BCC Bioscience Image Library is a media file repository of images and video clips made available to educators and students in the biological sciences. The resources are created by faculty, staff and students of Berkshire Community College and are licensed under Creative Commons 0. This means all content is free, with no restrictions on how the material may be used, reused, adapted or modified for any purposes, without restriction under copyright or database law.

This project was partially funded by a $20,000,000 grant awarded by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration, Grant # TC-26450-14-60-A-25. The product was created by the grantee and does not necessarily reflect the official position of the U.S. Department of Labor. The U.S. Department of Labor makes no guarantees, warranties, or assurances of any kind, express or implied, with respect to such information, including any information on linked sites and including, but not limited to, accuracy of the information or its completeness, timeliness, usefulness, adequacy, continued availability, or ownership.

If you have any questions contact professor Faye Reynolds at: freynold@berkshirecc.edu

A year long field study of a deciduous tree and its interdependence through phenology.

In this MS/HS unit supported by NASA, students engage with online interactives, authentic datasets, and citizen science protocols to construct models and explanations for the unit driving question, "How do landscapes recover after a wildfire?"

This online article, from Biodiversity Counts, is a guide to finding local specialists who are knowledgeable about plants and arthropods. It includes: an overview of how local specialists can be of help; a link to the Directory of Local Specialists, a list of specialists who have agreed to work with participating schools; a list of additional organizations, with links to Web sites, that are good sources for local specialists; tips on how to find local specialists from Linda Beyt, a middle school teacher in Louisiana and a Biodiversity Counts mentor; and tips for enlisting volunteers by Karen Spaulding, a middle school teacher in Massachusetts and a Biodiversity Counts mentor.

In this life science field investigation students will study golden rod gall populations within a patch of goldenrods.

Students will follow the scientific method for self discovery of the nature of the land around the school to then determine as a class what plants and grasses would flourish in the area.

This activity is an investigation to determine the effect of soil type on plant growth. The students will develop an understanding of the plant as producer.

BCC Bioscience Image Library is a media file repository of images and video clips made available to educators and students in the biological sciences. The resources are created by faculty, staff and students of Berkshire Community College and are licensed under Creative Commons 0. This means all content is free, with no restrictions on how the material may be used, reused, adapted or modified for any purposes, without restriction under copyright or database law.

This project was partially funded by a $20,000,000 grant awarded by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration, Grant # TC-26450-14-60-A-25. The product was created by the grantee and does not necessarily reflect the official position of the U.S. Department of Labor. The U.S. Department of Labor makes no guarantees, warranties, or assurances of any kind, express or implied, with respect to such information, including any information on linked sites and including, but not limited to, accuracy of the information or its completeness, timeliness, usefulness, adequacy, continued availability, or ownership.

If you have any questions contact Professor Faye Reynolds at: freynold@berkshirecc.edu

In this biology investigation, students will make observations of the growth of bean seeds to determine what plants need to live and grow in a healthy way.

This activity is an in class lab where students will compare different acid solutions on seed germination and growth.

Medicinal & Edible Plants of Montana Used by Indigenous Peoples and Early Settlers
This new Special Topics course is open to all university students in the spring 2017 semester. As a Special Topics course the numbering reflects upper division credit, but no pre-requisites are required, allowing students in a variety of disciplines to enroll. The course begins by providing a content vocabulary that consists of plant, habitat, ecoregion, and cultural terminology. Teaching with the assumption that non-biology students enroll, terms are presented and learned in a hands-on context that requires no previous understanding of biology. For example, basic plant structure is presented through simple flower dissection and “Structure Jeopardy”, a fun and interactive approach that allows students to earn points while testing literacy. Students work together in small groups (3) to collect voucher specimens of medicinal and edible plants in which the group is most interested. For native students, it is anticipated that selections may be based on traditional uses. During this process, students develop specimen collection and processing skills that allow them to acquire marketable techniques used in herbaria throughout the world. These same groups collect specific medicinal and edible plant material (e.g., roots) for their plants, drying and preparing the material in the manner most often used. For example, roots used as flour substitutes are presented whole as well as in a ground state. Groups, working closely with the professor, learn methods on how to research collection records, find habitat information, and develop geolocation skills, all of which ensure success in locating material. Students in each group also learn to perform peer-reviewed scientific literature searches that provide the most current research and knowledge on culturally important medicinal and edible plants. As individuals, students are required to gather information through discussion with family or community members on plant uses, thereby forming relationships between the broader community and course knowledge. Students are also encouraged, through literature or community involvement, to explore native or colloquial names for specific plants and to determine if these terms relate to cultural uses. Working with the professor, students learn presentation skills as each group or individual present the information they have learned using Power Point. Interactive laboratories exercises provide information and practices on good methodology and mock sessions with the instructor afford powerful feedback prior to classroom presentation. As available, local and indigenous guest lecturers provide interactive and personal experiences that aid to ensure student retention of course material.

