activities for teaching biology

Analysis and discussion questions develop student understanding of negative and positive feedback and homeostasis.

For example, students develop a model of negative feedback regulation of body temperature; this model includes a temperature control center in the brain that uses information about differences between a setpoint and actual body temperature to regulate sweating, shivering, and changes in blood flow to the skin.

The setpoint for negative feedback can be changed; for example, in response to an infection the temperature setpoint can be increased, resulting in a fever.

Negative feedback contributes to homeostasis.

Sometimes negative feedback does not function properly; for example, diabetes results from abnormalities in negative feedback regulation of blood glucose levels.

Finally, students analyze how positive feedback contributes to rapid change (e.g., rapid formation of a platelet plug).

In this analysis and discussion activity, students learn how food production contributes to the release of three greenhouse gases – carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), and nitrous oxide (N2O).

Students use biological concepts (e.g. trophic pyramids) to interpret data concerning the very different amounts of greenhouse gases released during the production of specific types of food.

Finally, students propose, research, and evaluate strategies to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases that will be released during future production of food for the world’s growing population.

The Student Handout is available in the first two attached files. 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 analysis and discussion activity, students learn about stem cells, cell differentiation, and how epigenetic changes and transcription factors contribute to cell differentiation. These concepts are introduced as students analyze how the body makes red blood cells.

During this activity, students review aspects of transcription and translation, mitosis, and the functions of organelles.

Students learn about the effects of UV light, mutations and DNA repair on the survival of prokaryotes and the risk of skin cancer. In the first experiment, students evaluate the effects of different durations of UV exposure on survival and population growth of Haloferax volcanii. This experiment also tests for photorepair of DNA damage. Students design the second experiment, which evaluates the effectiveness of sunscreen. In addition, students answer analysis and discussion questions that promote their understanding of molecular biology, cancer, and the interpretation of experimental results. 

In the first section of this analysis and discussion activity, students learn that different versions of a gene give the instructions for making different versions of a clotting protein, which result in normal blood clotting or hemophilia.

Next, students learn how genes provide the instructions for making a protein via the processes of transcription and translation. They develop an understanding of the roles of RNA polymerase, the base-pairing rules, mRNA, tRNA and ribosomes.

Finally, students use their learning about transcription and translation to understand how a change in a single nucleotide in the hemoglobin gene can result in sickle cell anemia.

Throughout this activity, students use the information in brief explanations, figures and videos to answer analysis and discussion questions.

This activity can be used to introduce students to transcription and translation or to reinforce and enhance student understanding. 

If you prefer a hands-on activity that uses simple paper models to simulate the molecular processes of transcription and translation, see “How Genes Can Cause Disease – Introduction to Transcription and Translation” (http://serendipstudio.org/sci_edu/waldron/#trans).

To begin this hands-on, minds-on activity, students view a video about changes in the ecosystem that resulted when wolves were eliminated from Yellowstone National Park and decades later returned to Yellowstone. Students learn about food chains and food webs, and they construct and analyze a food web for Yellowstone. Then, students use what they have learned to understand a trophic cascade caused by the elimination of wolves from Yellowstone.

Next, students learn that the biosphere requires a continuous inflow of energy, but does not need an inflow of carbon atoms. To understand why, students apply fundamental principles of physics to photosynthesis, cellular respiration, and biosynthesis, the processes which result in carbon cycles and energy flow through the biosphere.

Finally, students use the concepts they have learned to understand trophic pyramids and phenomena such as the relative population sizes for wolves vs. elk in Yellowstone. Thus, students learn how ecological phenomena result from processes at the molecular, cellular, and organismal levels.

In this analysis and discussion activity, students figure out how mutations and natural selection have resulted in matches between the fur colors of populations of rock pocket mice and their environments.

Next, students view a video that presents relevant research findings, and students answer the embedded multiple-choice questions.

Then, students answer multiple questions and analyze several scenarios to enhance their understanding of mutations and natural selection.

The Student Handout is available in the first two attached files and as a Google doc designed for use in online instruction and distance learning. 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.

This analysis and discussion activity engages students in understanding how biological communities remain stable and how they change during ecological succession.

Students analyze several types of research evidence, including (1) repeated observations of a biological community to assess stability or change over time, (2) analyses of dated fossils in a peat bog, and (3) analyses of how mutualism, competition and trophic relationships contribute to stability or change in biological communities.

Students use this evidence to understand the causes of stability and succession in a variety of habitats, including a tropical forest, a new volcanic island, abandoned farm fields, and ponds. Students also analyze the effects of climate and non-native invasive plants.

The Student Handout is available in the first two attached files and as a Google doc designed for use in online instruction. The Teacher Notes, available in the third and fourth attached files, provide background information and instructional suggestion and explain how this activity is aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards. A PowerPoint with illustrations of each habitat is available in the last attachment.

This analysis and discussion activity engages students in understanding the lifecycle and adaptations of black-legged ticks and the relationships between these ticks, their vertebrate hosts, and the bacteria that cause Lyme disease.

Students use this background to analyze when and where human risk of Lyme disease is greatest, why rates of Lyme disease have increased in recent decades in the US, and ecological approaches to preventing Lyme disease.

In this hands-on, minds-on activity, students use model chromosomes and answer analysis and discussion questions to learn how a child inherits one copy of each gene from each parent via the processes of meiosis and fertilization.

Students first analyze how the processes of meiosis and fertilization result in the alternation between diploid and haploid cells in the human lifecycle.

Students analyze the results of crossing over and independent assortment to learn how meiosis produces gametes with millions of gametes with millions of different combinations of alleles.

As they model meiosis and fertilization, students follow the alleles of a human gene from the parents' body cells through gametes to zygotes. Thus, students learn how a person inherits one copy of each gene from each of his/her parents.

They learn how the possible outcomes of meiosis and fertilization are summarized in a Punnett square.

A final brief section contrasts sexual reproduction with asexual reproduction.

This activity can be used to introduce meiosis and fertilization or to review these processes. (NGSS)

Download Student Handout: PDF format or Word format