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Year 10 - Science

Fungal and protist diseases in humans

Health and disease

Unit Summary

This unit explores health and disease, including communicable and non-communicable types and their interactions. It examines lifestyle impacts, disease spread, evaluates cardiovascular treatments, and highlights the importance of risk evaluation, peer review, and effective communication of results.

Lesson Summary

You will learn to describe examples of common fungal and protist diseases in humans, how they are spread, and ways to reduce the spread.

Key Notes

  • Some, but not all, fungi are pathogens that can cause communicable diseases in humans.
  • Athlete's foot as an example of a fungal disease, how it is spread, and how the spread can be reduced.
  • Protists are eukaryotic microorganisms.
  • Malaria as an example of a disease caused by a protist, spread by an insect vector, and how the spread can be reduced.
  • The interaction of sickle-cell trait and malaria as an example of interaction between different types of disease.

Vocabulary To Learn

  • fungi: eukaryotic kingdom of microorganisms including yeast and mould
  • protists: eukaryotic kingdom of microorganisms including amoeba and plasmodium
  • vector: an organism that carries the pathogen from the host to another organism
  • allele: a genetic variant in a gene creates an allele (a different version of a gene), which can produce a different phenotype

Common Mistakes To Avoid

  • Malaria is caused by mosquitos.

3 Quick Questions (With Answers)

1. Explain the scientific idea in this lesson using two key points.

Some, but not all, fungi are pathogens that can cause communicable diseases in humans. Athlete's foot as an example of a fungal disease, how it is spread, and how the spread can be reduced.

2. Define this scientific word and use it in context. 'fungi'

eukaryotic kingdom of microorganisms including yeast and mould. Include the word in a full scientific explanation, not as a single label.

3. Correct this common scientific misunderstanding.

Mistake: Malaria is caused by mosquitos. Correction: Mosquitos are the vector that transfer the protist to humans.

More Lessons In This Unit

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