Category Archives: IBDP Biology
The 11th Hour – Leo Dicaprio gets his Gore on…
Following on from Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth, Leonardo DiCaprio last year released his environmental call-to-arms, The 11h Hour. And it’s very good. It really knocks home the old proverb that we are not inheriting the Earth from our ancestors, but borrowing it from our children.
Here’s the trailer:
The movie contains contributions from the likes of Stephen Hawking, Nobel-winner Wangari Maathai and David Suzuki. Particularly useful is Gloria Flora‘s sentiment that we all vote, every day – even those who are too young to cast a ballott – by making informed choices about what we consume, spend our money on and throw away.
The first half of the movie is a talking-heads and imagery look at our impacts on the Earth, with plenty of soundbites and starting-points for further discussion. There’s a poitical section in the middle that’s probably worth skipping, but the last section outlining some of the achievable solutions to our problems is excellent.
Now here’s Leo’s video message (including the ‘vote’ quote from Gloria Flora):
For some further reading, go to the 11th hour Action website, or check out An Inconvenient Blog.
For good measure, here’s Linkin Park’s accompanying music video, What I’ve Done (which was also used for Transformers):
Meet The Greens
Meet The Greens is a collection of animated webisodes featuring the Green family dealing with environmental Issues. Granny Green says blog it, so here we are! Go have a look.
Here’s their official blurb:
“MeetTheGreens.org is a new kids’ guide to looking after the planet. Kids can watch The GREENS’ cartoon adventures and discover related green games, news, downloads, a blog, action tips, links, and much more. This innovative, Web-only project comes from WGBH in Boston, the producer of shows like ZOOM, ARTHUR, Frontline & NOVA.“
ReefCheck – International Year of the Reef
2008 is International Year of the Reef (IYOR) and ReefCheck is an organisation devoted to monitoring and protecting the health of reefs around the world. As part of the IYOR activities, ReefCheck have released their Year of the Reef song, and you can see it on their site or on YouTube:
If you head over the to the ReefCheck.org website, you’ll find a wealth of great resources for education and action regarding the reefs. Particularly useful for students may be the WRAS (web reef advisory system), which is a collection of fact sheets on factors impacting reef ecology.
For people with a more active interest in the reefs (and for IB students interested in racking up some CAS credits), check out the EcoAction pages and see what is available there. You might want to get involved in the EcoMonitoring Program and take part in global reef research.
Also, if you hurry, you could get in on the action for the photo contest (closes 31st August).
One of the coolest things (for me, anyway) about ReefCheck is their presence on the Indies Trader, the vessel of the Quiksilver Crossing which is carrying world-class surfers around the globe searching for the best unsurfed waves on the planet. They also get to check out ‘untouched’ reefs in order to create a baseline against which they can compare the order of damage sustained by other reefs. To see some of their highlights, click here.
ActionFiguresTV has a tour of the Indies Trader here:
Now here’s Sebastian from the Little Mermaid singing the best Disney song ever:
The Great Turtle Race
Sea turtles make huge journeys across the Pacific, to and from egg-laying sites. Turtles laying eggs in Indonesia paddle (and use currents) all the way to California to forage for jellyfish, and leatherbacks from Costa Rica travel right down to the south Pacific.
Some researchers have been using GPS technology to track migrations to see if their route is the same each year:
There is even an annual event called The Great Turtle Race (this year is the second – The Olympiad!)
Head on over to their website to find out more about sea turtle conservation and visit some of their links.
There’s even a flash game or two to play, or a sea turtle survival lesson from Bridge: National Marine Educators Association
And, of course, there is a facebook group devoted to the race.
This is all organised by the leatherback trust.
Transport in Angiospermophytes
Don’t forget the useful resources from the Plant and Soil Sciences eLibrary
Mineral uptakes from steve.gb.com
Cell turgor animations from kscience.com
Transport in plants from University of Alberta
Stomata from Terry Brown
Phloem transport from Kellogg
Plant and Soil Sciences eLibrary
With all the webspace devoted to genetics and biotechnology at the moment, it’s great to stumble upon a site that is bringing ‘old school’ Science into the new millenium. Though no-one seems to call it botany any more!
The Plant and Soil Science eLibrary hosts a collection of animations on plant science topics and cell biology that are useful, clear and can be easily downloaded. They are all also available in Spanish and many have pdf help notes for students.
The site is designed primarily for people who wish to earn credit for further studies in crop science and contains such units as plant physiology, crop technology and nutrition technology. There’s even some genetics in there.
Click on the image to see their transpiration example.
Rediscovering Biology – web-based Bio course
Rediscovering Biology is a comprehensive free learning resource that covers 13 different topics- mostly with an emphasis on Biochemistry and Genetics.
Each topic has an introductory video, downloadable texbook, course outline, learning activities and a selection of images and animations in quicktime, which are high-quality. One of the highlights of the site is the selection of immersive case studies. There is also a useful pop-up glossary.
Topics: Genomics, Proteins and Proteomics, Evolution and Phylogenetics, Microbial Diversity, Emerging Infectious Disease, HIV and AIDS, Genetics of Development, Cell Biology and Cancer, Human Evolution, Neurobiology, Biology of Sex and Gender, Biodoversity, Genetically Modified Organisms.
“Girl, It’s Time to Automate” & “The PCR Song”
This was first posted by TheIntersection over at ScienceBlogs.
It seems the latest way to market expensive Science lab toys (by which I mean equipment beyond the reach of your average school), is to produce a cheesy pop video.
Our first example is clearly aimed at the ladies in the lab and has been produced by Eppendorf to sell their automated pipetting system:
The next makes a mockery of cheesy ensemble charity singles and has been made by BioRad to market their PCR equipment:
“I’s amazing what heating and cooling and heating can do-oooo!”
More choice lyrics after the jump.
i-Biology 