Category Archives: Simulations
How to Build Tricky Compounds and Make a Cup of Tea
Have a go at this demo from Presence Multimedia, aimed at A-Level students. It can be saved, is a bit of a challenge and works on the SMART Board.
A simple hunt around their site reveals other educational gems, such as ‘How to Wire a Plug‘, a ‘Personal MOT (good for ATL), and ‘How to Make a Cup of Tea‘.
Yes, you read that correctly – there is a Flash app on the internet to teach you how to make a cup of tea.
How to Wire a Plug
Simple flash app, allows you to blow up a TV. Can be saved easily.
Thanks to hooper from the TES Boards.
A new year, a new beginning (of all life on Earth)
Two short clips of Miller-Urey’s experiments demonstrating the formation of amino acids from water, ammonia and hydrogen (with a little help from lightning). The evidence produced by this experiment supported the hypothesis of chemical evolution – the formation of organic compounds from inorganic molecules.
Thanks to Hilary Rimbi from the IB’s OCC for posting this link. 
A quick Google search turned up this short clip of Stanley Miller describing the experimental set-up.
If you click here, you can also try a simulation of the experiment (can be saved with Flashcatcher). This little Flash was produced by the University of California at San Diego’s TV channel. I haven’t had time to search through their site, but there may be more useful nuggets of Science gold there.
John Kyrk – Cell Biology Animation
This guy has spent a lot of time and effort on these animations, and they are brilliant.
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Visit his main page at www.johnkyrk.com and you’ll find all you need for IB Bio HL Cells and Chemistry of Life.
Toronto Physics – simple flash animations
This resource by David Harrison is simple and user-friendly. Flash animations are easily saved.
Thanks to firrs from the TES Boards for posting the link.
Learn.Genetics @ Utah
Easily the best Genetics resource out there. Loads of Flash animations, Shockwave virtual labs and up-to-date information. Well worth spending some time there and seeing what could be used in class. Teachers can register for news and teaching ideas.
Virtual labs include DNA Extraction, Gel Electrophoresis and a DNA Microarray. Perfect for the DP Genetics unit.
HHMI Biointeractive: teach ahead of the textbook
The Howard Hughes Medical Institute has produced some great, interactive resources for medicine and genetics, including a virtual ELISA test and a transgenic fly virtual lab. Go and have a look – there’re also plenty of animations, though even Flashcatcher can’t save them.
Download a worksheet for the ELISA here.
For a simple mock HIV test (using potassium iodide, lead nitrate and a bit of imaginitive labeling), visit the IB Biology Lab Bank
ACD Labs: Chemsketch – free modelling software
It’s not really a video, but you can build molecular models and make them move around on the screen, so it just about qualifies. It takes a wee while to get used to, but is worth the effort.
Demo videos here. Manuals here.
DP Bio teachers can use it to satisfy the modeling software stipulation of the 4/PSOW form. Enjoy!
EDIT – there is a shareware ($24.95) gif to flv encoder available here. I haven’t found any free software that can convert gif animations to flv files, so if anyone can help out, please let us know.
I have put a simple Chemsketch tutorial on making and animating glycine (word 2007 doc and SMART Board notebook file) in the downloads box on the right of this blog.
EDIT AGAIN:
The joys of Chemsketch are almost limitless. Here is proof: 
3D Body Models from Global 3B Scientific
Models you can manipulate – and the labels come in a range of languages, so ideal fo
r international students trying to learn the content in a foreign language.
You can zoom in and out, highlight different sections and turn it around.
eChalk.com – got any spare e-learning credits?
There are a few good resources here – you can get a 3-day trial for nowt, though resources can’t be saved. There’s a fun Periodic Table Tetris on the site, which can be played without a membership.
If it’s in the budget, might be worth a spend – especially if you have some spare e-learning credits weighing down your e-wallet.
i-Biology 