GCSE
HISTORY A
Unit 1A and 4A: Medicine
Through Time
Schemes of work
Schemes of work are suggestions and ideas about how you
might deliver GCSE History. You can use these suggestions,
adapt them to better suit your students or use your own
schemes of work.
However you deliver GCSE History, you can rely on AQA’s
comprehensive support package – online, on paper and in
person – including resources, specimen exam questions, training
meetings, continuing professional development (CPD), guidance
and advice.
This Scheme of work is part of your invaluable teaching and
learning resources.
Contact us
If you have any enquiries about GCSE History you can
get in touch directly with the AQA History team by email
[email protected] or telephone 0161 958 3865.
This Scheme of work offers a number of teaching suggestions for lessons to be planned around. It
should be used in conjunction with the content laid down in the Specification and the Resource list. It
is not prescriptive but could be used to inform a school/college’s approach and scheme of work. The
school/college’s scheme of work would take account of the ability of its students, its resources and
style of teaching and learning.
The teaching suggestions are indicative of a way of approaching the content. It does not necessarily
represent the way the content will be treated in the examination paper.
Medicine in the Ancient World, c 10 000 BC – c 500 AD
Disease and
infection
Surgery and
anatomy
Prehistoric
societies: the role
of magic, parallels
with traditional
aboriginal
societies.
Public health
Learning focus
What evidence do we have of prehistoric
peoples?
What was prehistoric life like?
Study an artist’s drawings and evaluate
the evidence.
Prehistoric
societies:
surgery; parallels
with traditional
aboriginal
societies.
What made you ill in prehistoric times?
How might you have been treated?
Who treated illness in prehistoric times?
Who were the Egyptians?
Study Egyptian lifestyle and contrast
with prehistoric peoples. Noting religion,
economy, government, technology, etc.
Time line of the Ancient world.
What did the Egyptians believe caused
illness?
Ancient Egypt:
supernatural
and natural
approaches to
medicine; priests
and doctors.
Who treated illness in Egyptian times?
Contrast with prehistoric family medicine
and medicine men.
What treatments were used?
How effective were they?
Ancient Egypt:
Egyptian anatomy
and surgery,
supernatural
and natural
approaches.
How did the Egyptians prevent disease?
How did embalming help medical
knowledge increase?
Produce an annotated embalming
diagram.
What was special about life and culture
of Ancient Greece?
2
GCSE HISTORY A UNIT 1A AND 4A: MEDICINE THROUGH TIME
Disease and
infection
Surgery and
anatomy
Public health
Ancient Greece:
the cult of
Asklepios; the
development of
the Theory of the
Four Humours;
Hippocratic
medicine.
Learning focus
Greek supernatural medicine.
Describe a visit to an Asklepion.
Complete a source exercise of the new
ideas of the Greeks – the Four Humours,
clinical observation, the Hippocratic oath,
the Hippocratic collection, etc.
Aristotle,
Hippocrates
What treatments did the Greeks develop
based on the Four Humours?
Compare Ancient Greek and modern
treatments for diseases.
Why was Alexandria important in the
development of surgery and anatomy?
Ancient Greece:
Greek surgery,
Alexandria.
Greek public
health and the
importance of
healthy living.
How did the Greeks keep themselves
healthy? Noting prevention of illness,
moderation, exercise.
Analyse descriptions of Ancient Greek
daily life.
Welcome to Ancient Rome.
A study of Roman government, army,
religion and empire.
What did the Ancient Romans take from
Ancient Greece?
Ancient Rome: the influence of Greek
medicine.
Galen
Why was Galen important in the history
of medicine?
Study a biography of Galen.
How did the Romans look after the health
of the army?
Ancient Rome:
surgery in Roman
times, medicine in
the army.
Public health
facilities in the
Roman period.
Study readings from fictional and factual
accounts of the Roman army.
What was the Romans’ big idea?
Public health; baths, clean water, sewers,
lavatories, settlements etc.
In groups, perform research and present
your findings.
Why did the Romans have such good
public health?
