraries in the coming years.

http://www.thegarret.org.uk/index.htm
Location: St Thomas’s Hospital, LONDON
The oldest surviving operating theatre in the country.
http://www.st-marys.nhs.uk/fleming_museum.htm
Location: LONDON
An opportunity to see where penicillin was discovered and learn about its development and impact.

http://www.aagbi.org/heritage/museum.htm
Location: LONDON
Anaesthesia Heritage Centre. The museum collection contains over 2000 objects relating to the story of anaesthesia. Its collections date from 1774 to the present day and provide a detailed insight into the history of medicine relating to anaesthesia and anaesthetic equipment as well as pain relief and resuscitation.

http://www.bethlemheritage.org.uk/
Location: BECKENHAM, KENT
Offers tailored visits for school groups. The museum is home to a large number of documents and sources and is located in the countries oldest mental health hospital, founded in 1247.

http://www.college-optometrists.org/index.aspx/pcms/site.college.What_We_Do.museyeum.museyeum_home/
Location: LONDON.
The website is certainly worth a visit as there are some pretty good images tucked away on there. The museum itself is probably of more interest to teachers and / or further education students than for a KS4 educational visit.

http://www.florence-nightingale.co.uk/index.php
Location: LONDON
The Nightingale museum offers school group tours in afternoons. They provide a trail pack for students to folow and have a range of exhibitions. In the summer months there is an interesting selection of workshops, presentations and reconstructions that are worth taking a closer look at.

http://www.medicalmuseum.org.uk/
Location: WORCESTER
The George Marshall Medical Museum has a large colection of artefacts and a tailored education programme. They’re also offering an artefacts loans service for schools now - well worth asking about!

http://www.dundee.ac.uk/museum/medical.htm
Location: DUNDEE
Offers a range of permanent and temporary exhibitions. Part of ‘Scotland & Medicine, collections and connections‘ There’s a decent list of museums with medicine sections in Scotland on that page.

http://www.24hourmuseum.org.uk/museum_gfx_en/SE000133.html
Location: ALDERSHOT
Queen Alexandra’s Royal Army Nursing Corps Museum.

A really long list of exhibitions, collections and museum archives relating to medicine in the UK can be found on this page. These vary from ‘the contents of a chemists shop’ through to document colections of dctors, dentists and nursing organisations. Hopefully there’s something on the list thats close to school as these organisations could be excellent sources of resources, artefacts and anecdotes about medicine through time in your neighbourhood.

As someone who rarely makes use of a textbook in the ‘traditional’ sense, I’ve probably got a rather strange take on what ‘must have’ resources are. I’ve also been lucky enough to be in schools with IT facilities that have been extremely good, and have grown too accustomed to having laptops, projectors, video cameras and the like around. However they’re often used simply because they’re there and aren’t always vital to the learning outcomes. This is a simple selection of things that I’d hate to teach medicine without.

Costume. Now I don’t really like dressing up in the classroom all that much - as anyone who’s met me at SHP conferences will be able to testify, if there’s a threat of me in costume, I’m in hiding - BUT, as much as I feel daft, uncomfortable and way out of my comfort zone, I don’t think I could teach the medicine course as effectively without making use of costume. Why? It’s memorable for the students. If the teacher, a students or a pressganged coleague / guest is in costume and role, then hotseating becomes more ‘real’, the activity is more memorable and the fact that the teacher is making a fool of him/herself is, sadly, enough to make even the most disinterested of 15 year olds pay attention for a short period of time. Costume ideas: a toga is simple enough to create for roleplaying Hippocrates, Galen etc. I’ve got a range of outfits for the medieval and early modern periods from living history weekends that we run, these are great for medieval healers, barber surgeons and the like. Uniforms from either world war are relatively easy to fnd online - usually some on ebay at a reasonable cost - and they’re useful elsewhere in the curriculum as well. Others - take a visit to the drama department and see what they’ve got. With Shakespeare and Dickens being favourites of Drama teachers, there’s a good chance that you could get the kit together for most periods. If your budget can stretch to it, theres always costume hire to consider, though I’d imagine that this would need to be for a ‘big’ activity or project.

