Standard 14: Organization and Development of Living Organisms

This cell structure crossword puzzle uses vocabulary from CELLS alive! If you have trouble and need a hint, use the "Search this Site" engine in the lefthand menu. Good Luck!

Type: Educational Game

This is a hands on experiment where simulates the way that an infection disease spread in a population and the similarities with growth population.

Type: Educational Game

Students will explore the critical contributions that led to the development of the Cell Theory and those that led to the development of our constitutional republic. They will also be able to explain how both science and politics involve people working together from various backgrounds and specialities to build ideas and solve problems in this integrated lesson plan.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will learn about the foundational ideas behind the Cell Theory and the U.S. government and begin to understand how both science and politics involve people from different backgrounds and specialities working together to build ideas and solve problems in this integrated lesson plan.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will review the components of an ECG/EKG as part of a focused assessment of a patient with a cardiovascular disorder. The lesson will focus on reviewing ECG tests and determining if the ECG reading is normal or not normal. The final step is that a “not normal” result requires reporting in this lesson plan.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will be able to identify the main parts of a cell and to describe the basic function of each part. The students will match parts of a cell to parts of a city that have functions that are analogous to each cell part. They will then develop their own analogy and present it to the class. Finally, they will practice their knowledge using a computer-based review game.

Type: Lesson Plan

This investigation provides a deeper exploration of the respiratory system and the mechanisms of breathing in a more interesting and relative way. Students will measure heart rate and lung volumes in relation to increased activity. By the end of this lab students will be able to make predictions about heart rate and lung capacity based on exercise.

Type: Lesson Plan

With this lesson students will explore immune responses to a pathogen attack and/or a vaccine with a didactic, kinesthetic model of the process.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will analyze an informational text intended to support reading in the content area.The article explains the advancements that scientists have made in understanding blood types. By reading and synthesizing the text, students will explore a real-world example of how scientific knowledge becomes more robust and durable through investigations. This lesson includes a note-taking guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will read an article from the National Science Foundation that discusses how a drought affected the savannas of southern Kenya during 2009. It further addresses how baboons are affected later in life based on when they are born and the social status they are born into. Based on the research on baboons, the implications on human health are also discussed in the latter portion of the article. This lesson is designed to support reading in the content area. The lesson plan includes a note-taking guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric.

Type: Lesson Plan

This informational text resource from the National Institutes of Health is designed to support reading in the content area. The article discusses how yellow fever is becoming a health threat once again in parts of Africa and why it is necessary for a new vaccine against yellow fever to be developed. The article further discusses in detail the processes and experimental trials by which the vaccine will be tested for its effectiveness and its safety. The lesson plan includes a note-taking guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson plan, students will analyze an informational text intended to support reading in the content area. The article explains how the rabies virus is likely to spread from the interior of Peru to its coast by the year 2020. It further discusses the technology used to determine that the male vampire bat is most likely the carrier of the rabies virus to different areas in Peru. The lesson plan includes a vocabulary guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will analyze an informational text that addresses research into the fine balance between microbes and their hosts. The text explains how a human's microbiota or microbiome plays a very important role in the immune system. The text describes how bacteria, or the lack of bacteria, play a role in the immune system and keep autoimmune diseases at bay. This lesson is designed to support reading in the content area. The lesson plan includes a note-taking guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will read an article from the National Science Foundation. The article discusses the rise of pandemic disease outbreaks across the globe and how these outbreaks can affect world economies. The article further describes how economic models were used to assess different strategies on their effectiveness. The strategy of identifying the underlying cause of emerging diseases was considered to be most cost-effective and beneficial long-term. This lesson is designed to support reading in the content area. The lesson plan includes a note-taking guide, a vocabulary handout, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson covers the basic anatomy of the human respiratory system. Through visualization and repetition, the students will learn and will understand the anatomy of the respiratory system.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will analyze an intended to support reading in the content area. The article presents exciting new research findings regarding axon generation in scar tissue formation following spinal cord injury. Astrocytes were once thought to decrease the growth of new axon connections, but now these important cells have been shown to actually stimulate growth and connections in the neural network. The lesson plan includes a note-taking guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric. Numerous options to extend the lesson are also included.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson gives an overview of the structure and function of the central and peripheral nervous systems. Students participate in a ball toss exercise, during which they identify which division of the nervous system produces particular responses. After, students complete a worksheet on which they label the functions of each part of the nervous system.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will explore the roles of roots and leaves in the process of photosynthesis with hands-on activity and a real world case of an exception in the plant kingdom. Students will compare and contrast the roles of roots and leaves in photosynthesis and relate it with the plant Rafflesia.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will make recommendations for dealing with the effects of algal blooms with regard to public health.

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. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will analyze an from Science Daily that discusses the research conducted by scientists who used machine learning methods to identify bats that were likely to be reservoirs for Ebola and other filoviruses. Scientists mapped out the geographical ranges of these bats and hope to be able to use this information to prevent future outbreaks.This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. The lesson plan includes a vocabulary guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson plan, students analyze an intended to support reading in the content area. The article discusses new research conducted by scientists showing the correlation between El Niño events and the spread of waterborne infectious diseases. The article discusses how the scientists believe Vibrio bacteria are being transported across the ocean during El Niño events, and it discusses the impact this can have on public health. The lesson plan includes a note-taking guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric. Numerous options to extend the lesson are also included.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will analyze an intended to support reading in the content area. The article discusses new research conducted by Penn State scientists to determine how the malaria parasite is evading the human immune system and entering into red blood cells. The study revealed how the parasite is able to use the complement system to its own advantage rather than being negatively affected by it. This lesson plan includes a note-taking guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric. Numerous options to extend the lesson are also included.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will analyze an informational text by the National Institutes of Health that addresses the risk factors for heart disease. The text is broken into three areas: risk factors that can be controlled (like smoking, high blood pressure, and obesity), risk factors that cannot be controlled (like age and family history), and emerging risk factors. This lesson plan is designed to support reading in the content area. The lesson plan includes a note-taking guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will analyze an informational text intended to support reading in the content area. The article addresses the possibility that antibiotic resistance is spreading through ecosystems in Botswana because resistance in humans has been shared with many other organisms. Researchers found that antibiotic resistance is significantly higher in water-associated species and carnivores. Scientists believe they can use this information to increase their understanding of why and how species are becoming antibiotic-resistant, with the end goal of stopping the spread of antibiotic resistance in humans. The lesson plan includes a note-taking guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric. Numerous options to extend the lesson are also included.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will analyze an informational text intended to support reading in the content area. The NSF article describes current research into the transmission of the bacterial disease leptospirosis, with the ultimate goal of using the research to prevent future outbreaks. The article highlights the environmental conditions that increase the transmission of the disease. The lesson plan includes text-dependent questions with an answer key, a writing prompt with a sample response, and a writing rubric.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson takes students through a series of observations that will allow students to explore waters path through hand grown plants, examine xylem in celery, and observe stomata from slides they create.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will analyze an informational text that describes the impact that local ibises have on their environment and the impact that humans have on the birds. The study examines how humans are changing the lifestyles of white ibises, which in turn causes the interactions between birds and humans to lead to a greater spread of disease. The author analyzes the positive and negative effects of interactions between organisms in an ecosystem. The lesson plan includes a text coding strategy, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, sample answer keys, and a writing rubric. Numerous options to extend the lesson are also included.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson is designed to support reading in the content area. In this lesson, students will analyze an informational text that addresses innovative research to aid in the understanding of how certain clays can be responsible for the killing of some bacterial pathogens. The lesson plan includes a note-taking guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will dissect a flower to explore the flower's structures and their functions. Students will also observe the flowers, fruit and cones to discover the similarities and differences in their functions.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will research the history of the Black Death and learn about the causative pathogen involved through a POGIL activity. There will be suggested web-links for the students to research what is currently known about the disease and questions for them to answer as a teaching method and evaluation. As a final assessment, the students will construct an epidemiological triangle in pairs and then share with the class.

Type: Lesson Plan

After a lecture, students will work in groups to create concept maps to describe the structure of the brain and give everyday examples of the function of each part.

This resource is aligned with required Biology EOC benchmark SC.912.L.14.26. This lesson plan goes beyond the content and can be used to reinforce understanding of the brain functions, not just location of the main brain regions. It may also be aligned to the Anatomy and Physiology standard.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will design their own controlled experiment. The teacher introduces osmosis through a short Prezi, checking their understanding along the way by means of comprehension questions included in the presentation. Immediately after the introduction, the teacher will place students into three or four groups and facilitate a brainstorming process in which students work together to develop questions, list materials and outline procedures. These will then be peer reviewed by their classmates in which they will give them recommendations and or offer suggestions. The teacher will make the final approval and experiments will commence the following class. Students will then report their results as a written lab report or using the same lab report format to create a gallery walk.

Type: Lesson Plan

This is an interactive activity for the students to learn about the different types of cells and which cell parts exist in them. It will develop the students' ability to identify similarities and differences between the various types of cells by engaging all three learning styles: visual, auditory, and tactile.

Type: Lesson Plan

Using the familiar children's game "Red Rover," students will simulate the selectively permeable cell membrane and model how various molecules can/can not cross with/without assistance.

