This video segment from a WPSU documentary Liquid Assets connects public health to the availability of clean and safe drinking water and elaborates on the threats our bodies face due to increasing kinds and quantities of pollutants.

In this activity, learners explore the "nuts and bolts" of gene chips. Learners construct a simple model of a DNA microarray (also known as gene chips) and learn how microarrays can be used to identify and treat disease--including cancer. This resource includes references and an explanation of microarrays.

Small molecules are chemicals that can interact with proteins to affect their functions. Learn about the structure and biological functions of various small molecules like sugar and caffeine. Also featured on the HHMI DVD, Scanning Life's Matrix: Genes, Proteins, and Small Molecules. Available free from HHMI.

In this lesson designed to enhance literacy skills, students examine the nutritional content of different foods and learn about the health benefits and risks associated with the food choices they make.

This fun Web site is part of OLogy, where kids can collect virtual trading cards and create projects with them. The site opens by telling kids that people have learned to change the food we eat. The first comic strip looks at a farmer who works to produce a larger, redder, tastier tomato. The second comic strip tells kids about genetic modification and imagines a scientist putting the flounder's "anti-freeze" gene inside the DNA of a tomato. Food for Thought presents kids with two scenarios about genetically modified food, asking them if they think they're good ideas.

In this lesson designed to enhance literacy skills, students learn how to use fractions to interpret the nutritional information contained on food labels.

In this video segment from NOVA scienceNOW, meet researchers who are studying obesity and trying to understand the role that hormones and genetics can play in regulating appetite.

In this activity, learners explore how different deodorants work. Learners treat agar plates with different types of deodorants and compare the bacteria growth on the plates to the control sample.

In this hands-on OLogy activity, kids learn how the mammalian diving reflex works to help both land and sea mammals survive in cold water. The activity begins with a kid-friendly look at the way all mammals' bodies respond similarly when exposed to cold water. The illustrated, step-by-step directions show how to test the effect cold water has on circulation by measuring the pulse before and after they plunge their faces into icy water. It includes a fast fact about how the mammalian diving response is stronger in children than in adults.

In this lesson designed to enhance literacy skills, students study a disease outbreak and the investigation that followed to understand the role that public health workers play in protecting the communities they serve.

In this activity, learners use a chemical reaction to visualize where moisture forms on the body. Learners use the Minor's iodine-starch test, a diagnostic test that doctors use to detect hyperhidrosis (excessive sweating), to identify where moisture is forming. Learners also use this method to test the effectiveness of different antiperspirants.

This BioBulletin Web site takes a close look at the medicinal power of plants. The site includes text, videos, photographs, and interviews with key scientists. Age-Old Remedies discusses how nearly 80 percent of the world's population relies on medicines made from natural ingredients. The Power of Traditional Medicine takes an historical look at medicinal herbs and traditional healers. Bio-Prospectors Needed reports on the symposium "The Value of Plants, Animals, and Microbes to Human Health" that was held at the American Museum of Natural History. Tracking Down a Power Plant tells the story of a tree in the Sarawak rain forest that contains a possible cure for AIDS.

In this video adapted from Earth Island Institute, meet a high school student who educated her community about how a coal-burning power plant was contributing to asthma and other health problems there.

Why do teenagers act the way they do? This video segment from FRONTLINE: Inside the Teenage Brain explores the work scientists are doing to explain some of the mysteries of teenage behavior.

In this activity, learners make a stroboscope--a spinning disk with slits around the edge that you look through. Brief but frequent glimpses of images seen through the slits lead to a surprising result, which teaches learners about vision and the human nervous system. The activity includes three short online videos: Introduction, Step-by-Step Instructions, and What's Going On. Also available: a concept map and a "Going Further" document that suggests variations on this activity.

This activity is about how you form mental images of your body's position in space, independent of vision. Can you take a sip of water from a cup with your eyes closed? If so, how are you able to navigate this maneuver without seeing the cup? Find out here!