activities for teaching biology

This game helps students to enjoy reviewing vocabulary related to mitosis, meiosis and fertilization.  Each card in the deck has a target vocabulary word and two related taboo words that the student may not use as he/she gives clues so the other students in his/her small group can guess the target word.  Many students have trouble learning the substantial new vocabulary required for biology, and this game lets students have fun while reinforcing their understanding of key terms. 

The first file below provides the master copy for creating the card decks for this game, and the second file below provides the teacher notes, including instructions for playing the game.

Mitosis and Meiosis Card Sort Activity

This activity is designed to help students review the processes of mitosis and meiosis and to ensure that students understand how chromosomes move during mitosis vs. meiosis. Students arrange the cards from a shuffled deck of the stages of mitosis and meiosis in the sequence of steps that occur during cell division by mitosis and another sequence of steps that occur during cell division by meiosis.  The first file shown below can be used to print the simpler version of the deck of cards for this activity and the second file can be used to print the more challenging version of the deck of cards for this activity. The third file gives the teacher notes.

The resources include:

In this hands-on, minds-on activity, students investigate the biological causes of Maria’s symptoms and Jayden’s symptoms. To explore the causes of these symptoms, students carry out two experiments and interpret the results, and they answer additional analysis and discussion questions.

Students learn about enzyme function and enzyme specificity as they figure out that Maria’s symptoms are due to lactase deficiency (resulting in lactose intolerance) and Jayden’s symptoms are due to sucrase deficiency.

In the final section, students are challenged to generalize their understanding of enzymes to interpret a video of an experiment with saliva, starch and iodine. This activity can be used in an introductory unit on biological molecules or later during a discussion of enzymes.

Download Student Handout: PDF format or Word format

Download Teacher Preparation Notes: PDF format or Word format

These Teacher Notes summarize basic concepts and information related to energy, ATP, cellular respiration, and photosynthesis. These Teacher Notes also review common misconceptions and suggest a sequence of learning activities designed to develop student understanding of important concepts and overcome any misconceptions.

The attached files describe the key concepts, common misconceptions and suggested learning activities (in Word and PDF formats).

Students analyze evidence to evaluate four hypotheses about where a tree’s mass comes from. For example, students analyze Helmont’s classic experiment and evaluate whether his interpretation was supported by his evidence.

Thus, students engage in scientific practices as they learn that trees consist mainly of water and organic molecules and most of the mass of the organic molecules consists of carbon and oxygen atoms that came from carbon dioxide molecules in the air. (NGSS)

The Student Handout is available in the first two attached files and as a Google doc designed for use in distance learning and online instruction. (For additional instructions, see https://serendipstudio.org/exchange/bioactivities/Googledocs, especially item 7.) The Teacher Notes, available in the last two attached files, provide instructional suggestions and background information and explain how this activity is aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards.

In this minds-on activity, students analyze how photosynthesis, cellular respiration, and the hydrolysis of ATP provide energy for biological processes in plant cells.

Students learn that the glucose produced by photosynthesis are used for cellular respiration and for the synthesis of other organic molecules.

The final section challenges students to use their understanding of photosynthesis and cellular respiration to explain observed changes in biomass for plants growing in the light vs. dark.

The Teacher Notes suggest three possible additions to this learning activity. (NGSS)

This analysis and discussion activity helps students to understand the relationships between food, energy, cellular respiration, and changes in body weight. Analysis of a representative scenario helps students to understand how challenging it is to prevent weight gain by exercising to offset what seems to be a relatively modest lunch.

In an optional research project, each student asks an additional question and prepares a report based on recommended reliable internet sources.

The Teacher Notes present a sequence of activities that will help students understand the basic structure and function of proteins and DNA.

To understand how genes influence our characteristics, students learn that different versions of a protein can result in different characteristics, and a gene in the DNA determines which version of a protein is synthesized by a person’s cells.

This information is conveyed through a PowerPoint with a sequence of discussion questions and videos, a Student Handout, and an optional hands-on learning activity. This sequence can be used in an introductory unit on biological molecules or to introduce a unit on molecular biology.

This game reviews introductory chemistry, including organic compounds and chemical reactions. To access the game, open the PowerPoint attachment below; in full screen display, click on the slideshow icon on the right in the bottom bar. Clicking on a number in the gameboard will bring you to a question. When that question has been answered click on the yellow box in the lower right corner and you'll be brought back to the gameboard screen.  Spaces for questions that have already been answered will now appear blank, just like on the TV show. 

 Two ways of organizing the Jeopardy game are recommended in the Teacher Notes available in the second attachment below.