Blog Archives
Lyrical Science: Good Riddance (to excess end products)
A sing-along-a-Biology song, for end-product inhibition of metabolic pathways, based on Green Day’s “Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life)“. Put the audio track on and sing along, karaoke-style.
For more Lyrical Science madness & how-to, click here.
Cell Division (mitosis) and Tumours
The presentation has been updated to include a lot more information on tumours – though it is not all essential for the exams, it is a good health class and an introduction to some degree-level cellular biology concepts. There are loads of links to videos and animations if you click on the shadowed images.
Essential Biology 2.5: Cell Division (mitosis)
Here’s a lovely mitosis video:
The Biology Song & Lyrical Science
I love this song. “There are seven things it needs to survive”:
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Inspired by the Stanford biologists, I’m looking for popular songs to butcher into biological themes. The process of taking one of your favourite songs and twisting it into a factually-sound academic re-write can be a great way to consolidate key concepts, especially for the musically intelligent. It takes more than just recall of the facts – you have to force yourself to understand the topic in order to write a decent song. To make the song make sense, you need a good grasp of the content and you must use the key terms correctly.
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Ideas so far –
- An IB Biology version of “Apoptize” (One Republic’s ‘Apologize‘) (completed – click here)
- “One Gene, One Protein“, after “No Woman, No Cry“
- “Don’t Divide Even“, after The Script’s “Break Even” (completed – click here)
- “I Will Divide,” after Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive” (have a go – click here)
- “ACE, ACE Inhibitors“, based on Vanilla Ice’s “Ice, Ice Baby“
- Endangered Species song for “Numb/Encore” by LP and Jay-Z
- “Hormones“, after Jason Mraz’s “I’m Yours“
- “Good Riddance (to excess end products)“, based on Green Day’s “Good Riddance (Time of Your life)” (completed – click here)
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For some more reading on how making use of Musical Intelligence can aid in learning across the curriculum:
- “The Effect of Music on Second Language Vocab Acquisition” from ESL Through Music
- “Promoting Literacy Through Music” from Songs for Teaching (Resources here: Science page)
- “Singing In Science: Writing and Recording Student Lyrics to Express Learning” from the University of California. Here’s Tomcfad demonstrating this technique with an elementary earth science class:
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My big question: Has there been any research on the effectiveness of different styles of music in relation to age group, cultural background or musical preference?
Many of the bought-resources seem to based on country songs or old songs – how well does that translate to a modern teen audience in an international or urban setting?
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If you’ve got any cool ideas (the more complex, the better), or any comments on the use of music as a learning tool, please post them below!
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Headphones image from: http://blog.timesunion.com/capitol/archives/date/2008/page/5/
The Immune System – Phagocytosis and Clonal Selection
Here are some very clear clips for the immune responses to infection, starting with a really well done explanation of Burnet’s Nobel-winning clonal selection theory:
If you like that, check out some more of the videos from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research.
Try this animation and quiz: McGraw Hill Online Centre
And another Nobel-winner, the cellular response from CancerResearch.org
Clonal Selection
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Phagocytosis in action:
Neutrophil (phagocyte) chasing a bacterium:
The humoral, though not funny, response – from the LifeWire
How does the leukocyte know where to go? Chemotaxis – from Wisc-online
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Once you’re sure of how it all works, can you narrate this medical animation?
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And for another of the body’s defenses: Natural Killer Cells
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Loads more links to clips at North Harris College.
Membranes
Membranes – much more than a sheet covering the cell. If you can understand the relevance of the fluidity of the membrane, the various roles the plasma membrane plays and the structures which allow it to do so, you’re well on the way to making the connections needed across the curriculum. And then there’s membrane transport…
Click on the shadowed images in the presentation to be taken to (many) animations and videos:
Essential Biology 2.4: Membranes
For lots more animations on cell strucure and function and cell transport, visit North Harris College.
Prokaryotes and Eukaryotes
Essential Biology 2.2 Prokaryotes
Click4Biology Prokaryotes
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MrT’s terrible pun:
If you get salmonella from a 3 day-old bacon sandwich, does that mean you’ve contracted a porkaryote?
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Essential Biology 2.3 Eukaryotes
Click4Biology Eukaryotes
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BioCoach Cell Structure and Function topic
The Biology Project Cell Biology page
Wiley Science tutorial (Flash)
Bacterial growth populations from umich.edu
Don’t forget the great resources at Learn.Genetics.
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Review quiz on Quia: Cell Theory, Prokaryotes and Eukaryotes. (for my class only)
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And here’s a nice timelapse of bacterial growth:
Here’s a story of a giant bacterium, from NotExactlyRocketScience
Reproduction: Core and AHL
Here is the presentation for the Core content – Grade 9’s, you can look too, as we’re on this unit in HPD! There are tons of videos and animations out there about reproduction – many are linked in the presentations, so click on the shadowed images to watch them.
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And here is the AHL presentation, including spermatogenesis, oogenesis, hcg, hormonal control of birth.
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Standard Level students Essential Biology 6.6 Reproduction (Click4Biology)
Higher Level students Essential Biology 6.6 & 11.4 Reproduction (Click4Biology)
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Here are the Pythons with their birth sketch:
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And some BioEthics cases on IVF:
Australasian bioethics special: IVF
Journal of Medical Ethics: State of the Debate
BBC Cell Series
Dr Adam Rutherford presents Cell, a three-part series on the history and great discoveries in cell biology. WhyEvolutionIsTrue has HD-quality full episodes here:
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ToK issues and ideas of academic honesty abound in the series.
What is life and where does it come from?
How do we know that living things are made of cells?
What motivated (and still motivates) the great discoveries?
How and why did Virchow plagiarise Remak’s work on cell division?
What are the ethics of new and future developments in cell biology?
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*More downloads also available from RapidShare.
Enzymes, Core and AHL/Option C
One great enzymatic dollop, for the core content and AHL/ SL Option C. Make sure you use this theory in your write-ups, can relate the action of enzymes to their structure as proteins and look for examples of enzymes in action throughout the course.
Essential Biology 3.6 & 7.6/C2: Enzymes
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Check out this article on the potential use of an enzyme in second-generation biofuels.
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Enzyme Basics:
What is an enzyme? from Northland (the best one – including inhibitors, pathways and feedback inhibition)
How enzymes work from McGraw Hill
Enzyme basics from KScience.co.uk
A full collection of savable enzyme animations from Husam Medical
And John Giannini’s Enzyme collection is nice and clear.
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Enzyme activity and kinetics
Nice virtual lab from KScience.co.uk
Enzyme kinetics from Wiley Interscience
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Denaturation:
Protein denaturation from McGraw Hill
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Inhibition
Complete tutorial from Wiley Interscience
What is an enzyme? from Northland
Feedback (end product) inhibition from McGraw Hill
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And here’s a quick run down on YouTube:
The Transport System (Core)
The Transport System (Core)
Essential Biology 6.2: The Transport System (Core)
Click4Biology page here.
And loads of useful links from North Harris College.
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The Cardiac Cycle:
Hyper Heart animation and graphs from the Chinese University of Hong Kong
Biointeractive from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Control of the Heart Beat:
A few good links to try from Washburn Rural High School
And don’t forget the Medmovie resource…
Atherosclerosis and Coronary Heart Disease:
Medmovie has good animations for atherosclerosis, heart attacks and heart bypass surgery. There aren’t many that are better…
i-Biology 