3
Disease and
infection
Surgery and
anatomy
Public health
Learning focus
Which factors brought change in the
Ancient World?
War, governments, communications,
science and technology, religion and
belief, individuals.
Have a class debate.
Explanations for illness in the Ancient
world; a comparison of theories and
ideas.
Make a wall chart/chronology.
Treatments in the Ancient world; a
comparison of treatments and their
effectiveness.
Produce a table on illnesses.
Healers in the Ancient world; a
comparison of healers and their
effectiveness.
Draw a diagram.
Which idea in the Ancient world had the
biggest impact on medicine?
Have a debate or write an essay on the
significance across the period.
Medicine in the Ancient World, c 500 – c 1700 AD
Disease and
infection
Surgery and
anatomy
Public health
The impact of the fall of the Roman Empire on medicine.
The nature and
importance of
Islamic medicine.
Rhazes, Ibn Sina
(Avicenna)
4
The nature and
importance of
Islamic knowledge
in surgery.
Rhazes, Ibn Sina
(Avicenna), Ibn
Nafis
Learning focus
Why did Rome ‘fall’?
What impact did the fall of Rome have on
medicine?
What did Islamic medicine contribute to
medical progress?
GCSE HISTORY A UNIT 1A AND 4A: MEDICINE THROUGH TIME
Disease and
infection
Surgery and
anatomy
Public health
The impact of
superstition
and Christianity
on Medieval
medicine.
Learning focus
What was the attitude of medieval
Christianity to the sick?
Did the Christian church help or hinder
progress?
Make a chart or write an essay on care
versus cure.
Paracelsus
Was Islamic medicine more advanced
than Western medicine?
Source based exercise; making
judgements, Islamic and Christian
influence on medicine compared.
What did the medieval doctor know?
The medieval
doctor: training
and treatments.
What treatments did he use?
How was the medieval doctor taught?
Examine the usefulness of images.
What were the treatments of ordinary
people?
Continuing traditional methods:
bleeding, wise women, response to
plagues.
Medieval surgical
techniques and
knowledge.
Was surgery improving in medieval
times?
How much progress was made in
medicine during the Middle Ages?
Why was change so slow in the Middle
Ages?
Public health in
the Middle Ages:
attempts to
improve and the
reasons for lack of
development.
Analyse religion as a factor in change.
What were medieval towns like?
What public health problems did they
pose?
Study images and descriptions of
medieval London.
Was all medieval public health poor?
Perform a study of the abbeys and
monasteries contrasted with the towns.
5
Disease and
infection
Surgery and
anatomy
Public health
Learning focus
Public health
problems;
plagues and their
treatment in the
later Middle Ages
and seventeenth
century,
particularly the
Black Death and
Great Plague in
London.
What did people at the time think caused
the Black Death?
How did they try to prevent and treat the
plague?
Compare with belief in Ancient times.
Had understanding and treatment
improved by the 17th century?
Study the death of Charles II.
What was the Renaissance?
What did each of the medical pioneers of
the Renaissance do?
The challenging of
medical authority:
improved
knowledge of
anatomy and
physiology.
How did they make their discoveries?
Why did they make their discoveries?
What was the significance of each of
their discoveries?
Vesalius, Pare,
Harvey
In what ways do they represent the spirit
and ideas of the Renaissance?
Group work research and presentation
on Vesalius, Pare and Harvey.
Medicine in the Industrial and Modern World, c 1700 – present day
Disease and
infection
Vaccination; the
Germ Theory
and its impact on
the treatment of
diseases.
Jenner, Pasteur,
Koch
Surgery and
anatomy
Public health
Learning focus
How did the enlightenment and
industrialisation change the world?
What did Edward Jenner do?
Why was his work important?
Was Jenner’s discovery a turning point?
What was Germ Theory?
How did Pasteur make his discovery?
What was Pasteur’s motivation?
What impact did the discovery have?
What did Robert Koch do?
What was his motivation?
Through a discussion and understanding
of their significance, compare Jenner,
Pasteur and Koch.
