The Great Barrier Reef: An Obituary
The Great Barrier Reef: An Obituary. This haunting multimedia Guardian piece could be a perfect provocation for a unit.
In the current age of environmental destruction it can be difficult to keep paying attention to the news. But some stories stand out as being real alarm bells, and this very sad piece on the iconic barrier reef highlights a lot of purely human-caused issues. To add to the misery, now the reef is under further threat from destructive dredging and dumping… to make way for shipping lanes for coal mining in Australia. #EpicFail.
MrT’s students: note the image above has a caption and links back to the original source, not to an image hosted on my WordPress. Make sure your writing does the same.
Ed Yong’s TED Talk: Suicidal crickets, zombie roaches and other parasite tales
“Are there any parasites that are influencing our behaviour without us knowing it?”
When I started this blog back in 2007, Ed Yong was a fledgling science writer gaining an audience with his Not Exactly Rocket Science wordpress blog; clear and engaging online articles that opened up primary research to a wider audience. You’ll find many links to his writing throughout this site, connecting the concepts of the IB Biology course to current science and ‘the wow beat’. He has since had a book and is resident at NatGeo’s Phenomena Salon, after moving through Science Blogs and Discover.
He continues to inspire me as a writer and this week he gave his TED Talk, a funny and fact-packed tour of the sinister side of parasites. Enjoy! You will even be able to find some links out to further reading and references.
If you don’t already, you should subscribe to the Phenomena blogs, and if you’re a teacher or student whose schedule are as packed a mine, I highly recommend Ed’s weekly ‘Missing Links‘ roundup of science news and writing – they make for my Sunday morning reading!
Can you solve this?
Have a go at this – pause at 1:30 and get chatting before moving on! Another great video by Derek Muller (@veritasium), and will be useful in discussions of the scientific method, hypothesis testing and the nature of science.
A no is usually more useful than a yes…
Getty Image Library has been set free
This is big news this week for teachers and students who need media for their online projects. Getty, the giant photo agency, have opened up their library for free use as long as you use their embed tool.
This is timely as we think more carefully about Approaches to Learning in the MYP and DP, in particular Media and Information Literacy clusters and the skills of accessing and appropriately using information from other sources.
Here’s an example:
Cool!
Infested! Living with Parasites
Check this out, from the BBC. Dr Michael Mosley has himself infected with various parasites, including this big tapeworm, for our edutainment.
Full episode on BB iPlayer (limited time): Here.
Here’s a leech, for fun.
Socrative Space Race (beta)
Quick update to the Socrative Space Race page: some new cards to use with the beta version.
Updated space race cards for beta.socrative.com
30-Minute Inquiry: Base-substitution mutations
This has worked well (and been fun) as a topic review, way to make use of databases (ICT in IBBio requirement) and make connections as we.
Question: What do HBB, PAH, PKD1, NF1, CFTR, Opn1Mw and HEXA have in common?
Concepts: Structure vs Function; Universality & Diversity.
The set-up:
- Assign groups by handing out cards with the codes above (we had already studied HBB, so didn’t include it) and asking them to find each other.
- Give them the instructions – to produce a simple poster & 1-minute overview of their disorder, using the guidance in the image below.
- Go. Lots of discussion, lots of questioning. If students get stuck, they need to look it up, evaluate their sources and keep on going.
- Students will need to use the NCBI gene database to get going: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/gene
Check they’re on the right track: HBB (sickle cell), PAH (PKU), PKD1 (polycystic kidney disease), NF1 (neurofibromatosis), CFTR (cystic fibrosis), Opn1Mw (medium-wave sensitive colour-blindness), HEXA (Tay-Sachs disease). They are all disorders causes by base-substitution mutations.
After 30 minutes:
- Groups present to the class what they have found.
- As the class sharing continues, ask questions based on connections:
- What similarities and differences do we see?
- What are the normal functions of these genes and how does this connect to our understanding of proteins, channels, pumps, etc.
Three Million Views on i-Biology!
i-Biology.net recently passed three million views!
Biology4Good: click to find out more.
Thank-you everyone for the support over the last six and a half years, and especially to those who have been showing your appreciation by making donations to my chosen charities through the Biology4Good lists on JustGiving; we have raised GB£3,415.86 so far (US$5626.95), which is great and helps all this work make a difference beyond the classroom.
If you want to make a donation, please visit the Biology4Good page for more information. 100% of all donations go to the charity (not to me), and the donation can be enhanced with GiftAid if you are a UK taxpayer.
With best wishes for 2014 to all i-Biology.net users,
Stephen.
i-Biology 