Type: Lesson Plan

The lesson was developed to broaden students' understanding of the immune system and its role in the human body. Students will do investigations and apply vocabulary terms to real-world scenarios.

Note that students will complete the 5E cycle twice over the course of two days; please see the attached "Lesson Overview" document for a chronological outline of each day.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will read an informational text from the National Science Foundation. The text describes current research into the mosquitoes that carry the Zika virus, with the ultimate goal of using the research to predict and possibly prevent future outbreaks. Scientists are studying three towns in Ecuador by collecting data to help them discover the socioeconomic and environmental factors that put people most at risk for diseases carried by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, including the Zika virus. The scientists are also examining how virus transmission by these mosquitoes may be affected by climate change. This lesson is designed to support reading in the content area. The lesson plan includes text-dependent questions with an answer key, a writing prompt with a sample response, and a writing rubric.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson uses a lecture, a 3D model, and worksheets to help students master the concept of molecular transport across the cell membrane.

Type: Lesson Plan

The students will discover how the movement of material occurs through the selectively permeable cell membrane, a highly selective barrier. They will observe the processes of diffusion and osmosis, first in two teacher-led demonstrations, and then through two lab activities: the diffusion of starch molecules through a plastic bag and potato cores immersed in isotonic, hypotonic, and hypertonic solutions. Finally, students will connect this knowledge to how water moves in and out of a cell in different solutions.

Type: Lesson Plan

This resource includes hands-on-activities to familiarize students with the fluid mosaic model of the cell membrane and its function.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson plan guides the student to examine the reasoning behind each of the tenets of the cell theory. Students will explore the formulation of cell theory and why this fundamental principle is important to biology by watching a video, conducting their own research, and discussing ideas with their peers.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will learn the different regions and lobes of the brain by making a 3D model.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will analyze an informational text that addresses cellular waste. The article students will read explains the different ways a cell gets rid of waste, including how proteasomes and lysosomes break down cell waste. The article covers another method of letting the waste "pile up." This informational text is designed to support reading in the content area. The lesson plan includes a note-taking guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric.

Type: Lesson Plan

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. In this lesson, students will analyze an informational text that addresses innovative research to aid in the understanding of how the digestive system works. The text describes how the villi in the small intestine work with the contraction of the muscle wall to aid digestion and how a team of researchers are working together to create a 3-D model this process. The lesson plan includes a note-taking guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric. Options to extend the lesson are also included.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will research pathogens to explain the significance of pathogenic agents for their health and the community. It aims to clear up common misconceptions about pathogens and the diseases they cause. Students will be assigned a pathogen and then conduct research to accurately describe the disease it causes.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson allows students to create a science center display showing their knowledge of the general structures of prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells and the structures and functions for the components of plant and animal cells. At the end of this lesson, students will be assessed by participating in a gallery walk that displays their design for a local science center.

This lesson is a STEM project-based learning opportunity.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will create a picture book about the cell theory to be shared with middle school students who are learning about this topic and to demonstrate the relationship between the development and the process of science.

Type: Lesson Plan

This is a series of activities designed to enable students to visualize the causes of air movement in and out of the lungs.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson is a good introduction to the immune system. It will give students the chance to have discussions with the teacher and classmates as well. The teacher will also have a chance to quickly assess the students' knowledge by using checkpoint questions scattered throughout the PowerPoint presentation. After the lesson is complete, the students will have a clear understanding of the three lines of defense and nonspecific and specific immune responses.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson will cover the cell structures of both prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson provides a description of the anatomy and physiology of the nerve cell/neuron. Vocabulary words, diagrams of the nerve cell, and the steps of nerve conduction are presented in this lesson. This lesson also includes a hands-on activity for making and edible nerve cell, group discussion, group activities, diagram worksheets, sentence completion worksheets, and assessments that require written responses from the students to describe how nerve cells transmit information from one cell to another.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will investigate the integumentary system by predicting lesson topic in an engaging and creative manner, create a foldable of the 7 different layers of skin, and discuss the art of tattoos and which layer of skin is actually inked when going under the needle.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson will help students to understand the structural differences between prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells. Students will independently read to gain background knowledge of the two types of cells. The class will be divided into groups to complete a poster that compares and contrasts prokaryotes and eukaryotes.

Type: Lesson Plan

Given dialysis tubing and glucose strips, students will be able to demonstrate how water molecules and other materials diffuse through the kidneys.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson introduces different types of pathogens and how they cause disease in humans. It introduces and/or reinforces prior knowledge of active and passive immunity as well as the differences in non specific and specific defenses. Students will be introduced to how a vaccine works in the individual as well as the community to create immunity to a pathogen. The students will research different pathogens, the diseases they cause, the vaccines that have been developed for them, and how these vaccines protect individual as well as public health. The students will then compose a position paper on mandatory vaccinations for school children.

Type: Lesson Plan

Simulation of an outbreak of an infectious disease using colorimetric reagents to identify the source.

Type: Lesson Plan

This activity will have you look at transport of molecules in and out of membranes in a different way by modeling kidney dialysis. Students should complete the Solution Problems Worksheet before beginning the Kidney Dialysis activity.

Type: Lesson Plan

This resource gives students the opportunity to inquire about the major components of the human brain, research the major components of the brain and then create a yummy model of the brain. The variety of strategies presented in this resource keeps students engaged while learning to identify parts of the brain.

Type: Lesson Plan

This is a activity that should be used after a full introduction/lesson for the cardiovascular and circulatory system has been completed. Students should be able to determine how physical body changes affect the heart rate and blood flow.

Type: Lesson Plan

This a inquiry investigates plasmolysis in plant cells when exposed to NaCl solution. The ionic solution causes the water within the cell to move out and the cell membrane shrinks inward. Students will prepare wet mount slides, view, draw, record time data for plasmolysis, and analyze the data generated.

Type: Lesson Plan

This two-part lesson will help students to be able to identify the major organelles of plant and animal cells, and enables them to understand correlations between the organelles' structure and how that aids in function. Students will be able to compare and contrast plant and animal cells. The first part of the lesson allows the class to interact together through a game of Jeopardy style questions regarding these two major types of cell types. The second portion of the lesson has students created an illustrated analogy of a cell to something that they are more familiar with, such as their school.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will explore the cell theory. Over the course of the lesson, students will examine the major parts of the cell theory and learn about the scientists who were involved in its development.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will research the dangers of high blood cholesterol levels in humans. The prevention of high cholesterol and lowering of high cholesterol to improve health of individuals will be presented in an informative online newsletter. The newsletters will be utilized to raise community awareness of the issue within the school by printing out the final products and displaying them in the school hallway. The online tool Smore will be used for constructing the newsletter and can be shared on social media to reach those that are not in the school community.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson plan explains the principle of osmosis in plant tissues. It is designed for three class periods, each 50 minutes in length, and one take-home activity. Students will compare and contrast osmotic potential of different plant tissues given through an investigation. The teacher explains and presents the content and the procedures on the first day as a lesson walk through. The investigative lab attached help the students to explore and relate the concept of osmosis in real life.

Type: Lesson Plan

During this unit of discovery, teachers will encourage students in grades 9-10 to explore the world of microscopy. Throughout these 4-5 class periods, the student should discover the structures, functions, and usage of the various parts of the compound light microscope as well as how to measure specimens using a scientific model. If the extension is selected, the students will additionally discover the mathematical skills needed to compute specimen size, area of the field of view, and total magnification. Students will explore the importance of microscopy to promote their own understanding of microscopic life and cellular function. An additional homework extension allows students to create individual blogs using key terms and review each other's blogs in a round-robin manner.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this activity students will investigate how and under what conditions molecules move across the cell membrane.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson the students will provide detailed explanations of cell structures and their functions, produce an artifact that highlights how prokaryote and eukaryote cells differ, how plant and animal cells differ, and how structure relates to function. Students will also design and conduct a lab exploring cells and/or their structures.

Type: Lesson Plan

After measuring the "field of view" of your microscope, your students can estimate the size of objects with this calculation.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will act out glucose metabolism - from the blood stream to cells where they will be converted to ATP, with help from insulin.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson is focused on specific parts of the brain and their functions. Students will be able to look at specific parts of the brain and provide an example of a behavior it controls.

Type: Lesson Plan

This is an introductory exercise for a section on muscle physiology. It consists of a worksheet that can be used in any one of a number of teaching/learning styles. It is intended as a formative assessment and is the first in a series. Extra credit/extension questions are included at the end for advanced students. A PowerPoint show version is also included if the teacher chooses to use guided discussion with the entire class; some extra resources and background information are included in the PowerPoint. Teacher's versions of the worksheet and PowerPoint are included with answers (worksheet) and extra background information and commentary (PowerPoint). The author's intent is to have a series of activities related to all three standards on muscle physiology.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson is intended to provide student with an introduction to the process of transpiration. The goal is to help students understand the process of transpiration and the role that this process plays in plant physiology.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson will help the students to understand the cell, the cell theory and the scientists who contributed to the development of the cell theory.

