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This is a lesson that uses Socratic seminars and student-generated arguments to explore the uses of biotechnology and their potential impact on society.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson uses pooches to teach about pedigrees and the impact of artificial selection on individuals and populations as well as to drive home math concepts already discussed in lessons on Punnet squares.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will read "Your Genes, Your Choices." They will explore the impact of Biotechnology and create a brochure that represents what they have learned. By the end of the lesson, students will have a better understanding of DNA, GMOs, and Biotechnology.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will learn about aspects of biotechnology and apply their understanding to a debate about using genetic engineering to engineer better athletes.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will learn how to take a clipping from a mother tomato plant and make an exact duplicate copy for mass-reproduction that will produce a harvest quickly. This will engage students as they discover this can be done without seeds, and they can grow a plant about 2 feet in height!

Type: Lesson Plan

In this Model-Eliciting Activity (MEA), students must help geneticists develop a new breed of scientific explorer. Using knowledge of genetics, genotypes, and phenotypes, students must select a combination of alleles that could create people better adapted for exploring dangerous areas and other worlds. Then, students must choose which genetic alterations to apply to themselves!

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. MEAs resemble engineering problems and encourage students to create solutions in the form of mathematical and scientific models. Students work in teams to apply their knowledge of science and mathematics to solve an open-ended problem while considering constraints and tradeoffs. Students integrate their ELA skills into MEAs as they are asked to clearly document their thought processes. MEAs follow a problem-based, student-centered approach to learning, where students are encouraged to grapple with the problem while the teacher acts as a facilitator. To learn more about MEAs visit: https://www.cpalms.org/cpalms/mea.aspx

Type: Lesson Plan

Learn what genetic engineering is and some of the applications of this technology. In this interactive tutorial, you’ll gain an understanding of some of the benefits and potential drawbacks of genetic engineering. Ultimately, you’ll be able to think critically about genetic engineering and write an argument describing your own perspective on its impacts.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Dr. David McNutt explains how large clonal plant populations can be analyzed with microsatellite analysis of their DNA.

Download the CPALMS Perspectives video student note taking guide.

Type: Perspectives Video: Expert

A viticulture scientist discusses biotechnology and its impact on society with tendril-loving care.

Download the CPALMS Perspectives video student note taking guide.

Type: Perspectives Video: Expert

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. This text highlights the controversy surrounding genetically modified foods and their labeling. The article explains GMOs and their implications for health according to science and industry.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. This article reveals how scientists have found a way to make a synthetic chromosome and insert it into yeast cells. Scientists discovered that this chromosome can alter or create new traits in an organism. This research could lead to creating an entirely synthetic genome, which scientists expect to accomplish in the next few years.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. The text describes a possible solution to the spread of mosquito-borne illnesses like malaria and dengue fever. Scientists have genetically modified mosquitoes to disrupt their reproductive cycle. The article ends with the concerns of the scientific community about the breeding program, while at the same time showing how several countries are already having success with use of the GM organisms.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. Stem cell research findings are discussed with examples of how biotechnology is impacting society. The article explains the different types of stem cells and highlights research on stem cells to cure diseases and help increase quality of life. Ethical questions are addressed using a balanced approach.

Type: Text Resource

A wonderful interactive animation of cloning that helps increase understanding of how cloning using somatic cell nuclear transfer works.

Type: Video/Audio/Animation