Students are introduced to biofuels, biological engineers, algae and how they grow (photosynthesis), and what parts of algae can be used for biofuel (biomass from oils, starches, cell wall sugars). Through this lesson, plants—and specifically algae—are presented as an energy solution. Students learn that breaking apart algal cell walls enables access to oil, starch, and cell wall sugars for biofuel production. Students compare/contrast biofuels and fossil fuels. They learn about the field of biological engineering, including what biological engineers do. A 20-slide PowerPoint® presentation is provided that supports students taking notes in the Cornell format. Short pre- and post-quizzes are provided. This lesson prepares students to conduct the associated activity in which they make and then eat edible algal cell models.

Biology is designed for multi-semester biology courses for science majors. It is grounded on an evolutionary basis and includes exciting features that highlight careers in the biological sciences and everyday applications of the concepts at hand. To meet the needs of today’s instructors and students, some content has been strategically condensed while maintaining the overall scope and coverage of traditional texts for this course. Instructors can customize the book, adapting it to the approach that works best in their classroom. Biology also includes an innovative art program that incorporates critical thinking and clicker questions to help students understand—and apply—key concepts.

By the end of this section, you will be able to:Describe the basic structure of a typical prokaryoteDescribe important differences in structure between Archaea and Bacteria

By the end of this section, you will be able to:Describe the structure of eukaryotic cellsCompare animal cells with plant cellsState the role of the plasma membraneSummarize the functions of the major cell organelles

By the end of this section, you will be able to:Describe the cytoskeletonCompare the roles of microfilaments, intermediate filaments, and microtubulesCompare and contrast cilia and flagellaSummarize the differences among the components of prokaryotic cells, animal cells, and plant cells

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Plants host a variety of soil microbes on their roots. This root microbiome can affect plants in different ways, including the production of hormones to spur plant growth. In turn, plants also alter the root microbiome, which has been shown to be affected by plant genotype. But it’s been unclear whether the root microbiome is influenced by plant epigenetic factors, which regulate the readouts of genetic information. In the model organism Arabidopsis thaliana, new DNA methylation, an important epigenetic mark, occurs through the RNA-directed DNA methylation (RdDM) pathway. So researchers decided to look for changes in the root microbiota among mutant Arabidopsis plants defective in the canonical RdDM pathway. In the dcl234 triple mutant, which has defects in three Dicer-like proteins that produce small RNAs, the team found an altered microbiome composition. Mutations in other examined parts of the RdDM pathway, however, did not result in changes to the microbiome..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.