This lesson is a classroom and field-based activity where students learn about the parts of a flower through observation, journaling, and Observation.

Global exploration in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries radically changed Western science, orienting philosophies of natural history to more focused fields like comparative anatomy, botany, and geology. In the United States, European scientific advances and home-grown ventures like the Wilkes Exploring Expedition to Antarctica and the Pacific inspired new endeavors in cartography, ethnography, zoology, and evolutionary theory, replacing rigid models of thought and classification with more fluid and active systems. They inspired literary authors as well. This class will examine some of the most remarkable of these authors—Herman Melville (Moby-Dick and “The Encantadas”), Henry David Thoreau (Walden), Sarah Orne Jewett (Country of the Pointed Firs), Edith Wharton (House of Mirth), Toni Morrison (A Mercy), among others—in terms of the subjects and methods they adopted, imaginatively and often critically, from the natural sciences.

BIODIDAC is a rich collection of over 6,000 diagrams (most in black and white and some in colour) and photographs related to organismal biology and histology (specimens, dissections, and microscopic images). Some images are grouped by sets and include annotations. / BIODIDAC est une vaste collection de plus de 6 000 diagrammes (la plupart en noir et blanc et certains en couleur) et photographies liés à la biologie des organismes et à l'histologie (spécimens, dissections et images microscopiques). Certaines images sont regroupées et contiennent des annotations.

The lesson is designed for fourth grade students using scientific investigation to identify and compare the basic parts of a plant and animal cells. This activity consists of several steps over a period of several days. It includes student use of microscopes for observations and journals to collect data to identify and classify the basic parts of plant and animal cells. The assessment has an individual component and uses student work.

The curriculum builds upon many years of educating our students in the garden and scales up content across grades and lessons for instructional scaffolding. It is designed as an interactive teaching tool to be co-taught with classroom teachers and garden instructors as leads. Each lesson connects directly to standards: Next Generation Science, Common Core State, Physical Education, and Environmental and Health Education. Our concise and easy-to-follow lessons are a packed 45 minutes for preschool through fifth grade. Flexibility is important to us, so some lessons include several activities that teachers can choose from to accommodate their lesson plans. Consistency is also important, so we follow themes and lesson structure found in the Curriculum Map.

Life is all around us, both as multicellular organisms such as the iguana and bamboo above, as well as the unicellular microorganisms such as bacteria.  Life is present on every continent, in the air and in the waters of the world.  There is life even in the Mariana Trench, seven miles below the surface of the ocean.  As of 2010 biologists have described and classified 1.7 million plants and animals, and estimate that there are till over five million species still undiscovered.This chapter will introduce the ways we study the science of Biology in the twenty-first century, the characteristics of living organisms and their classification.

This activity is a bioassay lab where students tested the effect of an environmental toxin (fertilizer) on the growth rate of Duckweed.

The curriculum builds upon many years of educating our students in the garden and scales up content across grades and lessons for instructional scaffolding. It is designed as an interactive teaching tool to be co-taught with classroom teachers and garden instructors as leads. Each lesson connects directly to standards: Next Generation Science, Common Core State, Physical Education, and Environmental and Health Education. Our concise and easy-to-follow lessons are a packed 45 minutes for preschool through fifth grade. Flexibility is important to us, so some lessons include several activities that teachers can choose from to accommodate their lesson plans. Consistency is also important, so we follow themes and lesson structure found in the Curriculum Map.

What do plants eat? This unit explores plants and how they make food.