Artefacts. Even if they’re improvised, replicas or at a push photos of artefacts, they offer a great deal in the classroom. Some museums offer loans services of artefacts and you might be able to get a tailored box for sectins of the medicine course. Jumble Sales and ebay are also great sources of artefacts for the course. Examples of artefacts and improvisations I use - hand powered drills, rope, saws and hammers are all improvisations to use when looking at surgery. Surgeons tools - bought on ebay for about £10. Herbs, a pestal and mortar set and a few od bottles soon creates a medival doctors surgery and a visit to the Science dept to rummage around their glassware normally roduces something that can pass for a urine jar. Other things - I bought a few boxes from historyboxes.com for KS3 but asked them to adapt the boxes a bit so that it could be used for elements of the KS4 course. Buying might stretch budgets a bit but there are several comapnies scattered around the country who’ll rent out themed boxes of artefacts that can do the job. The best sources of artefacts I’ve found are living history enthusiasts, and I’m lucky in that I know quite a few and, certainly for more recent developments, people in the medical profession as they can sometimes pass on out of date equipment, accounts and images that are of use.

Poster paper - and lots of it! Why? It’s easy to make tabards with it in seconds, so adaptations of exercises is quick and easy; easy to use in group work and it allows the group to present their work without having to go off an create powerpoints etc, whilst also allowing the work to then be displayed; notes on it can be BIG, links can be highlighted easily and its easy to photograph the results.

A big box. A little strange perhaps but students love mysteries and the big box is my teaching equivalent of the magicians hat (though theres no sign of rabbits just yet). It simply allows there to be an element of suprise in lessons, allows for a range of source types to be used (and hidden from view until the right time) and it makes getting a varied collection of resources from one group of students to another very simple. Standard contents for me would be a few extracts from sources or textbooks, a couple of images, an artefact or two and, if needed, tabards, prompt cards and info packs to distribute as and when required. I’ve found that this makes voting exercises more fun and realistic as there’s been close control over what students have had access to - so for beliefs about the Black Death, for example, the box might have produced images of Flaggelants, a bishops hat to prompt a bit of roleplaying and a few sources about the pestilence being Gods Will. This visualises and reenforces understanding of one belief set, which is then analysed, discussed and / or recorded as notes, before moving onto an alternative viewpoint.

Reference Area. I really don’t like just telling students the answer to a question, I much prefer them to figure it out themselves. So a simple solution is the reference area. Simply a collection of reference books, textbooks, journals and print outs in a folder that (hopefully) covers just about any question that they’ll ever come up with. Uses - first and foremost, they don’t ask me for an answer until they’ve tried and failed to find an answer in the reference area. For students who don’t find the answer theres a logging sheet to complete to show what they did to try and find the information - saves them randomly flicking without trying to find anything. Result - they find things out for themselves and I can work with individuals or groups rather than being asked to provide basic information. Also useful when doing Q&A as students who don’t know answers to questions can be asked to find it out themselves, rather than simpl moving the question around to another student - I think this is imortant as tagetted questioning is done to ensure that those specific students know the answers, letting them say ‘don’t know and allowing them to slump back into their chair whilst teachers pet answers for them does them no good at all! The reference area is also great in revision quizzes. If its adaptable enough the contens can be split into 5 or 6 equal sets and given to groups. They then do research / revise quizzes that require them to cite a source of information that proves that they are right. Why do that? It means that they HAVE to use information in sources and extract it, they get used to working with a variety of source types and if they’ve got reference materials there for the quiz you can differentiate the questions given to groups.

Extremely bias sales pitch time - Dynamic Learning in Medicine through time. Ok, I’m bound to say that I couldn’t do without it as I’d be daft not to advertise something I co-authored but I’d find it incredibly difficult to cater for the vast array of needs and abilities in groups I’ve previously taught without having flexible and adpatable IT resources to hand. Most of the time in my classroom there’ll be some students working away from the rest of the class, completing something on computers, with video cameras etc. This is part and parcel of the way that I differentiate, it allows an element of flexibility within the classroom and means that the class, between them, have always covered evrything in a variety of ways - which can then be shared and used by all of them.

Note - this post will be tidied up and added to later on. Published ‘early’ as a response to this post on the schoolhistory.co.uk forum.

When I began teaching the medicine course I opted to cover things in chronological order and stuck to developing understanding of content and retention of knowledge far too much. Whilst the results were fine, and the kids seemed to enjoy the lessons, it didn’t really seem to be the most exciting method of getting through things, and I felt that there were key issues that simply weren’t being addressed well enough. As a result, my scheme of work was torn up and a new approach used. its far from perfect but has resulted in the lessons being significantly more enjoyable for me and the students; results, particularly for C/D borderline students, have improved and the standard of teaching and learning has been consistently good or outstanding when the department has been observed.

