Lesson 11: How Far Did New Remedies Change Old Ways of Treating Disease?

A clear and engaging GCSE lesson exploring how traditional, quack, and new scientific remedies coexisted in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Students investigate why old methods such as purging, bleeding, miasma and wise-women’s cures remained popular, while also examining how figures like Sydenham, Culpeper, and Harvey encouraged more scientific treatments. Through source analysis, categorisation tasks, and creative activities, pupils judge how much medical practice truly changed in this period.

Includes:
• Fully resourced PowerPoint and printable worksheets
• Source-analysis task on quack doctors and public desperation
• Reading comprehension on Sydenham, Culpeper, Charles II and scientific vs traditional methods
• Categorisation task: Traditional, New Ideas, or Quackery
• Creative task: “Become the Quack!” pamphlet & performance to build recall and understanding of medical culture
• Instant feedback, challenge questions, and a strong exam-skills focus

Why Teachers Love This Bundle
• Fully resourced lessons with PowerPoints, worksheets, literacy support and model answers
• Clear scaffolding for mixed-ability groups
• Strong alignment with AQA Paper 2 themes: change, continuity, significance, and evidence
• Excellent preparation for later lessons on the Great Plague, 18th-century hospitals, and Jenner’s vaccine

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Coming soon: Elizabethan England (AQA) and Germany: Democracy & Dictatorship (AQA).