Category Archives: Uncategorized
Lorenzo’s Oil: Grade 11 Review
Lorenzo’s Oil is brilliant for reviewing much of the content of Grade 11, and in particular the Genetics and Biochemistry components of this semester. As you watch, answer the questions on the question sheet.
More ALD resources:
Myelin Project: Augusto Odone’s Website
ALD information page, from the NIH
AccessExcellence questions and ideas for Lorenzo’s Oil
The First Synthetic Lifeform
Here is Craig Venter announcing the successful self-replication of a cell with an entirely synthetic genome:
This is one of the biggest news stories of the year, and time will tell what its implications are. It has been extensively covered in the media, and will surely be a part of school ethics discussions for years to come.The full Science paper is online here.
Search for news stories and resources to help you answer these questions:
1. In what ways is this the first synthetic organism?
2. What were the success criteria for this organism?
3. What failsafes were put in place should the bacterium become widespread?
4. What are some of the potential applications of this new technology?
5. What are some of the ethical implications of synthetic biology? Identify stakeholders in the debate and outline their point of view.
DrosophiLab – Genetics Simulator
- Drosophila buscki
DrosophiLab is a brilliant, free and downloadable piece of software that allows students and teachers to edit fruit flies and carry out crosses. The teacher can use the chromosome editor to set up parent flies of any genotype and there are 20 genes and traits represented, on four chromosomes. This allows for simple monohybrid crosses, sex-linkage, gene linkage and many other combinations – so the problems you set can be differentiated by level. There is also a password-protected teacher setting, to restrict students’ access to results tables and chromosome maps (so they have to work it out for themselves!).
Here are our class resources:
Protocol sheets: DrosophiLab HL, DrosophiLab SL (pdf)
Fly files in this folder: http://www.box.net/shared/dy326rb01d
Chi-Calc (Chi-squared calculator, .xlsx)
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How to catch and observe Drosophila:
Catch Your Own Drosophila, from Access Excellence (lots of resources there)
And this is how you tell the sexes apart:
When trying to observe the flies for real, think about the following questions:
– How are you ensuring ethical treatment of the animals?
– How long would it take to determine the phenotypes of the number of flies you have set for your investigations?
– What difficulties do you encounter when observing the flies?
– What are the limitations or sources of error that might affect the reliability of your results?
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Why are fruit flies so important in science?
Science loves fruit flies, and there was even a fruit fly Nobel awarded in 1995 for studies in embryonic development. This links neatly to the assessment statements regarding the differentiation of cells through expression of different genes.
- Fly!
Fruit fly cells are relatively easily observed, and Drosophila makes for an ideal model organism for Mendelian genetics as it has a short life cycle, reproduces quickly and is easily phenotyped.
There is a biography of fruit flies called Fly: An Experimental Life, by Martin Brookes, and you can find out more about the Drosophila genome at http://www.fruitfly.org/.
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Image sources:
Drosophila buscki from Journal of Endocrinology
Fruit fly graphic and DrosophiLab banner from DrosophiLab
NewScientist TV
Remember when NewScientist had the five-minute weekly vodcasts and then they stopped? Well now they’re back in a monthly round-up called NewScientistTV! Subscribe to these and watch each month’s episode – what connections can you make with the IB Biology course?
Here is May’s episode:
Illusion Contest 2010: Winners
The annual Illusion Of The Year Contest winners are featured on NewScientist.com. They give a god insight into how our brain processes visual stimuli and look really cool at the same time. Here is the winner:
Cool sinusoids
One of my favourites is this flash animation of waveforms with toggles to control what you focus on. Try it!
All of the illusions (from 2010 and before) are online here:
Six minutes of reasons to love Indonesia
Absolutely nothing to do with Biology or Science, but nice to watch in the midst of exam stress. Starring a former BIS student (go David), here is Inspiring Indonesia:
A2: Energy in Human Diets
This is a deceptively expansive subtopic, covering food energy, effects of high-energy diets, cultural diets, obesity and anorexia. The presentation has much more information than you need, but the links to health issues are there and worth paying attention to.
Class presentation with loads of video and animation links (click on the shadowed images):
You can watch the whole of Super Size Me online at GoogleVideo, and use this question sheet as you watch. You will need to do some further research. BIS Students, don’t waste the bandwidth – watch it on the network.
Stem Cell Foundation: Rock Stars of Science
This is a moving clip from the StemCellFoundation, and their channel has lots of decent, informative video clips. Check it out.
How We Wrecked The Oceans – Jeremy Jackson at TED
In another great (but more than a little worrying) talk from TED 2010, Jeremy Jackson (coral reef ecologist, not star of Baywatch), gives a picture of the real state of the oceans, and the massive damages we as a species have caused.
Components of the Human Diet
As always, click on the shadowed images to be taken to links, including original research papers, videos and a really good document from the WHO.
After watching the Jamie Oliver TED talk, get working on the quiz and activities on Moodle.
Jamie Oliver’s TED Wish: Teach All Kids About Nutrition.
i-Biology 