Overview of the ‘improved’ scheme of work:

1) Introduction. Big overview exercise looking at sources and events from each period. making use of active learning to sequence the events, identify themes and factors in the sources and make some early judgements about the significance of them.

2) Medicine in the Ancient World. (AQA syllabus, obviously less relevant for other boards). Introduced what I call 5×5x5 as a ‘content grabber’. Simple method - 5 groups of 5 students who then had 5 minutes to use provided sources / reference materials to create a fact file on a specified area. This created a rage of fact sheets which were discussed, amended where appropriate and added to in future lessons - with a rule that the most important 5 things about (whatever) were included. Benefits of this: in 5 minutes the class have gathered all the information they’ll need for the next few lessons. After another 5 minutes of presentations it’s been shared throughout the group - and notes are available that are accessible. Then I split the content into themes and factors. We trace the role of religion through to the fall of Rome, the development of Public Health, chart the role and impact of government and identify the types of treatment and healers that were available in each of the ancient civilisations covered on the syllabus. These are drawn together using timeline activities such as Ian Dawson’s Change and Continuity in the Ancient World, hotseating exercises and a debate about significance - in the classroom we use Big Brother meets the history of medicine, then follow this up by using an online forum for continued discussion. (The 5×5x5 idea is repeated several times to build knowledge, ensure that all students have covered all aspects and to continually make students think about the significance of events).

3) Medieval Medicine. This section I base largely around a roleplay. (Medieval medicine - downloadable from this page) This covers a range of treatment types, beliefs and influences and gets students to think carefully about the period they are studying. The preparatory work they do in advance builds on their understanding of medicine in the Ancient World and on completion of the exercise we can then start to take a really close look at continuities, changes and the way in which factors have become more or less significant. This led leads into a study of the Black Death.

4) The Renaissance onwards. At this point I switch from the chronological run through to themes. Students know what the background is, have the knowledge and understanding of medieval and ancient medicine that will alow them to identofy change, continuity etc and, I think, the thematic approach from this point onwards makes more sense as a) it just seems more logical to me (but I might be wrong there!) b) thats how they’ll be examined and c) its proved to be quite flexible in terms of adapting for specified units for the exam.

As I worked on the Dynamic Learning: Medicine through time CD’s for Hodder Murray I collated a list of active learning activities that I use alongside the contents of the 2 CD’s. The list, below, shows how I’ve tried to combine use of active learning and IT alongside other methods. Whilst I deliver them as part of a themed approach, they can quite easily be transferred into a chronology based SoW, as outlined below:

The Renaissance

IT intro - Introducing Medicine in the Renaissance. Medicine through time CD1
Hook. Pare, Vesalius and the death of King Henri II of France.
http://thinkinghistory.co.uk/ActivityBase/PareVesaliusandHenriII.html
ICT task – Why did Pare change surgery? Medicine through time CD1.

ICT task - Was the Renaissance really important in medical history? Medicine through time CD1.
A flexible activity that could be completed individually or in groups.

ICT based unit plenary: What really changed in Renaissance Medicine? Medicine through time CD1.

1750-1900

IT intro - Introducing Medicine 1750-1900. Medicine through time CD1

Spot the continuity. Medicine through time CD1.

Surgery. A play about Surgery. http://www.comptonhistory.com/gcse/surgeryplay.pdf

ICT task - The revolution in surgery. Medicine through time CD1.

Public Health. Significant factors in Public Health. Adapt to create a 1500-1900 version of Public Health timeline exercise. http://thinkinghistory.co.uk/ActivityBase/PublicHealthThroughTheAges.html

ICT task - Public Health in the Industrial Revolution. Medicine through time CD1.

Fight against Infectious Disease. Germs have feelings too. http://thinkinghistory.co.uk/ActivityBase/GermsFeelingLifeline.html

ICT task - Public Health or Pasteur? What caused improvements in health? Medicine through time CD1.

Review task. Big ideas in medical history. http://thinkinghistory.co.uk/ActivityBase/MedicineBigIdeas.html

ICT based unit plenary: What really changed in Medicine 1750-1900? Medicine through time CD1.

The Twentieth Century

IT intro - Introducing medicine since 1900. Medicine through time CD1

Hook – All change? Interactive group work analysing the extent to which healthcare and treatments have changed since 1900.

ICT task - The development of penicillin. Medicine through time CD1
ICT task - Better cared for? The story of the NHS. Medicine through time CD1

Summary – washing line activity, factors in recent medicine.

ICT based unit plenary: What really changed in Medicine after 1900? Medicine through time CD1.