Type: Lesson Plan

The components that make up the Cell Theory will be discussed, and students will show understanding by writing a detailed paragraph in their own words explaining the three components. They will then work in small groups to research historical events leading to the development of the theory by numerous scientist, the dates of their contributions, and explain how each contribution increased the development of the Cell Theory.

Students will then independently report their findings by constructing a colorful detailed timeline. The time line will show the historical events leading to the development of the cell theory in a chronology order. Using their timeline they will revisit the one-paragraph summary of the cell theory and rewrite the paper to explain how the sequence of events leading to the development of the cell theory in a Chronology order demonstrates the true nature of science as we know it today.

Type: Lesson Plan

During the lesson students will review parts of the plant and animal cell and build upon that knowledge by studying organelle function more closely.

Type: Lesson Plan

This is a plant structure and function internet research based lesson. Carnivorous plant structure and function modifications are used compare to the structure and functions of the major organs and tissues of non-carnivorous plants. Internet and student computers are required for this lesson. A carnivorous plant specimen (pitcher plant preferred) and a non-carnivorous plant specimen in the classroom is highly recommended for increased student interest.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will explore, identify, and collaborate to find and gain a better understanding of the four major plant groups.

Type: Lesson Plan

The students will have an opportunity to discover that the size of cells (surface area and volume) has a major impact on the movement of nutrients and waste products in and out through the cell by diffusion across the semipermeable membrane. The movement of these molecules is essential for the health of the cell and to maintain homeostasis.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will learn about the four types of microscopes (compound, dissection, transmission electron, and scanning electron) and compare them using the Model Eliciting Activity, or MEA, approach. Students act as a materials selection committee who will help a teacher decide which type(s) of microscopes are best suited for his classroom.

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. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.

Type: Lesson Plan

This MEA supports reading in the content area. Students create a model that the client can use to rank treatments for hypertension (high blood pressure) to choose the subject of their marketing campaign.

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. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.

Type: Lesson Plan

This activity incorporates the use of microscopes to show actual cells that are examples of both eukaryotes and prokaryotes.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this MEA students compare data from different commercial floral preservatives. Students are asked to choose which is the best preservative for a certain floral arrangement.

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. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.

Type: Lesson Plan

This MEA is designed to educate students about the relationship between fast food choices and heart health. It should give students dietary choices to assist in the prevention of high blood pressure and heart disease.

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. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson student will keep a scientific notebook to relate the major structure of fungi to their functions. Students will review several resources on fungi as well as conduct an investigation using yeast to compare its decomposition properties.

Type: Lesson Plan

This project lesson is designed to allow students to make personal connections between abstract art, photography, and histology of human tissues. As a brief introduction, students explore current topics in regenerative medicine and cutting-edge technology in medical sciences associated with disease treatment and amputee treatment. Students will get the opportunity to survey Impressionist area art and histology slides of tissues. Student presentations will be comprehensive and involve multiple levels of cognitive abilities. This lesson provides a unique way for cross-curricular and interdisciplinary teaching and learning opportunities.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson is about the heart and how it functions. The student will be able to diagram the flow of blood through the heart. The student will also be able to demonstrate how blood pressure is measured and how it can change under various physiological conditions.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will learn microscope basics including parts of a compound light microscope, different types of microscopes, and how microscopes work. This lesson includes a 4-day plan that has students label the parts of a microscope with the teacher, in a group, and using a microscope. The students will also complete a presentation on a specific type of microscope.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will interact with a brain model and apply the major areas of the brain to the locations within their own head.

Type: Lesson Plan

This is a whole class internet lesson on the major parts and their functions of the brain. It includes the the lobe of the cerebrum, cerebellum, and the brainstem; midbrain, pons, and medulla oblongata.

Type: Lesson Plan

ResourceID: 28153

This lesson covers the information on the basic functions of the human non-specific and specific immune response. It does not cover the vaccines, health or antibiotics used as an approach to aid the immune system.

There is vocabulary that goes as high as AP Biology. The lessons are editable so you can change vocabulary if you would like to bring the lesson down to lower levels. However, higher level vocabulary is not too extraneous and I leave it for my 9th grade Honors classes.

Type: Lesson Plan

This video was conceived around the idea that students, particularly those not in AP-level classes, have a practical application for knowing about the major divisions between plants, particularly about the details of plant anatomy and reproduction.

My objectives for this lesson are as follows:

• Students will be able to identify the major evolutionary innovations that separate plant divisions, and classify plants as belonging to one of those divisions based on phenotypic differences in plants.
• Students will be able to classify plants by their pollen dispersal methods using pollen dispersal mapping, and justify the location of a "crime scene" using map analysis.

• Students will be able to analyze and present their analysis of banding patterns from DNA fingerprinting done using plants in a forensic context.

Type: Lesson Plan

The purpose of this lesson is to teach students about blood and its components while instilling an appreciation of its importance for survival. The lesson takes a step-by-step approach to determining the "recipe" for blood while introducing students to important laboratory techniques like centrifugation and microscopy, as well as some diseases of cell types found in blood. It also highlights the importance of donating blood by explaining basic physiological concepts and the blood donation procedure. There are no formal prerequisites, but students should be comfortable with converting weight units. The only materials needed are a calculator and paper, and it would be helpful to print the downloadable color PDF files of blood smear images. During the breaks, students are asked to estimate and then calculate the amount of blood in their body, identify cell types in a blood smear, and discuss the composition of blood with their neighbor. The lesson can be completed within a 50-minute class session.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students view and discuss video segments from the PBS program The Human Spark as they learn about the human brain, including information about brain regions, brain activity and technologies used to explore the brain.

Type: Lesson Plan

A lesson about the important topic of antibiotic-resistant bacteria with student activities and A/V resources.

Type: Lesson Plan

A PBS Nova Podcast/Video with accompanying activities that introduce and explore paleontology and the geologic timescale through analysis of fossil bones.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will model an avian-human flu virus structure, replication, and spread. The accompanying PBS NOVA movie Pandemic Flu regarding H5N1 Avian and Swine Flu highlights interactions between the virus, humans, and birds.

Type: Lesson Plan

A PBS NOVA Classroom Activity with related video that models the brain and extends the learning to application of understanding how Alzheimers' disease impacts the brain.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students investigate how bicycle helmets protect the brain from forces related to sudden changes in motion.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson is designed to explore the relationship between pressure and vessel diameter and to create a model that represents how high blood pressure may affect weakened vessels.
A collaborative work of Melvin Flores, Larie Laudato and Glenn Soltes

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson will develop students' ability to identify similarities and differences between animal and plant cells as well as prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells.

Type: Lesson Plan

The lesson is design to describe the factors affecting blood flow through the cardiovascular system. The lesson uses the 5E model as an approach for students to become engaged, analytical and inquisitive in learning about the mechanism of blood flow and the importance of this in our body. In addition, the lesson engages the student to test variables that may affect blood flow.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will visit stations that demonstrate each of the factors that affect blood flow through the cardiovascular system.

Type: Lesson Plan

This is set of related lessons including direct instruction, games, readings, small group work and an inquiry activity to model factors affecting the human circulatory system.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson is a series of short activities centering on the brain benchmark for the Biology I EOC.

Type: Lesson Plan

These activities were designed to help students recognize which organelles belong in plant and animal cells, as well as to differentiate between real-life examples of plant, animal, and prokaryotic cells.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson introduces the basic forms of pathogens and how our bodies prevent and fight infection from them. It goes more in depth on the differences between active and passive immunity as well as the differences in non specific and specific defenses. The students will actively role play the events of specific immunity as well as evaluate methods of maintaining individual and public health.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students learn about and diagram the major parts of the brain and where different neurological disorders occur.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will identify the major parts of the immune system, including specific and nonspecific immune response, vaccines, and antibiotics.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will learn about the immune system and how disease can affect personal and public health.

Type: Lesson Plan

The lesson is design to explain the basic functions of the human immune system, including specific and nonspecific immune response, vaccines, and antibiotics. Primarily, it focuses on infectious diseases and how the immune system defend the body against infectious diseases. The lesson uses the 5E model as an approach for students to become engage, analytical and inquisitive in learning about infectious diseases and the immune system.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will address the three main tenets of cell theory by investigating: (1) "How big is a cell?" (using virtual scaling and compound microscope skills); (2) "What do cells do?" (students will build a model of a cell using craft materials); and (3) "Where do new cells come from?" (interpreting evidence from graphs and making new predictions). This lesson would work well paired with a review on what constitutes a scientific theory and student practice of using compound microscopes.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will explore the role and function of the leaf and its microscopic structures by using a cross section of a lilac leaf microscope slide.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will learn about the parts of the brain by investigating digital resources. This lesson centers around the Glog .

Type: Lesson Plan

This structured inquiry lesson deals mainly on the preparation of cross-section wet-mounts of the Hibiscus stem, leaf and flower, and their photomicrography. Additionally, students will prepare the extracts of the Hibiscus stem, leaf, and flower, and determine their pH using the Hydrion (pH paper) and universal indicator. This lesson will allow the students to confirm the microscopic structures of the Hibiscus plant parts that could be observed through the photomicrographs, and infer on the chemical nature (acid, base, or neutral) of the plant extract depending on the determined pH values.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will review the unit on the standard SC.912.L.14.7 (relate the structure of each of the major plant organs and tissues to physiological processes) by using Magical Squares. They then will create similes for the major plant organs and tissues and their physiological processes.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will explore the growth and development of plants by growing their own plants and documenting growth and development of major plant organs. Students will also create their own slides to observe and define the role meristematic tissue in the growth of plants.

