KoepScience

Typhoid Mary: We talk about her as if she weren't real. But she was. And she was imprisoned against her will - without trial - for decades. Mary Mallon was a young Irish woman trying to make her way in America, doing the best she could at the only job she knew - cooking. Her specialty was frozen desserts - and New York's finest families competed for her skills. She was also an asymptomatic carrier of typhoid, a bacterial disease transmitted through contaminated water or food. When an epidemic o

Cracking the Code of Life is a NOVA episode that chronicles the history of the Human Genome Project. Robert Krulwich hosts, narrates, and interviews Celera's Craig Ventner, NIH head Francis Collins, and MIT's Eric Lander in a series of compelling segments. Students will be taken in by segments featuring families facing Tay-Sachs disease, familial breast cancer, and other inherited disorders. They will also be face with the potential problems of our new abilities to understand and control our ow

Video guide for Bill Nye's Greatest Discoveries in Genetics. From Mendel to drosophila to jumping genes to the double helix to the Human Genome Project - Bill Nye brings the history of genetics to life. He uses actors, historic film, animations, and engaging interviews to make the great breakthroughs of the past 150 years come to life. This Greatest Discoveries video is available on YouTube. This study guide is broken into segments, reflecting the segments in the program. Each asks students to

Introduction For a long time, the most frustrating part of our introductory biology class was our unit on human anatomy. It’s always seemed obvious to teachers that students ought to be interested in that part of biology that was most closely focused on themselves - their own changing bodies. What got in the way was our traditional methods of teaching anatomy and physiology as a series of diagrams and lists. We decided that a different approach could only be better than what was going on. MiniM

Classic Secrets of the Dead episode! There's a direct genetic connection between survivors of 14th century plague epidemics and modern people who are resistant to HIV. This episode tells the story of a modern-day detective tale which combines epidemiology, modern DNA analysis, and old fashioned detective work. The video is available on YouTube, Vimeo, and from online retailors. More info: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/secrets/mystery-black-death-background/1488/

Climate Change - is it real where you live? Tree Cookies have the answer. Each year, the trees around your house or school are making a record of the climate in your area. When there's a lot of rain, they add a think annual ring to their trunks. When it's hot and dry, the ring is thinner. Here's a way to see what's up where you live. Next time you (or someone else) trims trees in the neighborhood, save a few branches, and (safely) cut them into slices. Now, you have tree cookies! Since you

Superbugs. Resistant strains of ordinary bacteria. No longer susceptible to the antibiotics we've come to rely on for decades. Scary stuff. Over-prescription and misuse of antibiotics have been in the news for some time, but a new problem is brought to the forefront in this Frontline documentary. It turns out that most of the antibiotics used in the US are fed to animals as part of their daily ration. Livestock raised in huge factory-style enclosures are sensitive to infections of all types. A

The American population is changing in dramatic ways. Likewise, changing population structures in other countries are driving changes around the world. Food supplies, energy use, climate change: all are consequences of the changing structures of world populations. This activity belongs to a 3-part collection for a week-long population structure investigation using free Internet resources. Be sure to download my PopulationStructure PowerPoint and PopStructureData Excel spreadsheet. The lab se

It's remarkable how little people know about America's vast National Park system. The 59 major and more than 300 smaller units offer wonderful learning opportunities in Biology, Earth Science, Environmental Science, History, and other social sciences. They have also inspired countless works of art. This simple activity works on it own, or can serve as an entry point for deeper investigations into they ways in which our Parks preserve our past, present, and future. Let's go on a trip!

New to AP Biology? Time for the dreaded AP Audit? Here's some help! Here's the outline for a full-year AP Biology course that's been developed over the past 10 years! Sure - the AP people offer lots of advice. Here's an organizational scheme that's been working at my high school for years. Each unit is organized around the Big Ideas adopted by the College Board, as well as their corresponding sets of Knowledge, Understandings, and Skills. For districts requiring curriculum guides organized

Every year trees add layers of wood as they grow. These growth rings preserve a record of the unique chemical and environmental conditions the tree experienced as the growth occurred. Dendrochronology combines the techniques of botany and climatology to reconstruct ancient climates and environments. Methuselah is a bristle cone pine tree living in the White Mountains of California. It is the oldest known living tree in existence. This video tells the story of Methuselah's life, based upon the e

Earth has experienced five major extinction events. This video from the PBS Evolution series explores all five major extinctions, and the implications of each for life as we see it today. The program then looks into the future as we consider the impact of humans as the cause of a sixth extinction - happening right now. This video guide organizes student note taking to focus on the main points of each section. The URL listed connects to the program YouTube site, and the sections of the table co

Cuba: The Accidental Eden is a PBS Nature video offering a look at the largest natural preserve in the Western Hemisphere: Cuba. Yes, Cuba. The long period of isolation from other western countries has resulted in huge expanses of undeveloped habitat, just a few dozen miles south of Florida. The native habitat of the pre-Columbian Caribbean Basin remains largely unexplored, even in the twenty-first century. This stunningly beautiful documentary takes the viewer on a tour of ecosystems ranging

Excel spreadsheet to accompany PopulationStructure activity also available on this site. Automatically calculates survivorship statistics when data regarding deaths in various age groups are entered. Use along with PopulationStructure and PopulationStructure PowerPoint.

From personal DNA analysis to modern medical advances to GMOs to RNAi and CRSPR - it's hard to keep up with advances in modern genetics. It's even harder to know what to teach and how to do it. This lesson features an organizer for a Storify page used in a Biology class I teach. Storify is a media system for organizing online resources on topics of choice. This is a dynamic page, when changes as the stories covered continue to develop. The Storify page organizes a series of current news report

This is the PowerPoint presentation to go along with the PopulationStructure activity available on this site. The slides include teacher background on the questions posed, and uses the format from Lab Report Summary Organizer, also on this site. The spreadsheet utilized is PopStructureData on this site as well.

Shape is everything! Biomolecules interact they way they do because of their unique shapes. If a molecule's shape changes, so does everything it does. Molecular shape is one of the hardest things for students to understand. This activity uses simple models to construct different shapes from the same sets of atoms. It makes use of the Lab Report Summary Organizer, also available from TPT. https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Lab-Report-Summary-Organizer-1915966

Extreme Ice follows a team of glaciologists and film makers around the world as they document the increasing rate continental glacier loss due to climate change. Many of the world's great rivers are able to flow all year only because they are fed by glacial meltwater. When they are gone, so is the water they provide. This activity is an organizer to help students take notes on the film.

A spider that attacks chickens. And how to get a picture of it? SpiderCam - of course! It's lots of fun - very entertaining - but the message of the PBS Nature presentation is the complexity of relationships in a rain forest community dominated by massive Brazil nut trees. Other members include strangler figs, a variety of mammals, birds, and insects. And if one drops out of the system, the system collapses. It's a great story, and a wonderful lesson in ecology. This video guide organizes stu

For many years Dr. Judah Folkman led the search for a new approach to cancer treatment. Rather than use conventional therapies which attempt to kill tumors with radiation, chemicals, or surgery, Dr. Folkman looked for a way to pinpoint tumors and starve them of their blood supply. The treatments developed are called angiostatin drugs. The Cancer Warrior is as much a beautiful story about how science works as it is about the courage shown by patients, their families, and researchers tirelessly