This fun Web site is part of OLogy, where kids can collect virtual trading cards and create projects with them. Here, they explore the Tree of Life cladogram. The site begins with a brief explanation of cladograms and how the Tree of Life shows the relationship of all living things on Earth. A cladogram of fruit is used to demonstrate on a small scale how scientists use this tool to understand how things are similar and different. A portion of the Tree of Life cladogram is included, showing true bacteria, arthropods, mammals, and 11 other important groups of species. Students can mouse over the branching points to see what the subsets have in common. The site also includes a pie chart view that compares the relative size of the most important groups of species. Students can click on each group to learn its characteristics, known species, size range, and other important details.

Students will use knowledge of life cycles to collect evidence of the stages of life a plant goes through.

In this lesson, students will extend their knowledge of matter and energy cycles in an organism to engineering life cycle assessment of a product. Students will learn about product life cycle assessment and the flow of energy through the cycle, comparing it to the flow of nutrients and energy in the life cycle of an organism.

Grade 4 Life Science Module. In this module, students learn about different body structures of plants and animals and how those structures help an organism survive. The Life Science Module represents three additional hours per week of instruction during the eight to nine weeks covered by Grade 4: Module 2 of the EL Education K-8 Language Arts Curriculum. Although the Life Science Modules can stand alone, each one connects with and complements Module 2 of the grade-level language arts module lessons in Grades 3-5. To learn more about the Language Arts curriculum and how the Life Science Modules align with the language arts content, visit https://eleducation.org/resources/k-5-language-arts-guidance-document.

This site takes us into the world of structural biology -- a branch of molecular biology that focuses on the shape of nucleic acids and proteins (the molecules that do most of the work in our bodies). Learn about the structures and roles of proteins, tools used to study protein shapes, how proteins are used in designing new medications (for AIDS and arthritis), and what structural biology reveals about all life processes. Find out about careers in biomedical research.

New understanding of human genetics will not only make it easier to diagnose diseases, it will also change how diseases are treated. Scientists and drug companies are using knowledge from the Human Genome Project to find cures for everything from cancer to obesity (see chapter 1: Mapping the Human Genome). This new medicine is called "genomic" medicine. Medicine is changing at a rapid rate as a result of the new knowledge of the human genome. It is important for students to know how drugs and treatments are changing and will continue to change.

Science advances through rich, scholarly discussion. More than ever before, digital tools allow us to take that dialogue online. To chart a new future for open publishing, we must consider alternatives to the core features of the legacy print publishing system, such as an access paywall and editorial selection before publication. Although journals have their strengths, the traditional approach of selecting articles before publication (“curate first, publish second”) forces a focus on “getting into the right journals,” which can delay dissemination of scientific work, create opportunity costs for pushing science forward, and promote undesirable behaviors among scientists and the institutions that evaluate them. We believe that a “publish first, curate second” approach with the following features would be a strong alternative: authors decide when and what to publish; peer review reports are published, either anonymously or with attribution; and curation occurs after publication, incorporating community feedback and expert judgment to select articles for target audiences and to evaluate whether scientific work has stood the test of time. These proposed changes could optimize publishing practices for the digital age, emphasizing transparency, peer-mediated improvement, and post-publication appraisal of scientific articles.

An overview of the question of how life first arose on Earth. Created by Sal Khan.

Despite the importance of patent landscape analyses in the commercialization process for life science and healthcare technologies, the quality of reporting for patent landscapes published in academic journals is inadequate. Patents in the life sciences are a critical metric of innovation and a cornerstone for the commercialization of new life-science- and healthcare-related technologies. Patent landscaping has emerged as a methodology for analyzing multiple patent documents to uncover technological trends, geographic distributions of patents, patenting trends and scope, highly cited patents and a number of other uses. Many such analyses are published in high-impact journals, potentially allowing them to gain high visibility among academic, industry and government stakeholders. Such analyses may be used to inform decision-making processes, such as prioritization of funding areas, identification of commercial competition (and therefore strategy development), or implementation of policy to encourage innovation or to ensure responsible licensing of technologies. Patent landscaping may also provide a means for answering fundamental questions regarding the benefits and drawbacks of patenting in the life sciences, a subject on which there remains considerable debate but limited empirical evidence.

In this video from NOVA scienceNOW, learn how scientists detect potential signs of life on distant planets.

This is a project having to do with how animal and plant life cycles are similar and different.

This video segment adapted from NOVA illustrates why carbon is at the center of life on Earth. It also asks whether carbon-based life might exist on other planets.

There are billions of galaxies filled with billions of stars. Each star has the potential to have planets orbiting it. Does life exist on some of those planets? Explore the question, “Is there life in space?” Discover how scientists find planets and other astronomical bodies through the wobble (also known as Doppler spectroscopy or radial-velocity) and transit methods. Compare zones of habitability around different star types, discovering the zone of liquid water possibility around each star type. Explore how scientists use spectroscopy to learn about atmospheres on distant planets. You will not be able to answer the module's framing question at the end of the module, but you will be able to explain how scientists find distant planets and moons and how they determine whether those astronomical bodies could be habitable.

In this video segment adapted from NOVA, scientists are startled to discover evidence for the three key ingredients for life on Saturn's moon Enceladus.

This fun Web site is part of OLogy, where kids can collect virtual trading cards and create projects with them. Here, they take a close-up look at biodiversity in a city park. The site opens by telling kids that, despite appearances, a great deal of biodiversity exists in cities. From tiny mites to mighty trees, thousands of species thrive there. It then takes them to a slice of life from a thriving city park, where they are asked to find 10 hidden critters living alongside the trees, plants, and insects. Each time they locate one of the tiny critters, they are rewarded with a quick look at its importance to the habitat.

This resource was created by Tawnee Jewell in collaboration with Jennifer Jones as part of the 2019-20 ESU-NDE Digital Age Pedagogy Project. Educators worked with coaches to create Lesson Plans promoting both content area and digital age skills. This Lesson Plan is designed for 9-12 Life Science. 

The video describes the life cycle of stars and how they change from one stage to the next.

All cells, organs and tissues of a living organism are built of molecules. Some of them are small, made from only a few atoms. There is, however, a special class of molecules that make up and play critical roles in living cells. These molecules can consist of many thousands to millions of atoms. They are referred to as macromolecules (or large biomolecules).

Lecture for the course "CSC 59970 – Intro to Data Science" delivered at the City College of New York in Spring 2019 by Grant Long as part of the Tech-in-Residence Corps program.