Type: Lesson Plan

This second lesson in human reproduction systems discusses our dependency on hormones for reproductive processes to occur. I will outline the production and release of eggs according to hormone levels and the production of sperm. Students will compare and contrast male and female gamete production. Students will also identify patterns of key female reproductive hormones in their association with the menstrual cycle.

Type: Lesson Plan

This activity implements a web resource to teach students the major parts of the brain and a some functions. It is an interactive site and can be adapted to fit any classroom.

Type: Lesson Plan

Explore the cerebrum and the cerebellum--the seats of thoughts and emotions in the human brain. You'll also learn about their functions and how they are surrounded and protected by the meninges..

This interactive tutorial is part 3 in a three-part series about the human brain. Click below to open other tutorials in this series.

• Part 2: The Hypothalamus and Thalamus

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Explore the hypothalamus and the thalamus, two regions in the center of the human brain that are among the areas responsible for constantly controlling mechanisms that we are hardly aware of, such as keeping our body temperature stable. 

This interactive tutorial is part 2 in a three-part series about the human brain. Click below to continue this series.

• Part 3: The Cerebrum, Cerebellum, and Meninges

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Learn about the three components that make up the brainstem of the human brain, including their specific functions and how the brainstem relates to the brain and the rest of the body.

This interactive tutorial is part 1 in a three-part series about the human brain. Click below to continue this series.

• Part 2: The Hypothalamus and Thalamus
• Part 3: The Cerebrum, Cerebellum, and Meninges

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Learn about how plants evolved in this interactive online tutorial.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Genetic mutations can cause illness. Learn how genetic diseases can affect you and your communities in this interactive tutorial.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Explores how vaccines and antibiotics provide an extra level of protection from infectious agents and pathogens. 

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Learn about asexual and sexual reproduction of fungi in this interactive tutorial. This is Part 2 of 3 in this series on the Structure and Function of Fungi. 

Click  to open Part 1, Basic Characteristics and Structures

Click HERE to open Part 3, Nutrition and Mutualistic Relationships

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Learn how the expression of genes is affected our environment, including lifestyle choices. In this interactive tutorial, you'll also explore how a combination of genes and environmental factors can impact the risk of multifactorial disease.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Flowering plants have growth and life cycle properties that make them distinct from other types of plants. Learn about their unique properties in this final and fourth tutorial of this series on plants. Check out the other tutorials in this series.

• Bryophytes (Part 1) - click .
• Pteridophytes (Part 2) - click here.
• Gymnosperms (Part 3) - click here.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Pine trees, and other gymnosperms, have some unique growth and life cycle properties. This is part three of a four-part series on the characteristics of plants. 

 Check out the other tutorials in this series.

• Bryophytes (Part 1) - click .
• Pteridophytes (Part 2) - click here.
• Angiosperms (Part 4) - click here.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Explore Pteridophytes, a group of plants that includes ferns. This is part two of a four-part series on the characteristics of plants. 

 Check out the other tutorials in this series.

• Bryophytes (Part 1) - click .
• Gymnosperms (Part 3) - click here.
• Angiosperms (Part 4) - click here.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Explore the Theory of Endosymbiosis which links the origins of mitochondria and chloroplasts in eukaryotes with prokaryotic ancestors. 

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Discover a group of plants called bryophytes, which includes mosses, liverworts andhornworts. Thisinterative tutorial is part one of a four-part series on the characteristics of plants. 

 Check out the other tutorials in this series.

• Pteridophytes (Part 2) - click .
• Gymnosperms (Part 3) - click here.
• Angiosperms (Part 4) - click here.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Learn about the basic characteristics and structures of fungi in Part 1 of 3 in this series on the Structure and Function of Fungi.

Click  to open Part 2, Asexual and Sexual Reproduction

Click HERE to open Part 3, Nutrition and Mutualistic Relationships

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Learn about the nutrition and mutualistic relationships of fungi in this interactive tutorial. This is Part 3 of 3 in this series on the Structure and Function of Fungi. 

Click  to open Part 1, Basic Characteristics and Structures

Click HERE to open Part 2, Asexual and Sexual Reproduction

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Pathogens of all sorts can make us sick. Learn the whats, whys, and hows of the process in this interactive tutorial.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Explore the alternation of generations in plants to see how sporophytes and gametophytes relate to each other during the life cycle of mosses and lilies.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Learn to distinguish between public health issues and individual health issues in this interactive tutorial. 

This is part 1 of 4 in a series of tutorials addressing this standard.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Learn how you can use a microscope as a tool to measure objects in this interactive tutorial.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Learn how to identify explicit evidence and understand implicit meaning in the basic principles of the cell theory. The cell theory states that all organisms are made of cells. These cells are the smallest and basic unit of life. And finally, cells can only come from other cells.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Learn how to classify cells as prokaryotic or eukaryotic and distinguish eukaryotic cells as plant or animal with this interactive tutorial.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Learn about factors that affect the blood flow in your body in this interactive tutorial.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Learn about the function of the cell membrane as a selective barrier that moves material into and out of the cell to maintain homeostasis with this interactive tutorial.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Learn how to determine differences and similarities of the structure and function of compound light microscopes, dissecting microscopes, scanning electron microscopes and transmitting electron microscopes.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Learn about the structure, function, and evolutionary origins of plant tissues and organs with this interactive tutorial.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Learn how to identify the basic functions of the immune system. You will also be able to distinguish between nonspecific and specific immune responses.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Learn how to name the major regions of the brain and identify them on a diagram with this interactive tutorial.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Using new methods in neuroimaging, personality traits can be mapped to distinct regions of the brain.

Download the CPALMS Perspectives video student note taking guide.

Type: Perspectives Video: Expert

There is an amazing amount of similarity in brain organization between birds and humans. Turns out, birds are pretty darn smart and very good problem solvers!

Type: Perspectives Video: Expert

The importance of being a red blood cell.

Download the CPALMS Perspectives video student note taking guide.

Type: Perspectives Video: Expert

When you cut yourself, your body goes to work to prevent blood loss.

Download the CPALMS Perspectives video student note taking guide.

Type: Perspectives Video: Expert

Rick Hyson discusses the neuroscience contribution to the Birdsong project.

Type: Perspectives Video: Expert

Learn how carbohydrates in our cells' membrane determine our blood types.

Download the CPALMS Perspectives video student note taking guide.

Type: Perspectives Video: Expert

Wei Wu discusses his statistical contributions to the Birdsong project which help to quantify the differences in the changes of the zebra finch's song.

Type: Perspectives Video: Expert

Richard Bertram discusses his mathematical modeling contribution to the Birdsong project that helps the progress of neuron and ion channel research.

Download the CPALMS Perspectives video student note taking guide.

Type: Perspectives Video: Expert

Tanganyika Wilder explains EKG.

Download the CPALMS Perspectives video student note taking guide.

Type: Perspectives Video: Expert

Frank Johnson discusses the science behind hearing, learning, and speaking.

Type: Perspectives Video: Expert

The lymph system gets some respect.

Download the CPALMS Perspectives video student note taking guide.

Type: Perspectives Video: Expert

Florida State researcher Jens Foell discusses the use of fMRI and statistics in chronic pain.

Type: Perspectives Video: Expert

CSI in the Classroom: Blood at a crime scene points to a suspect.

Download the CPALMS Perspectives video student note taking guide.

Type: Perspectives Video: Expert

Jens Foell discusses brain function as it relates to brain imaging technology such as fMRI.

Download the CPALMS Perspectives video student note taking guide.

Type: Perspectives Video: Expert

Jens Foell discusses how statistical noise reduction is used in fMRI brain imaging to be able to determine which specifics parts of the brain are related to certain activities and how this relates to patients that suffer from phantom limb pain.

Type: Perspectives Video: Expert

Jens Foell discusses the link between correlation and causation in PTSD patients.

Download the CPALMS Perspectives video student note taking guide.

Type: Perspectives Video: Expert

Florida State Researcher, Jens Foell, discusses the importance of understanding correlation versus causation when researching personality traits and criminal behavior.

Download the CPALMS Perspectives video student note taking guide.

Type: Perspectives Video: Expert

Dr. Erinn Muller explains how coral health research at Mote Marine Laboratory is driving policy decisions regarding coral reef restoration in Florida.

Download the CPALMS Perspectives video student note taking guide.

Type: Perspectives Video: Expert

Dr. Erinn Muller explains research related to discovering coral genotypes capable of thriving despite environmental health challenges.

Download the CPALMS Perspectives video student note taking guide.

Type: Perspectives Video: Expert

Dr. Gregory Erickson explains bone histology and anatomy with special remarks on bones of a juvenile Tyrannosaurus rex.

Download the CPALMS Perspectives video student note taking guide.

Type: Perspectives Video: Expert

Dr. Mahmood Shivji explains how information contained in the DNA of seafood species is used for identification in the marketplace.

Download the CPALMS Perspectives video student note taking guide.

