Year 11 - Science
Immunity and vaccination
Defences against pathogens, the human immune system and vaccination
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This pupil-friendly study guide includes a unit summary, clear notes, common mistakes, and quick questions with answers.
Unit Summary
This unit explores the body's defences and immune response against pathogens, disease prevention, and vaccines. It covers plant defence responses, and disease detection, and evaluates scientific applications, considering personal, social, economic, and environmental implications.
Lesson Summary
You will learn to describe what a vaccine is and how a vaccination works to create immunity.
Key Notes
- After exposure to a pathogen, memory cells remain in the body to provide immunity.
- Vaccination creates immunity by injecting a small amount of a dead or inactivated pathogen in a vaccine into the body.
- White blood cells mount an immune response by producing antibodies against the pathogen in the vaccine.
- Some of the white blood cells stay in the body as memory cells to provide immunity to the pathogen in the vaccine.
- Upon reinfection by the pathogen, memory cells respond by rapidly making antibodies against the pathogen.
Vocabulary To Learn
- immunity: Immunity is established after the body is first exposed to a pathogen's antigens, and enables white blood cells to respond quickly to the antigen when the body is re-exposed to it.
- antibodies: Proteins produced by white blood cells against specific pathogens.
- memory cells: White blood cells that remain in the blood and give lasting immunity to certain pathogens.
- vaccine: A formulation that contains an inactive pathogen, or parts of it.
- vaccination: The process of administering a vaccine to an individual to create immunity to a pathogen.
Common Mistakes To Avoid
- Antibodies remain in the blood for years, which makes a person immune to a disease.
3 Quick Questions (With Answers)
1. Explain the scientific idea in this lesson using two key points.
After exposure to a pathogen, memory cells remain in the body to provide immunity. Vaccination creates immunity by injecting a small amount of a dead or inactivated pathogen in a vaccine into the body.
2. Define this scientific word and use it in context. 'immunity'
Immunity is established after the body is first exposed to a pathogen's antigens, and enables white blood cells to respond quickly to the antigen when the body is re-exposed to it. Include the word in a full scientific explanation, not as a single label.
3. Correct this common scientific misunderstanding.
Mistake: Antibodies remain in the blood for years, which makes a person immune to a disease. Correction: Antibodies don't stay in the body longer term, the memory cells do and they provide long lasting immunity against a pathogen.
More Lessons In This Unit
- Evaluating the global use of vaccination Study Guide
- Light microscopy: observing and identifying microorganisms Study Guide
- Non-specific defences of the human body against pathogens Study Guide
- Plant defences against disease Study Guide
- Plant defences, and identifying plant diseases Study Guide
- Responses of the human immune system to specific pathogens Study Guide
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