Medicine and Disease - The Complete Series (7 lessons)

Each of these seven lessons explores the features and changes in medicine and disease from prehistoric times to the modern era, investigating why changes occurred, what effect this had on the people of the time and how discoveries changed the way we approach the treatment of illnesses. With lesson plans, slideshow presentations, differentiated activity ideas and lots of printable resources, these KS2 Medicine and Diseases lesson include everything you need to teach your class about this interesting theme in British history.

This scheme is part of a Topic Bundle - perfect if you are teaching 'Health' as a cross-curricular topic!

Begin a journey through medical history with the prehistoric civilisations. Explore how historians have hypothesised and investigated this period of time using primary and secondary sources, learning about these people’s beliefs about disease and how some of these ideas were passed on to the Ancient Egyptian medical practices. Can the children compare the two cultures and how they treated their sick?

Take the next step along the timeline to explore how the Ancient Greek and Roman civilisations influenced medicine and how people thought about the human body and disease. Discover the advancements made by Greek physicians such as Hippocrates and Galen and how they influenced medicine for thousands of years. Reflect on the Roman public health systems and how they helped keep their citizens fit and healthy.

The children take a trip back in time through role play and questioning to discover what life was like during the Medieval period. Discover the epidemic of the Black Plague and how it was believed to have spread across the country and the different ways people attempted to cure themselves of this fatal disease.

Turn the children in your class into archeologists as they start the lesson enquiring about an artefact they have discovered. They create their own hypotheses about the artefact and then discover if their ideas were correct. They then explore the weird and wonderful world of Tudor folk cures and the ailments they were supposed to treat.

Investigate and explore some of the key turning points for medicine and medical treatments from the 19th century. Have your class look into and research the lives and discoveries of some of the important Victorian figures such as Florence Nightingale and Joseph Lister. Challenge your class to reflect on the discoveries to decide which they think was the most important change, idea or invention during the Victorian period.

What is the NHS and why was it started? Discover the world of modern medicine and how it came to be. Learn about how modern medicine has been influenced by the past and what discoveries have been made in the past 100 years which have progressed our medical understanding even further.

Consolidate your class’s knowledge and understanding of medicine throughout the ages in this lesson which focuses on recapping what they have learnt about prehistoric civilisations through to today’s medicine. The children have the opportunity to show off all that they have learnt throughout this scheme of work and use this knowledge to create a piece of work which shows their favourite facts from each periods and records the journey of medicine throughout history.