Type: Perspectives Video: Expert

Flow Cytometry is a cool technology that can count and sort cells.

Download the CPALMS Perspectives video student note taking guide.

Type: Perspectives Video: Expert

Robots use "eyes" and "ears" to sense their surroundings, just like you and me.

Download the CPALMS Perspectives video student note taking guide.

Type: Perspectives Video: Expert

Scientists use microscopes to see what is invisible to the naked eye.

Download the CPALMS Perspectives video student note taking guide.

Type: Perspectives Video: Expert

Lots of issues causes disease - genetics, lifestyle, pathogens - let's practice prevention when we can.

Download the CPALMS Perspectives video student note taking guide.

Type: Perspectives Video: Expert

A bio-mathematician discusses the folds and the structure of the brain and how they relate to math.

Type: Perspectives Video: Expert

Dr. Tom Miller discusses the anatomy and morphology of carnivorous plants.

Download the CPALMS Perspectives video student note taking guide.

Type: Perspectives Video: Expert

Strengthen your understanding of how muscle filaments function as this physiologist flexes his knowledge.

Download the CPALMS Perspectives video student note taking guide.

Type: Perspectives Video: Expert

Get moving and learn how muscles move you!

Download the CPALMS Perspectives video student note taking guide.

Type: Perspectives Video: Expert

Get mentally fit as this physiologist explains muscle structure!

Download the CPALMS Perspectives video student note taking guide.

Type: Perspectives Video: Expert

If you watch this video, your brain will be learning more about itself! Think about it.

Type: Perspectives Video: Expert

Our brains process all sensory information and tell the body what to do next.

Download the CPALMS Perspectives video student note taking guide.

Type: Perspectives Video: Expert

Dr. Michael Thornton discusses the nutritive value of blood - for vampires!

Download the CPALMS Perspectives video student note taking guide.

Type: Perspectives Video: Professional/Enthusiast

Dr. George Cohen discusses a variety of skin treatments that utilize electromagnetic radiation, including lasers, UV light, and x-rays.

Download the CPALMS Perspectives video student note taking guide.

Type: Perspectives Video: Professional/Enthusiast

Feeding your baby, inside and outside your body.

Download the CPALMS Perspectives video student note taking guide.

Type: Perspectives Video: Professional/Enthusiast

What you need to know about exercising for your heart and lungs.

Download the CPALMS Perspectives video student note taking guide.

Type: Perspectives Video: Professional/Enthusiast

Fire up those brains with exercise!

Download the CPALMS Perspectives video student note taking guide.

Type: Perspectives Video: Professional/Enthusiast

Your kidneys work hard - show them some respect!

Download the CPALMS Perspectives video student note taking guide.

Type: Perspectives Video: Professional/Enthusiast

When your kidneys fail you, there's help with kidney dialysis.

Download the CPALMS Perspectives video student note taking guide.

Type: Perspectives Video: Professional/Enthusiast

Understanding human physiology will allow you to stand under your own power at the end of a long rowing trip.

Related Resources:
KROS Pacific Ocean Kayak Journey: GPS Data Set[.XLSX]
KROS Pacific Ocean Kayak Journey: Path Visualization for Google Earth[.KML]

Download the CPALMS Perspectives video student note taking guide.

Type: Perspectives Video: Professional/Enthusiast

This teacher has an approach to teaching evolution that may help to keep skeptical students engaged: start by teaching about plants, and then make small changes to the discussion over time.

Download the CPALMS Perspectives video student note taking guide.

Type: Perspectives Video: Teaching Idea

Get outside and interact with nature after you watch this idea for teaching about the different parts of plants!

Download the CPALMS Perspectives video student note taking guide.

Type: Perspectives Video: Teaching Idea

Your mind will swell with knowledge after submerging in this idea to demonstrate osmosis.

Download the CPALMS Perspectives video student note taking guide.

Type: Perspectives Video: Teaching Idea

Let this semipermiable membrane teaching idea sink in.

Download the CPALMS Perspectives video student note taking guide.

Type: Perspectives Video: Teaching Idea

Get a tip for modeling the cell membrane in this lesson idea.

Download the CPALMS Perspectives video student note taking guide.

Type: Perspectives Video: Teaching Idea

A PowerPoint with speaker notes covering infectious diseases, causes, transmission, and control.

Type: Presentation/Slideshow

In this lab exercise, students will demonstrate diffusion in potatoes by placing them into solutions of water and salt water.

Type: Problem-Solving Task

This is an inquiry design lab for students to understand transpirational pull of plants. Like all inquiry labs, it is open for more designs than the one presented in the PowerPoint example. The example in the PowerPoint is the easiest to implement in the classroom. It requires a growlite (a bulb that produces the UV light plants need to grow), a fan, a light source with a 100 Watt bulb, Ziplock bags, rope, and plants that are the same (I use petunias).

Type: Project

This lab is a hands on activity where students can explore the concepts of osmotic solutions and diffusion. It demonstrates all 3 osmotic solution types: isotonic, hypertonic, and hypotonic. It takes a duration of 4 days, but each day is approximately 15 minutes of a specific daily task.

Type: Teaching Idea

Students will use potato cores to demonstrate osmosis in salt solutions.

Type: Teaching Idea

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. Blood types such as the ABO group have been inherited for at least 20 million years. Despite how ancient blood groups are, scientists are still unclear as to their purpose. The ABO blood group, the most well-known of the blood groups, has enabled scientists to understand a link between blood groups and the immune system; discoveries over the last century suggest a link between blood groups and disease. Even with these findings, scientists are still unclear as to why such blood antigens evolved in the first place.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is designed to support reading in the content area. The article discusses the rise of pandemic disease outbreaks across the globe and how these outbreaks can affect world economies. The article further describes how economic models were used to assess different strategies on their effectiveness. The strategy of identifying the underlying cause of the emerging disease was considered to be most cost-effective and beneficial long-term.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is designed to support reading in the content area. The article discusses how the rabies virus is likely to spread to the coast of Peru by the year 2020. It further discusses the technology used to determine that the male vampire bat is most likely the carrier of the rabies virus to different areas in Peru.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. The text describes current research being conducted on microbiota and the immune system. The text describes how bacteria, or the lack of bacteria, play a role in the immune system and keep autoimmune diseases at bay. There is currently a spike in autoimmune diseases like Crohn's disease and psoriasis that occur primarily in developed countries. This research emphasizes how important our symbiotic relationship is with bacteria.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is designed to support reading in the content area. The article discusses how a drought affected the savanna ecosystem found in southern Kenya during 2009. It further addresses how baboons are affected later in life based on the conditions when they are born and the social status they are born into. Based on the research on baboons, the implications on human health are discussed in the latter portion of the article.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. The article discusses how yellow fever is becoming a health threat once again in parts of Africa and why it is necessary for a new vaccine for yellow fever to be developed. The article further discusses the process and experimental trials by which the vaccine is being tested for its effectiveness as well as its safety.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is designed to support reading in the content area. The article discusses the problems that are being encountered in Miami Beach as health officials try to execute a mosquito management program. Because of the high rise buildings, the pesticides being sprayed are not necessarily reaching the intended areas. Not only are mosquitoes staying alive, but they may become resistant to the first-choice pesticides being used against them.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is designed to support reading in the content area. The article discusses the research conducted by scientists showing the correlation between El Niño events and the spread of infectious disease. The article discusses how the scientists believe Vibrio bacteria are being transported across the ocean and the impact this can have on public health.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is designed to support reading in the content area. The article discusses the research conducted by scientists to determine how the malaria parasite evades the human immune system and enters into red blood cells. It was determined the parasite is able to use the complement system to its own advantage rather than being negatively affected by it.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is designed to support reading in the content area. The article discusses the research conducted by scientists who used machine learning methods to identify bats that were likely to be reservoirs for filoviruses. Scientists mapped out the geographical ranges of these bats and hope to be able to use this information to prevent future outbreaks.

Type: Text Resource

The informational text resource describes how researchers from Virginia Tech and the University of Sydney tested for resistance to 10 antibiotics among 18 wildlife species and cattle in Botswana. The results from the tests showed that antibiotic resistance is being transferred to mostly carnivores at the top of the food web. Animals that show multi-drug resistance are crocodiles, leopards, hyenas, hippos, baboons, and warthogs. There also seems to be a correlation to drug resistance and aquatic life, but only certain species. Further research should be conducted in order to understand how the resistance moves across landscapes.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is designed to support reading in the content area. The text, written by the National Institutes of Health, describes the many risk factors for heart disease. The text is broken into three areas: risk factors that can be controlled (like smoking, high blood pressure, and obesity), risk factors that cannot be controlled (like age and family history), and emerging risk factors.

