In this activity students learn about the life cycles of many aquatic insects and then on a fieldtrip collect and analyze samples of pond life.
This activity is designed to help students learn common names of pond life in Minnesota. To be most effective students should make a visit to the pond before participating in this activity.
Using Avida-ED freeware, students control a few factors in an environment populated with digital organisms, and then compare how changing these factors affects population growth. They experiment by altering the environment size (similar to what is called carrying capacity, the maximum population size that an environment can normally sustain), the initial organism gestation rate, and the availability of resources. How systems function often depends on many different factors. By altering these factors one at a time, and observing the results, students are able to clearly see the effect of each one.
This lesson is the second of two that explore cellular respiration and population growth in yeasts. In the first lesson, students set up a simple way to indirectly observe and quantify the amount of respiration occurring in yeast-molasses cultures. Based on questions that arose during the first lesson and its associated activity, in this lesson students work in small groups to design experiments that will determine how environmental factors affect yeast population growth.
This activity is a field exploration where students observe, record and share their findings of plant and animal life on the prairie.
This resource shows the interaction between the Canadian lynx (a predator) and the snowshoe hare (prey). This simulation lets you observe changes in hypothetical populations of lynx and hares over multiple generations to demonstrate the interconnectedness of the two species in an ecosystem.
Subject provides a comprehensive overview of human pathology with emphasis on mechanisms of disease and modern diagnostic technologies. Topics include: general mechanisms of disease (inflammation, infection, immune injury, host response to foreign materials, transplantation, genetic disorders and neoplasia); pathology of lipids, enzymes, and molecular transporters; pathology of major organ systems; and review of diagnostic tools from invasive surgical pathology to non-invasive techniques such as optical spectroscopy, functional imaging, and molecular markers of disease. The objectives of this subject are achieved by a set of integrated lectures and laboratories, as well as a student-driven term project leading to a formal presentation on a medical, socioeconomic, or technological issue in human pathology.
This course serves as a description and critical assessment of the major issues and stages of developing a pharmaceutical or biopharmaceutical. Topics covered include drug discovery, preclinical development, clinical investigation, manufacturing and regulatory issues considered for small and large molecules, and economic and financial considerations of the drug development process. A multidisciplinary perspective is provided by the faculty, who represent clinical, life, and management sciences. Various industry guests also participate.
Covers current understanding of and modern approaches to human disease, emphasizing the molecular and cellular basis of both genetic disease and cancer. Specific topics include the genetics of simple and complex traits; Karyotypic analysis and positional cloning; genetic diagnosis; the roles of oncogenes and tumor suppressors in tumor initiation, progression and treatment; the interaction between genetics and environment; animal models of human disease; cancer; and conventional and gene therapy treatment strategies.
This Scientific Writing Manual guides students through the process of writing a college-level lab report, poster presentation, and other assignments specific to the UW-Madison Biocore program. This is the first component of what will soon be a three-part textbook called The Process of Science Companion.
(Please stay tuned for the expanded and updated textbook link once the statistics primer and additional resources are also complete!)
Because students are often able to learn about genre conventions more effectively when they have models to refer to, Dr. Batzli and Dr. Harris also include annotated examples of strong student writing. They also provide models of weak hypotheses, titles, and other forms of writing and outline how to make them stronger.
Excerpts from this writing manual may be of use to students in courses outside of UW-Madison Biocore program. The assignment descriptions and rubrics may be useful for instructors who are looking for materials to adapt to their own teaching contexts.
Project Budburst is a national network of people monitoring plants as the seasons change. Data is collected in a consistent manner across the country so that scientists can learn more about the responsiveness of plant species to changes in climate locally, regionally, and nationally. The website includes extensive educational resources for implementing the project within various classroom and informal settings.
Biodiversity is a shortened form of the term "biological diversity." The entire spectrum of life forms and the many ecological processes support them. Wisconsin is blessed with abundant biodiversity. Located at the junction of the eastern deciduous forest, northern boreal forest and temperate grasslands, we have a wealth of species and natural communities.
Approximately 1,800 species of native plants and close to 700 species of native vertebrates have been identified in Wisconsin. In addition, there are thousands of species of non-vascular plants and invertebrates. These pages highlight the uncommon and rare species, natural communities, geological features and essential habitat areas throughout Wisconsin.
Watch how NJ high school students apply basic principles of molecular biology to solve real research problems, and publish their own genome research at GenBank, the international genomic sequence database.
Power point notes to teach Medallian Genetics specifically Complete Dominance and creating Punnett Squares.
Subject assesses the relationships between sequence, structure, and function in complex biological networks as well as progress in realistic modeling of quantitative, comprehensive functional-genomics analyses. Topics include: algorithmic, statistical, database, and simulation approaches; and practical applications to biotechnology, drug discovery, and genetic engineering. Future opportunities and current limitations critically assessed. Problem sets and project emphasize creative, hands-on analyses using these concepts.
This movie shows red-necked phalarope feeding behavior. The phalarope, indigenous to western North America, swims in circles to create a vortex to bring small crustaceans to the surface. The bird then uses its beak to draw food-rich water into its mouth, but until now, no one knew how. Using a mechanical model of the phalarope beak, researchers at MIT and their colleagues from Ecole Polytechnique in Paris recently discovered how the birds use surface interactions between their beaks and the water droplets to propel bits of food from beak tip to mouth
In this video segment adapted from NOVA, learn about the critical role of flowers in seed plant reproductive biology.
This site examines misconceptions about herps (the collective name given to reptiles and amphibians), how herps have been viewed throughout history, and how reptiles and amphibians are similar to and different from one another.
This activity is a field investigation where students gather data, draw detailed diagrams, and write descriptions about living organisms and non-living things seen in a small school ground area.
The students will participate in listening and discussing the story, Under One Rock: Bugs, Slugs, and Other Ughs, by Anthony D. Fredericks and illustrated by Jennifer DiRubbio. On the following day, we will explore our nearby forest searching for some of the animals mentioned in the story. For the third day of this lesson, the students will share what they have written and drawn in their nature journals from the previous day's walk.