6
GCSE HISTORY A UNIT 1A AND 4A: MEDICINE THROUGH TIME
Disease and
infection
Surgery and
anatomy
Public health
Developments
in anaesthetics,
antiseptics,
aseptic surgery.
Learning focus
How were the problems of pain and
infection overcome?
Why did some people oppose
anaesthetics and antiseptics?
Simpson, Lister,
Pasteur
Does science always lead to progress?
Problems of
public health
in urban and
industrial areas
after c 1750.
The nature
and impact of
epidemics, eg
cholera, and
attempts to deal
with them.
Produce an annotated timeline. Compare
the reasons for opposition to change
through time.
Why were British towns so unhealthy?
Cholera – a case study of disease.
What were believed to be the causes
at the time, preventative measures
and remedies? Why was cholera so
influential?
Use statistics, maps, contemporary
illustrations and textual evidence.
Magic bullets;
Penicillin.
How did the world gain mass-produced
Penicillin?
Ehrlich, Fleming,
Florey and Chain
How much credit should go to Fleming?
How does the story of Penicillin
demonstrate the factors involved in the
production of modern drugs?
Changing local
and national
Government
involvement in
public health;
measures,
causes and
consequences,
including 1848
and 1875 Public
Health Acts.
Chadwick, Snow,
Octavia Hill
Produce a case study of causation.
How did industrial towns become safer?
How scientific was Snow’s work?
How influential were men like Edwin
Chadwick?
Which factors made for the greatest
changes in public health?
Government action – the reasons for the
Public Health Acts.
A study of the role of the individual vs.
Government action.
7
Disease and
infection
Surgery and
anatomy
Public health
The development
of the medical
and nursing
professions; the
role of women in
medicine.
Learning focus
Who contributed most to the changing
role of women in medicine?
Examine change and continuity.
Seacole,
Nightingale,
Blackwell, Garrett
Anderson
The nature of
poverty c 1900
Why were the Liberal social reforms
brought in?
Liberal social
reforms:
measures,
causes and
consequences.
What did they do?
What impact did the work of individuals
have on the social and welfare reforms of
the early 20th century?
Booth, Rowntree,
Lloyd-George
The impact of two
world wars on
surgery: plastic
surgery, blood
transfusions.
How has warfare had an impact on
surgery?
Halsted, McIndoe
The impact of two What happened to public health between
world wars on
the wars?
public health.
Consider the concepts of progress and
Public health
regression.
problems
between the wars;
social conditions,
poverty and
housing;
attempted
solutions.
The National
Why was the NHS created?
Health Service:
Who opposed the setting up of the NHS?
measures,
What were the results of the setting up of
causes and
the NHS for the nation’s health?
consequences.
Beveridge, Bevan
8
GCSE HISTORY A UNIT 1A AND 4A: MEDICINE THROUGH TIME
Disease and
infection
Surgery and
anatomy
Public health
The impact of
technology: X
rays, transplant
surgery, radiation
therapy, keyhole
surgery.
Learning focus
How has modern technology changed
surgery?
What problems exist for modern surgery?
Barnard
Modern issues
in medicine:
AIDS, the drugs
revolution,
problem drugs,
alternative
medicines,
superbugs,
genetic
engineering.
What challenges face modern scientific
medicine?
What are the moral, political and social
issues that advances in science and
technology present to medicine?
How will an understanding of genetics
affect medicine?
Compare Ancient, 19th century and 20th
century medicine.
Crick and Watson
Role of the
World Health
Organisation in
fighting disease
and ill health.
What does the WHO do?
Improved public
health in the late
20th century:
issues and
actions.
What are the main dangers to human
health in the modern world?
Why do we live much longer nowadays?
Why do some people live longer in
different parts of the world?
9
10
GCSE HISTORY A UNIT 1A AND 4A: MEDICINE THROUGH TIME
11
aqa.org.uk
April 2015
G00745
Copyright © 2015 AQA and its licensors. All rights reserved.
AQA Education (AQA) is a registered charity (registered charity number 1073334) and a company limited by guarantee registered in
England and Wales (company number 3644723). Registered address: AQA, Devas Street, Manchester M15 6EX.