Type: Text Resource

Recent research funded by the National Institutes of Health points to scar tissue being beneficial to nerve regrowth in spinal injury. Previously it was believed scar tissue prevented nerve regrowth, but this new research shows that astrocyte scars may actually be required for repair and regrowth following spinal cord injury.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. The text describes current research into the factors that increase the rate of transmission of the bacterial disease Leptospirosis. Scientists are using research to provide tools to prevent future transmission. Scientists are studying three communities in Chile and determining what factors in each setting are contributing to the spread of the disease.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is designed to support reading in the content area. The text describes the interactions between local wildlife (white ibises in Florida) and humans, and the impact that these interactions have on both species. The article presents both benefits as well as potential drawbacks to the close proximity of humans and white ibises. The article also describes how scientists are studying these interactions and their effects.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is designed to support reading in the content area. This text describes how researchers unearthed a natural clay deposit with antibacterial characteristics. The text also discusses exactly how the two elements in the clay cause the destruction of the bacteria. The end of the article addresses how this discovery could provide possible solutions to bacteria that are antibiotic-resistant, like MRSA.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is designed to support reading in the content area. The text describes current research into the mosquitoes that carry the Zika virus, with the ultimate goal of using the research to predict and possibly prevent future outbreaks. Scientists are studying three towns in Ecuador by collecting data to help them discover the socioeconomic and environmental factors that put people most at risk for diseases carried by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, including the Zika virus. The scientists are also examining how virus transmission by these mosquitoes may be affected by climate change.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is designed to support reading in the content area. The article describes how villi in the small intestine and muscle contraction work together to digest food and provide nutrients to the body, using the metaphor of coral working with an ocean current to circulate nutrients in the sea. A team of scientists plans to use technology to create 3-D imaging of digestion, and their research is described in the article along with the specific physiology and function of the villi within the digestive tract.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is designed to support reading in the content area. The text focuses on cellular waste and describes different ways a cell gets rid of waste. The text also briefly addresses how further study of the ways cells dispose of waste could lead to new approaches for preventing or treating disease.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. The immune system's job is to defend against pathogens and keep our bodies healthy. There are a number of cell types, tissues, and organs that play a role in the immune process. The article discusses the three types of immunity: innate, adaptive, and passive. Finally, the article discusses various immune system disorders and diseases that are associated with each one.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. This article details the discovery of the world's largest living organism, a humongous fungus in eastern Oregon. The text discusses the fungus itself, other sprawling fungi, and possible explanations for why such large sizes might be the norm for fungi. Also, the article describes the research methods scientists employed in order to determine that the fungus was in fact one single living organism.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. Moss is being used as a model system that may hold the key to understanding how all plant and animal cells grow. This article shows how a deeper understanding of cell growth is being established: specifically, how the cytoskeleton directs growth.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. This article discusses phrenology, which is a pseudoscience that claims to be able to use bumps on human skulls to make inferences about personality traits. The article details why phrenology is not a true science, and reviews the history of phrenology, the role of phrenology in the debate about the organization of the brain, how phrenology came under scientific criticism, and modern iterations of the technique.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. This article explores how scientists discovered that the immune system naturally suppresses cancer while they were researching how B cells change during the growth of lymphoma. The text explains how T cells work as an "immune surveillance" and can be a way of preventing blood cancers. Through experimentation, scientists discovered how vitally important those cells are to possibly suppressing other forms of cancer in the future.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. The text explains the importance and function of the human immune system with a detailed discussion of non-specific versus specific immunity. The text features an embedded animated component showing how vaccines work.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. Scientists have been making breakthroughs in immunotherapy: the use of infectious pathogens as a method for treating cancer. The infections heighten the response of the immune system and eradicate the cancer in the process.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. Tropical areas such as Brazil can be hotspots for communicable diseases due to warm temperatures and crowded urban spaces. There is a concern that when Brazil hosts the World Cup, mosquito-borne dengue fever may spread to its visitors. The article explores methods of pathogen transfer in a variety of venues (pilgrimages, airplanes, cruise lines) and compares these to conditions at the World Cup.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. This article describes the components of blood (red blood cells, white blood cells, platelets, and plasma) including their functions and origins, along with a novel medical application for the rare blood-producing stem cells.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text is intended to support reading in the content area. The article reports on research into the evolution of plants in cold climates.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. The article explains the mushroom's ability to make its own microclimate. Through convection caused by the release of water vapor, mushrooms can efficiently disperse spores.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. This article is about the swine flu. It explains where and how the virus originated, what countries it can be found in, facts about the virus, and whether a vaccine might be developed.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. This text discusses the possible real-life brain disorders that could contribute to fictional zombie behavior. There is also a video that explains these disorders further.

Type: Text Resource

This resource is intended to support reading in the content area. Scientists have discovered that when they disrupt waking and sleeping times in mice, their immune systems responded in a harmful way causing disease, asthma, allergies, and maybe even immune disorders.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text is intended to support reading in the content area. The text describes a discovery scientists have made regarding a mechanism that regulates the direction in which plants grow.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. The text describes the discovery of an enzyme’s role in blood vessel growth and development. The enzyme may be essential for advances in cancer research.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. The text explains how blood is classified into types based on the presence of antigens. It describes a process whereby antigens can be removed by an enzyme to make all blood types the same as the universal donor.

Type: Text Resource

This resource is intended to support reading in the content area. Scientists have discovered that animal cells can communicate by sending out thin tubes of cytoplasm called cytonemes that extend across many cells to reach a cell that will receive the signal, much like neuron communication.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. This brief (659 word) illustrated article describes the accomplishment at Stanford University of a pair of researchers who rendered a mouse brain transparent by removing the fat molecules in the cell membranes.

Type: Text Resource

This tutorial is designed to help secondary science teachers learn how to integrate literacy skills within their curriculum. This tutorial focuses on evaluating the reasoning and evidence of an argumentative claim. The focus on literacy across content areas is designed to help students independently build knowledge in different disciplines through reading and writing.

Type: Tutorial

Click "View Site" to open a full-screen version. This tutorial is designed to help secondary science teachers learn how to integrate literacy skills within their science curriculum. This tutorial focuses on using specific textual evidence to support students' responses as they analyze science texts. The focus on literacy across content areas is designed to help students independently build knowledge in different disciplines through reading and writing.

Type: Tutorial

Type: Tutorial

Type: Tutorial

In this Khan Academy video tutorial, learn the main important arteries in the brain that bring necessary oxygen to all parts of the brain.

Type: Tutorial

Type: Tutorial

Learn about the complications that may occur after a heart attack (myocardial infarction).

Type: Tutorial

Learn about the risk factors for coronary artery disease including modifiable and non-modifiable risk factors.

Type: Tutorial

In this Khan academy video tutorial, learn about the possible treatments and interventions of different types of strokes.

Type: Tutorial

Type: Tutorial

Type: Tutorial

Type: Tutorial

Learn about the process your body goes through in healing after a heart attack (myocardial infarction).

Type: Tutorial

The transmission of a nerve impulse along a neuron from one end to the other occurs as a result of electrical changes across the membrane of the neuron. This tutorial will help students to visualize and understand the transmission of a nerve impulse.

Type: Tutorial

This tutorial will help students to understand the process of reflex arc. A reflex arc is the nerve pathway which makes a fast, automatic response possible.When the safety of an organism demands a very quick response, the signals may be passed directly from a sensory neuron, via a relay neuron, to a motor neuron for instant, unthinking action. This is a reflex action.

Type: Tutorial

A vaccine allows a person to develop acquired immunity against an illness without actually getting the disease. This interactive tutorial will help the learners to understand the process by which vaccines work in the human body.

Type: Tutorial

Hormones are produced in the endocrine glands and are released in the blood stream. This tutorial will help the learners to understand how the hormones reach their target cells in order to communicate the message.

Type: Tutorial

Hypersensitivity refers to excessive, undesirable reactions produced by the normal immune system. Type 2 hypersensitivity is also known as cytotoxic hypersensitivity and may affect a variety of organs and tissues. This animation relates hypersensitivity and blood types together.

Type: Tutorial

This Khan Academy video discusses which ions are allowed to be actively transported out of the filtrate of urine. The process of secondary active transport in the nephron is described in detail.

Type: Tutorial

This Khan Academy video describes how the proteins myosin and actin interact to produce a mechanical force on muscles, allowing them to move.

Type: Tutorial

This Khan Academy video explains the role that tropomyosin and tropinin play in muscle contraction. The role of the calcium ion concentrations are also explained.

This challenging tutorial addresses the concept at a high level of complexity.

Type: Tutorial

This Khan Academy video explains how cytotoxic t cells get activated by MHC-I antigen complexes and then proceed to kill infected cells. This video addresses the concept at a high level of complexity.

Type: Tutorial

This Khan Academy video discusses helper t cells in the immune system. The role of helper t cells in activating b cells is detailed. This challenging tutorial addresses the concept at a high level of complexity.

Type: Tutorial

This Khan Academy video describes B lymphocyte cells, and how they are activated and produce antibodies within the immune system.

Type: Tutorial

This Khan Academy video describes non specific immunity, and the specific role of phagocytes. The tutorial explains how phagocytes engulf pathogens that enter the body as a line of defense.

Type: Tutorial

This Khan Academy video contains an overview of the types of immune responses in the body. The differences between humoral adaptive immunity and cell mediated immunity are discussed in detail.

Type: Tutorial

This Khan Academy video describes the structure of muscle cells. The tutorial details the muscle cell from the macro skeletal muscle to the individual cell of the muscle, called the myofiber. The functions of actin and myosin and how they cause muscles to contract are also explained.

Type: Tutorial

This Khan Academy video describes the anatomical structure of a neuron. Each structure is explained in detail.