The materials on the CD’s are examples of how the product could be embedded into a scheme of work. There’s plenty more on he 2 CD’s and the can be used in a variety of ways other than that which I’ve noted above. Likewise, there are plenty of other ways of tackling the themes, factors and contents of the course - as I’ve done until very recently. The key bits, for me at least, are ensuring that each period and theme is ‘topped and tailed’ with activities that focus on continuities, change and significance. These can be the easy to use examples from the CD’s, or simply good quality introductions and plenaries for units. Washing line and timeline exercises are great for that - and they can be easily reenforced by use of IT based exercises ranging from interactive lessons such as the ones noted above, those found on websites such as those linked to from this site, or created by the class teacher using resources such as classtools.net, contengenerator.net or programmes such as Quandary and Hot Potatoes.

Other:

Assessment - a topic for another post really. Mainly use of sections of past papers along with ongoing assessment of the work produced.

Homework - a lot of the time I set this online via class forums. I tend to get the notemaking element of the course done outside the classroom as much as possible so that I can concentrate on developing the students use of the knowledge, rather than simply managing their acquiring of it. (Needs regular backside kicking sessions to ensure its done though!)

Public Health - a massive area and one which hasn’t been done real justice in this overview. As with assessment, its an area for another post really. My method is essentially to use local history as far as possible and show how changes and new pieces of legislation affected the area.

The Medicine in Film post highlights a range of feature films that include useful clips. TV offers a much larger list of programmes, series, documentaries etc that are of use. I’ve opted to ignore Historical Documentaries as they’re rather ‘obvious’ sources of content, so without any Shama, Starkey or Wood, here’s my ‘top five’ suggestions from the small screen:

1) The Simpsons, Henry VIII episode.

The court physician whips out a chart and explains where babies come from… its in the middle of one of the best sections of one of the best episodes of the Simpons and is brilliant on a number of levels. First up, the kids will love it. Perhaps more importantly, it does have a use! Despite the obvious use of humour on the part of the Simpsons creators, the clip provides a few clues about the beliefs of people at the time of Henry VIII and can be linked to a variety of ‘more sensible’ sources.

2) Blackadder. Series 2, Episode 4.

There are a few sections of this episode that could be useful (The creation of ‘purest green’ surely has a use!) but the clip of choice is where Edmund, whilst selling his home, is asked about the toilet facilities:

Mrs: Strange smell.

Mrs: Well! In that case, we’ll *definitely* take it! (takes a cup from Edmund) I can’t stand those dirty indoor things.

3) Casualty 1906 (and I suspect Casualty 1907)

Ideal for putting things into context when beginning a study of the Liberal Reforms, Welfare State or for clips showing what hospitals were like in the era of the First World War.

4) Brainiac: History Abuse.

I’ve not seen this advertised for a while and fear that the Science abuse series may have become a permanent fixture. The History abuse series contains several amusing and relevant clips, urine tests being the most usable. The Science Abuse series has had one or two bits of interest in it, though nothing that I’d consider a ‘must.’

5) Tony Robinson’s the Worst Jobs in History.

Short and sweet clips. Some roles outlined in the series are very useful indeed - and those that aren’t ok for Medicine can always slot into KS3!

Others worthy of note:

Monty Python - Hospital
Mr Bean - In the hospital

Making use of movies in the medicine through time classroom.

One of the big problems with parts of the Medicine course is getting students to think in context. They often find it hard to accept or believe that people in different periods of time may have thought differently about things; they sometimes fall into the trap of thinking that people in the past were ’stupid’, or some other related term. One way of helping them to develop a sense of period is through use of film footage. Dramatisations, documentaries and even their own home / classroom made movie clips can help to visualise events, place them in context and make that penny drop. The drawback with the Medicine course is that sometimes its quite difficult to find clips that are relevant. The following list is intended to offer a few ideas of where sitable clips can be found. (All of the movies are lised on the Internet Movie Database - so finding them shouldn’t be too difficult)

In order of release:

The Story of Louis Pasteur, 1935.

Although its a little too dated to really grab the attention of Year 10 / 11 students for too long, the film has some fantastic clips in it which, used selectively, can really help to get a point across.

For example, this little exchange:

Dr. Louis Pasteur: [speaking to the Emperor] Sire, the hospitals of Paris are pesthouses. There’s scarcely a doctor in the city who’s not carrying death on his hands and instruments.
Dr. Charbonnet: Because of microbes, Monsieur? Your private menagerie of invisible beasts?
Dr. Louis Pasteur: Exactly. Doctor Charbonnet could see them for himself if he took the trouble to use his microscope. He could watch them multiply into murderous millions. They breed in filth. They may start from the gutters of Paris tonight and by tomorrow claim some mother from this very court.

