These supplemental activities are intended to introduce students to classic and modern experiments in Cell Biology and Genetics. All of these activities are Open Educational Resources.
Material Type: Homework/Assignment, Lesson, Reading
By the end of this section, you will be able to:Define matter and elementsDescribe the interrelationship between protons, neutrons, and electronsCompare the ways in which electrons can be donated or shared between atomsExplain the ways in which naturally occurring elements combine to create molecules, cells, tissues, organ systems, and organisms
Material Type: Module
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.
Material Type: Full Course
Movement of ions in and out of cells is crucial to maintaining homeostasis within the body and ensuring that biological functions run properly. The natural movement of molecules due to collisions is called diffusion. Several factors affect diffusion rate: concentration, surface area, and molecular pumps. This activity demonstrates diffusion, osmosis, and active transport through 12 interactive models.
Material Type: Data Set, Lecture Notes, Simulation
This online interactive module of 10 pages or frames integrates textual information, 3D molecular models, interactive molecular simulations, and embedded assessment items to guide students in understanding the copying of DNA base sequences from translation to transcription into proteins within each cell. The module divides the exercises in to Day 1 and Day 2 time frames. Teachers can view student assessment responses by assigning the module within a class created within the Molecular Workbench application. This Java-based module must be downloaded to each computer.
Material Type: Simulation
In this simulation activity students mimic the processes of meiosis and fertilization to investigate the inheritance of multiple genes and then use their understanding of concepts such as dominant/recessive alleles, incomplete dominance, sex-linked inheritance, and epistasis to interpret the results of the simulation. This activity can be used as a culminating activity after you have introduced classical genetics, and it can serve as formative assessment to identify any areas of confusion that require additional clarification.
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lesson Plan, Simulation
This activity begins with sections that help students to understand basic principles of genetics, including (1) how genotype influences phenotype via the effects of genes on protein structure and function and (2) how genes are transmitted from parents to offspring through the processes of meiosis and fertilization. Then, a coin flip activity models the probabilistic nature of inheritance and Punnett square predictions; this helps students understand why the characteristics of children in many real families deviate from Punnett square predictions. Additional concepts covered include polygenic inheritance, incomplete dominance, and how a new mutation can result in a genetic condition that was not inherited. This activity helps students meet the Next Generation Science Standards.
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lesson Plan, Simulation
This outline was created to be used by my online Fundamentals of Biology students at West Hills College, Lemoore. It is intended to be used with Concepts of Biology by Open Stax.
Material Type: Lecture Notes, Student Guide
This chapter outline accompanies chapter 16 of OpenStax Concepts of Biology
Material Type: Homework/Assignment, Lecture
This resource includes three classroom-tested activities that were created using the ideas outlined in the article “Getting more out of animations” by Pruneski and Donovan (in press). The driving idea is that animations can be a powerful tool for learning complex biological processes, but when students are passive viewers, it limits their usefulness and may become simply another source of content to be memorized. Engaging students with animations can greatly increase the amount of information that can be extracted and can help students develop important learning skills that can be useful in the future. These sample assignments help make the use of animations more effective and active by structuring student viewing using guiding questions. These questions focus on particular objects, features, or steps of the process to help students accomplish specific learning objectives for that topic. The assignments also help students think about animations as media objects that are created by scientists and animators using specific tools and conventions that affect how the process is depicted and the ways in which it should be viewed. Lastly, by comparing and contrasting multiple animations of the same process, students can extract more information, overcome the limitations of each individual animations, and generate a more complete view of the process.
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Homework/Assignment
This activity is an introduction to meiosis which allows students to understand the basics of meiosis before being given a formal lesson.
Material Type: Activity/Lab
This exercise is useful for students to understand meiosis and compare mitosis and meiosis by positioning chromosomes at the different stages. A worksheet is attached.
Material Type: Activity/Lab
This activity is intended as an exercise in deductive logic. The students perform a series of "experiments" in which they try to identify which predators eat which specific prey (Each predator eats one and only one prey). The instructions are on the site. students may also click on the blue square to make the game full screen. A worksheet is added for students to record their results. This also is an exercise in articulating the logic used in the study. (Most students have no trouble figuring out the relationships). Writing down their results and conclusions is a bit trickier. ) This has been used for community college classes. It can be used at lower levels such as high school or even middle school without the worksheet.
Material Type: Game
Students will draw out a multi-step process and add captions based on OpenStax Biology - Chapter 5 - Structure and Function of Plasma Membranes section 5.4 (bulk transport). This activity is authored by Sara Milillo, Director of Math and Science, Bay Path University.
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lesson Plan
This activity by Lauren Roberts guides students through the process of finding, vetting, summarizing, and citing a scientific article. Professor Roberts is from South Mountain Community College in Arizona's Maricopa Community College District.
Material Type: Activity/Lab
Students can use the following vocabulary word “cards” to make and justify connections between important terms related to OpenStax Biology - Chapter 5 - Structure and Function of Plasma Membranes. This activity authored by Sara Milillo, Director of Math and Science, Bay Path University.
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lesson Plan
This individual or group activity involves reading about the human microbiome, followed by explorations at University of Utah's Genetic Science Learning Center website. It was developed by Ryan Chabarria, Lone Star College- Kingwood; Jennifer Kneafsey, Tulsa Community College; Catherine Parmiter, Estrella Mountain Community College; Natalie Russell, Tarrant County College; and Andrew Tag, Texas A&M University.
Material Type: Activity/Lab
These lecture slides contain open with a scenario, and chapter images, lecture outlines, and brief conceptual overviews. The slides were based on the OpenStax image slides and were developed by Asha Rao, Matthew Aderholt, and Veronica Amaku.
Material Type: Lecture
Instructional video on how DNA binding proteins recognize their target sequences in DNA. Although textbooks describe this process and show illustrations, it is difficult to grasp without seeing a live demonstration. Created for Biology 41 General Genetics at Tufts University.
Material Type: Simulation