Type: Tutorial

This Khan Academy video discusses form and function in the respiratory system. All of the respiratory organs are discussed.

Type: Tutorial

This Khan Academy video explains the major vessels involved in the flow of blood and follows the steps that blood takes as it travels through the heart.

Type: Tutorial

This Khan Academy tutorial guides you through the processes of diffusion and osmosis while explaining the vocabulary and terminology involved in detail.

Type: Tutorial

This tutorial will help you to understand how bone growth is different from the growth of many other organs. Although bone may appear to be rigid and lifeless it is actually living tissue that is capable of growth. Unlike soft tissues, bone cannot simply grow by adding additional cells and removing cells that are no longer necessary. The calcium laid down in bone gives the skeleton the strength and rigidity needed to protect and support the body. This rigidity means that expansion requires addition of cells on the outside and, when necessary, the removal of calcium and other materials on the inside.

Type: Tutorial

This Khan Academy tutorial addresses the importance of the phospholipid bilayer in the structure of the cell membrane. The types of molecules that can diffuse through the cell membrane are also discussed.

Type: Tutorial

This Khan Academy tutorial describes the differences between prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells. It then goes on to discuss in detail the structures and their functions found in the eukaryotic cell.

Type: Tutorial

This tutorial will help you to understand how digestive tissue can produce a concentrated acid without damage to cells and molecules that are exposed to the acid. Hydrochloric acid production is described in this animation.

This challenging tutorial addresses the concept at a high level of complexity.

Type: Tutorial

This tutorial will help you to understand why the secretion of gastric fluids is controlled both locally and through the central nervous system. This animation describes how gastric secretion is regulated by both the brain and digestive hormones.

Type: Tutorial

This tutorial will help you to understand how a concentration gradient across a membrane is used. When a molecule or an ion is moved across a membrane from an area of low concentration to an area of high concentration then a gradient is generated. This gradient can be chemical or it can also create a difference in electrical charge across the membrane if ions are involved. The proton pump generates an electrical and chemical gradient that can be used to create ATP which can drive a large number of different biochemical reactions.

Type: Tutorial

Students will learn about the different types of proteins found in the cell membrane while viewing this Khan Academy tutorial video.

Type: Tutorial

This video from the Khan Academy introduces the symbiotic relationship between the many bacteria that live inside the human body. The basics of bacteria structure, reproduction, and bacterial infections are discussed.

Type: Tutorial

This Khan Academy video tutorial describes the basics of the endocrine system and the role of hormones as the communicators of the body. The major endocrine glands and the hormones that they produce are explained.

Type: Tutorial

This tutorial helps you to understand the factors involved in air flow into and out of the lungs.

This challenging tutorial addresses the concept at a high level of complexity.

Type: Tutorial

This tutorial explains how a charge is generated across a membrane. The function and role of the voltage-gated sodium ion channel and voltage-gated potassium ion channel are explained in detail.

Type: Tutorial

This tutorial explains that electrical signals cannot travel from one neuron to the next directly. The signal crosses the synapse in chemical form. One neuron releases chemicals in response to an action potential and the chemicals travel across the synapse and stimulate an action potential in the next neuron. These chemicals are called neurotransmitters.

Type: Tutorial

This tutorial explains that the source of the impulse in a neuron is a rapid change in the polarity of the cell membrane in a restricted area. The direction of the electrical gradient is rapidly reversed and then returns to normal. The change in charge stimulates the process to happen in adjacent parts of the cell and the change in the polarity travels down the neuron.

Type: Tutorial

This tutorial explains the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide within the respiratory system.

Type: Tutorial

This tutorial will help you to understand how hormones influence the growth and development of organisms.

Type: Tutorial

This tutorial will help you to understand how the exchange of gases between the alveoli and the blood occurs by simple diffusion due to the changes in the partial pressure of oxygen and carbon dioxide.

This challenging tutorial addresses the concept at a high level of complexity.

Type: Tutorial

This tutorial will help you to understand how the nutritional value of food can be measured on many different scales. The most basic measurement scale is the free energy content in the food, i.e., how much energy is released when chemical bonds within the food are broken.

Type: Tutorial

This tutorial is helpful in understanding how the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide takes place during the process of respiration.

Type: Tutorial

This tutorial will help you to visualize and understand how nerve impulses cause muscle contractions. The neurons and muscle tissue conduct electrical current by moving ions across cellular membranes. The signal will travel through the tissue and trigger the contraction of individual sarcomeres, the functional units of muscle. This tutorial explains the neuromuscular junction where the synapse occurs.

Type: Tutorial

This tutorial will help you to understand which factors determine the strength of bone. Bone strength is determined by the internal structure, shape, and size of the bone. As we age, bone mass is lost, leading to a common condition called osteoporosis. This tutorial compares normal bone tissue with osteoporotic bone tissue.

Type: Tutorial

This tutorial will help you to understand how hormones interact with the nervous system. The central nervous system can directly release hormones or it can signal tissues throughtout the body to release hormones.

Type: Tutorial

This tutorial will help you to understand what determines the range of sound frequencies a person can hear. Sound travels through the air and through water as waves of changing pressure. The volume of sound is determined by the amplitude of the sound waves.

Type: Tutorial

This tutorial will help you to understand the role that vitamins play in human nutrition. Vitamins interact with enzymes to allow them to function more effectively. Though vitamins are not consumed in metabolism, they are vital for the process of metabolism to occur.

This challenging tutorial addresses the concept at a high level of complexity.

Type: Tutorial

Tissues associated with the stomach produce not only digestive enzymes but also hydrochloric acid. The hydrochloric acid helps to chemically break down the food in the stomach. This tutorial will help you to understand how digestive tissue can produce a concentrated acid without damage to cells and molecules exposed to the acid.

This challenging tutorial addresses the concept at a high level of complexity.

Type: Tutorial

This tutorial demonstrates how the structure of a signal molecule determines its function. Signal molecules can interact with either intracellular or extracellular receptors. For a signal molecule to bind with an intracellular receptor it must be able to pass through the cellular membrane. Generally signal molecules that enter the cell are nonpolar and fat soluble. These signal molecules can pass through the lipid bilayer of the cell membrane. Signals that bind with extracellular receptors are proteins or other types of molecules that cannot readily pass through the membrane.

This challenging tutorial addresses the concept at a high level of complexity.

Type: Tutorial

This tutorial will help students understand how the immune system of vertebrates is characterized by acquired responses that are highly specific to particular antigens. This system has the advantage of having a cellular memory for previous infections.

Type: Tutorial

This tutorial will help you to understand how allergies develop. Allergies are exaggerated immune responses caused by B cells producing excess IgE antibodies. An allergen (food, dust) is a foreign substance, which binds to the antibodies and triggers a reaction that includes the production of histamine.

This challenging tutorial addresses the concept at a very high level of complexity.

Type: Tutorial

One of the functions of the T-Cells in the immune system is to attack and destroy infected cells. Target cells are cells that have been attacked by a virus. When the target cells have been taken over by a virus and they do not have a good chance of surviving, they trigger their own death. This action reduces the chance that other nearby cells will become infected.

This challenging tutorial addresses the concept at a high level of complexity.

Type: Tutorial

This tutorial will help you to understand the function of phagocytes. Phagocytes are specialized cells that ingest and break down foreign material including bacteria and viruses.

This challenging tutorial addresses the concept at a high level of complexity.

Type: Tutorial

This tutorial will help you to understand how the movement of oxygen and carbon dioxide takes place between the alveoli and the blood by taking partial pressure into consideration. Oxygen diffuses from the air through the alveoli into the blood and carbon dioxide diffuses from the blood into the alveoli. This occurs due to differences in partial pressures.

This challenging tutorial addresses the concept at a high level of complexity.

Type: Tutorial

This online tutorial will help you to understand the process of regulated secretion. In regulated secretion, proteins are secreted from a cell in large amounts when a specific signal is detected by the cell. The specific example used in this tutorial is the release of insulin after a glucose signal enters a pancreatic beta cell.

Type: Tutorial

This tutorial will help you to understand how all of the components of the heart are able to work together without direct control from the central nervous system. This video shows that for proper function of the heartbeat, it is necessary that all of the muscle fibers in a region contract in unison.

Type: Tutorial

The cardiac cycle is defined as the complete heartbeat from generation to the beginning of the next beat, and includes the diastole, the systole, and the intervening pause. This tutorial will help you to understand the cardiac cycle.

Type: Tutorial

This tutorial will help students understand the process of muscle contraction. A muscle contains many muscle fibers and each fiber contains a bundle of 4-20 myofibrils. Each fibril is striated and these striations are produced by the arrangement of thick and thin filaments, called actin and myosin. The contraction and relaxation of these actin and myosin filaments help muscles move.

Type: Tutorial

T-cells perform a wide variety of functions in the immune system. In this tutorial you will understand the structure and function of the T-cells.

Type: Tutorial

This tutorial will help you to understand the processing of hemoglobin and why it is different from the processing of many other macromolecules. Hemoglobin contains a heme group which contains iron. Iron is not common in other macromolecules therefore conservation of iron is important and is processed independently.