Custer’s Last Stand, 1936.

Indian medicine arrows… its got its uses, and its a classic of its day!

Dr. Ehrlich’s Magic Bullet, 1940.

As with the story of Louis Pasteur, the film has dated a fair bit but again there are quite a few short clips that help to put the discovery into context.

Madame Curie, 1943.

The second half of this film has a number of really useful clips. It provides a reasonable visualisation of the way that experiments were conducted and has sections that can be used to help identofy the various factors leading to the success of Curie.

The Egyptian, 1954.

Its a long time since I watched this but based on my fragile memory, its got a few bits in it that could be useful as a starting point for a study of Egyptian medicine. The storyline at least is relevant, its about an orphan who goes on to become the physician to the Pharoah.

Monty Python and the Holy Grail, 1975

The dead collector scene is brilliant. “Bring out your dead…” etc. There are other handy little clips amongst the jokes - and the same is true of Monty Python’s, ‘Life of Brian.’

Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, 1991.

I can’t say I like the film all that mcuh but it does contain a few gems for a teacher of medicine through time. Elements of the conversations between Robin and Azeem are quite useful at showing the basic beliefs of the period; inferences about technology in the Islamic empires can be made from some segments and there are plenty of examples of the sick along with wounded soldiers to clip up and make use of.

The Madness of King George, 1994.

Take your pick of the clips in the film that could be used. Great for creating a sense of period and has some nice sections that give away beliefs about cause and cure of disease at the time.

Between the Bullet and the Battlefield, 1996.

Ok, so its not a feature film - but it is worth trying to get hold of. This documentary film looks at medicine and surgery during the American Civil War. There are some very handy sections which can help to show how warfare has influenced the development of medicine and it also helps to visualise surgery at the time.

Saving Private Ryan, 1998.

Battlefield surgery and the application of penicillin at the front. There are similarly useful clips in the HBO / BBC series, Band of Brothers.

The Mummy, 1999

Provides some excellent sections that highlight the importance of religion and the afterlife in Ancient Egypt.

Gladiator, 2000

Has clips to help you introduce most aspects of Roman Medicine. From injuries in the arena through to the role of the Roman army, Public health and the role that centralised government had in developing the state.

Kingdom of Heaven, 2005.

There’s a fantastic clip in the film showing an arrow being extracted. A great example of medieval surgery!

Oliver (several versions, all of which can do the job)

The other Dicken’s stories probably do the job just as well but this is my preference. Oliver has loads of excellent scenes outlining the role of Workhouses, the nature of poor relief at the time and the attitude of those in power towards the needy.

I’ve left TV out of this quite deliberately, as there’s more than enough on the box to allow another list in the future. I’ve also left out a lot of films that include recent deveopments as these are, generally speaking, quite easy to get hold of anyway.

So, there’s 14 film ideas for starters. What else do people use?

Welcome to medicinethroughtime.co.uk

Main features of the site:

- This Blog - the plan for the blog is to have a weekly teaching related item, discussing ways of improving teaching and learning of aspects of Medicine through Time. It will also include items for students studying GCSE History along with polls and related posts / discussions and revision tips for GCSE students.

- Twitter - this allows messages to be accessed by subscribers via instant message, text message or via the internet. A twitter account has been established with a view to using it for GCSE revision and regular key point updates / reminders. Simply register with twitter and subscribe to medthrutime to get these. Use of twitter will being following the full launch of this site. Full details of how to subscribe and information about online security etc will be posted at that time.

- Reference materials - Sorted by theme or period, this section will provide content designed to assist students studying Medicine through Time as part of the Schools History Project GCSE History course.

- Activities - Revision games and quizzes will be provided by the site, along with links to hundreds of existing activities and online lessons relating to Medicine through time.

- Teachers’ Resources - the site will host a variety of resources for use in the classroom, along with features in the blog and links to other sites to provide extensive coverage of the contents of the Medicine through time course at GCSE.

Development of the site:

Most of the above is ‘just about’ ready to go. The next steps being considered are:

Image galleries for each period and theme.

CPD packs for use in departmental meetings.

Depth studies and articles. A more academic look at a few areas?

Suggestions for areas, activities, content are welcomed. Please add your thoughts as comments on this blog post.