In this activity, students play a card game to explore how two types of immune cells help to fight viral infections.
By the end of this activity, students should be able to:
- explain that different viruses infect different cells to cause disease
- explain the two main ways the immune system stops viruses from replicating
- explain the relationship between influenza and the lung, and rotavirus and the gut.
Download the Word file (see link below) for:
- introduction/background notes
- what you need
- what to do.
Related content
All living organisms on Earth are made up of cells. A cell is the smallest basic unit of your body, yet each one contains all the genetic information necessary to make a human being.
See the Viruses and the immune system curated collection – it explores viruses and how our immune system fights them. Sign in to make this collection part of your private collection. Click on the copy icon, and then you can add additional content, notes and share and collaborate with others.
Activity ideas
The wars within is a great introduction to the immune system.
In Drama with microbes students use drama to model science ideas about immune response to pathogenic microorganisms.
The unit plan Fighting infection – reducing infection, along with the Science Learning Hub suite of resources on Fighting infection, is designed to help primary school teachers improve students’ understanding of infection and how to prevent diseases from spreading.