Type: Tutorial

This tutorial will help students understand how food is digested with the help of different gastric secretions. Gastric juice from glands renders food particles soluble, initiates digestion, and converts the gastric contents to a semiliquid mass called chyme, thus preparing it for futher disgestion in the small intestine.

Type: Tutorial

Blood pressure is determined by the force of the blood acting on the walls of the blood vessels. Two factors determine the size of this force. One is the volume of blood being pumped through the vessel. The other is the size of the vessels. Changes in blood pressure can be caused by either a change in the amount of blood being pumped or by a change in the size of the blood vessels. Feedback mechanisms, described in this animation, will alter heart rate and blood vessel dilation to maintain blood pressure at appropriate levels.

Type: Tutorial

This tutorial will help students to understand how concentrations of gases in the blood change during breathing. This animation shows high carbon dioxide concentrations and low oxygen concentrations indicating that gas exchage is occurring at a slower than ideal rate. Because of this, heart rate increases or decreases to compensate the exchange of gas.

Type: Tutorial

This tutorial explores the steps that food takes on its journey through the digestive system. All major digestive organs and the process of nutrient absorption are explained.

Type: Tutorial

This tutorial will help students understand how the difference in the alveloar pressure and the barometric air pressure allows the inspiration and expiration of air in the lungs.

Type: Tutorial

This tutorial will help the student understand about viruses which are small infectious agents that replicate only inside the living cells of other organisms.

Type: Tutorial

This tutorial will help the learner visualize how a cell or single celled organism can differ in its view when looked at under different magnifications and different types of microscopes. This tutorial can be used by the teacher as an added resource for their lesson about different microscopes and how they work..

Type: Tutorial

All living things are made of cells. In the human body, these highly efficient units are protected by layer upon layer of defense against icky invaders like the cold virus. Shannon Stiles takes a journey into the cell, introducing the microscopic arsenal of weapons and warriors that play a role in the battle for your health.

Type: Tutorial

This short video describes the process of antibiotic resistance. Right now, you are inhabited by trillions of micro organisms. Many of these bacteria are harmless (or even helpful!), but there are a few strains of ‘super bacteria' that are pretty nasty -- and they're growing resistant to our antibiotics. Why is this happening? Kevin Wu details the evolution of this problem that presents a big challenge for the future of medicine.

Type: Tutorial

This TED ED original lesson takes a closer look at how the heart pumps blood. For most of history, scientists weren't quite sure why our hearts were beating or even what purpose they served. Eventually, we realized that these thumping organs serve the vital task of pumping clean blood throughout the body. But how? Edmond Hui investigates how it all works by taking a closer look at the heart's highly efficient ventricle system.

Type: Tutorial

This tutorial will help the learners to learn about the anatomy of the cell. As the learners move the cursor over each cell organelle, they are shown information about that organelle's structure and function.

Type: Tutorial

This a mostly text resource that provides accurate, straight-forward descriptions of prokaryotes, eukaryotes, and viruses. It could be a great tool to help students compare and contrast organisms with each other and viruses, or a good review passage.

Type: Tutorial

A unit that can be used as a whole or in parts. Teaches the parts of a microscope as well as the concept of magnification through lab stations. Includes slideshow, worksheets, links and activities, review and quizzes.

Type: Unit/Lesson Sequence

This video presentation is illustrating the amount of work the kidney performs each day to maintain proper levels of ions in the body. It will help in increasing your understanding about the functions of kidney.

Type: Video/Audio/Animation

This video presentation will help to understand the regeneration process in a zebrafish. When the zebrafish heart is damaged, the wound site is rapidly sealed with a fibrin clot that stems bleeding within seconds. Following clot formation, the tissue that surrounds the heart muscle, the epicardium, gradually covers the fibrin clot via migration and cell division. Over the next few months, new cardiac muscle is produced and replaces the clot.

Type: Video/Audio/Animation

This Howard Hughes Medical Institute Holiday Lecture Series video includes 6, 60-minute lectures on the history of the AIDS epidemic. The talk covers AIDS/HIV history in the United States from the 1980's through 2007 (when the lecture was taped) and also some basics on the biology of HIV and AIDS, including transmission, viral replication and the human immune system. The video offers a useful perspective on an example of the evolution of scientific thinking and research, as researchers discuss the development of scientific theories about HIV/AIDS as well as treatments. Several related resources, such as animations and video clips, can be found on the main page.

Type: Video/Audio/Animation

This is a very clear, thorough, easy to understand video on cells. It includes the history of the microscope, types of microscopes, future microscope technology, and how they all work. The majority of the video is a comparison/contrast of prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells, including size, structure and function of the organelles in a eukaryotic cell.

Type: Video/Audio/Animation

Paul Andersen explains the major plants structures. He starts with a brief discussion of monocot and dicot plants. He then describes the three main tissues in plants; dermal, ground and vascular. He also describes the plant cells within each of these tissues; epidermis, parenchyma, collenchyma, sclerencyma, xylem and phloem.

Type: Video/Audio/Animation

Paul Andersen explains how eukaryotic cells were formed through a process of endosymbiosis. He describes how aerobic bacteria became mitochondria and cyanobacteria became chloroplasts. He mentions an example of symbiosis that occurs today and mentions the importance of Dr. Lynn Margulis in the development of this modern theory.

Type: Video/Audio/Animation

Paul Andersen describes how cells move materials across the cell membrane. All movement can be classified as passive or active. Passive transport, like diffusion, requires no energy as particles move along their gradient. Active transport requires additional energy as particles move against their gradient.

Type: Video/Audio/Animation

Paul Anderson takes you on a tour of the cell. He starts by explaining the difference between prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells. He also explains why cells are small but not infinitely small. He also explains how the organelles work together in a similar fashion.

Type: Video/Audio/Animation

This video segment from NOVA: "A Desert Place" details the behaviors and habitats of some of the Sonoran Desert's creatures, focusing on the adaptations they use to survive in one of the most extreme environments in the world.

Type: Video/Audio/Animation

This Protein Purification video lesson is intended to give students some insight into the process and tools that scientists and engineers use to explore proteins. It is designed to extend the knowledge of students who are already somewhat sophisticated and who have a good understanding of basic biology. The question that motivates this lesson is, "what makes two cell types different?" and this question is posed in several ways. Such scientific reasoning raises the experimental question: how could you study just a subset of specialized proteins that distinguish one cell type from another? Two techniques useful in this regard are considered in the lesson. This video lesson will easily fit into a 50-minute class period, and prerequisites include a good understanding of cellular components (DNA vs. Protein vs. lipid) and some understanding of the physical features of proteins (charge, size etc). The simple cell model used here can be assembled in any kind of container and with any components of different solubility, density, charge etc. In-class activities during the video breaks include discussions, careful observations, and the use of a "very simple cell" model to explore two techniques of protein purification. Students and teachers can spend additional time discussing and exploring the question of "how we know what we know" since this lesson lends itself to the teaching of the process of science as well.

Type: Video/Audio/Animation

This PBS virtual interaction allows students to map the brain using six different realistic virtual imaging techniques. Students are able to view color-coded regions of the brain and explanations of the functions of major brain parts are available as well.

Type: Virtual Manipulative

Living cells are divided into two types - procaryotic and eucaryotic. This division is based on internal complexity. This website provides interactive graphic roadmaps to the organization of both of these cell types. It also shows distinctions between plant and animal cells.

Type: Virtual Manipulative

This educational game is about blood types, blood typing, and blood transfusions. Your challenge is to save patients in urgent need of blood transfusions. Your job is to decide what blood type these patients belong to in order to administer safe blood transfusions. At the end you will be evaluated: if you make no mistakes at all you will get all five blood drops.

Type: Virtual Manipulative

This virtual manipulative will help the students to understand that osmosis is the movement of water molecules from an area of high concentration across a semipermeable membrane to an area of low concentration. This illustration of the diffusion process will help the students to understand the concept of osmotic pressure which is created by the movement of the water based on their concentration gradient and thus resulting in the difference of the solute concentration.

Type: Virtual Manipulative

In this simulation, you will explore how neurons conduct electrical impulses by using the action potential. This phenomenon is generated through the flow of positively charged ions across the neuronal membrane. Stimulate a neuron and monitor what happens. You can pause, rewind, and move forward in time in order to observe the ions as they move across the neuron membrane.
Other ways to explore:

• Describe why ions can or cannot move across neuron membranes.
• Identify leakage and gated channels, and describe the function of each.
• Describe how membrane permeability changes in terms of different types of channels in a neuron.
• Describe the sequence of events that generates an action potential.

Type: Virtual Manipulative

This site provides an introduction to microscopy and microscopes including history, images, and interactives.

Type: Virtual Manipulative

This interactive cell membrane simulation allows students to see how different types of channels allow particles to move through the membrane.

Sample learning goals:

• Predict when particles will move through the membrane and when they will not.
• Identify which particle type will diffuse depending on which type of channels are present.
• Predict the rate of diffusion based on the number and type of channels present.

Type: Virtual Manipulative

This resource for biology teachers includes a lesson plan section which contains classroom activities, labs and worksheets. The activity sheets are categorized by Science and Literacy, Anatomy, Scientific Method, Cells, Phyla, Evolution and Taxonomy, Genetics, Ecology, and Plants.

Type: Worksheet