This is an extension activity after discussing cancer or lead into discussing about student choices. Essential QuestionsStudents will be able to to describe behaviors lead to skin cancer and how can it be prevented.Students will be able to explain the risk and reward behaviors.  

CK-12 Biology for High School FlexBook® covers core biology concepts and includes PLIX, real world examples, videos, and study guides.

Explore how populations change over time in a NetLogo model of sheep and grass. Experiment with the initial number of sheep, the sheep birthrate, the amount of energy sheep gain from the grass, and the rate at which the grass re-grows. Remove sheep that have a particular trait (better teeth) from the population, then watch what happens to the sheep teeth trait in the population as a whole. Consider conflicting selection pressures to make predictions about other instances of natural selection.

This Immersion Unit provides a coherent series of lessons designed to guide students in developing deep conceptual understanding that is aligned with the standards, key science concepts, and essential features of classroom inquiry (as defined by the National Science Education Standards).  Unit Overarching Concepts Populations of living organisms change or stay the same over time as a result of the interactions between the genetic variations that are expressed by the individuals in the populations and the environment in which the population lives. Science knowledge advances through inquiry. Unit Supporting Concepts Individual organisms with certain variations of traits (adaptations) are more likely than others to survive and reproduce successfully.When environmental conditions change it can affect the survival of both individual organisms and entire species. Natural selection determines the differential survival of groups of organisms. A small advantage in escaping a predator, resisting a drug, etc. can lead to the spread of a trait in a modest number of generations. Mutations are a source of variation in an individual’s genotype, and it can result in a change in phenotype––good or bad. Scientific progress is made by asking meaningful questions and conducting careful investigations, using appropriate tools and technology to perform tests, collect data, analyze relationships, and display data. No matter how well one scientific explanation fits observations, a new explanation might fit them just as well or better, or might fit a wider range of observations. In science, the testing, revising, and occasional discarding of explanations, new and old, never ends. This unit was developed through the large Math and Science Partnership project called System-wide Change for All Learners and Educators (SCALE), involving a collaboration among Los Angeles School District educators, California State University science and education faculty, and UW-Madison SCALE staff.

Sign up for a free account on the Gizmo website (https://www.explorelearning.com/index.cfm?method=Controller.dspFreeAccount) for free access to two simulations that were collaboratively developed by the teams at Explore Learning and the Wisconsin Fast Plants Program of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. These simulations replace those previously available on our website that were developed nearly two decades ago and no longer function on modern operating systems. Fast Plants Gizmos were created as a collaboration between ExploreLearning and the Wisconsin Fast Plants Program of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. They weredesigned to support many of the experiments that students can do using Fast Plants seeds and plants. By using these Gizmos in combination with firsthand experiences growing Fast Plants, students can compare simulated growth, development and reproduction with observations of living Fast Plants. In addition, the Gizmos genetic simulation makes it possible for students to gather data from a significantly larger plant population than is typically grown in classrooms. These Gizmos also stand alone, supporting topics both in plant life cycles and Mendelian genetics and can be used by any student. Simulation, Simulations, Genetics, Inheritance

The Geniverse software is being developed as part of a five-year research project funded by the National Science Foundation. Still in its early stages, a Beta version of the software is currently being piloted in six schools throughout New England. We invite you to try the current Beta version, keeping in mind that you may encounter errors or pages that are not fully functional. If you encounter any problem, it may help to refresh or reload the web page.

This article is designed to help students and teachers think about the nature of various determinants underlying biological variation. Teachers facilitating any selection investigation will find this background information helpful, including those planning for the AP Biology Lab 1 of Big Idea 1: Evolution, Artificial Selection. Learners at secondary or tertiary grade levels who are preparing to investigate variation or are working on interpreting variation data can also use this resource.

We will be using HHMI labs about lactose intolerance to discuss genetic variation and inheritance with our Lucile Packard Hospital School students.

How can we Design Cattle to Better Meet Human Needs?

In this high school Storyline unit on genetics and heredity, students are introduced to ‘SuperCows’. As they explore the vast variety of cattle breeds, students discover that cattle are specialized for different purposes and while similar, the ‘SuperCows’ are clearly unique. Students wonder what caused this diversity and specificity which leads to investigations about the role of inheritance, DNA and proteins.

This investigation begins with a phenomenon that is evidenced in most every produce aisle: Many of the vegetables that botanists classify as Brassica look and taste different. This investigation aligns with middle and high school Next Generation Science Standards as well as with agricultural science Plant Career Path Standards. Provided as an Open Source Lesson in Gather-Reason-Communicate format, this investigation supports teachers as students learn about the life cycle of flowering plants, how environmental and genetic factors influence an organisms's growth, how humans influence plants through plant breeding, and how scientists can use classification as a tool for understanding relatedness among organisms. This includes a lesson plan and supporting resources including videos, an interview, readings, and protocols.

Meiosis is the process by which gametes (eggs and sperm) are made. Gametes have only one set of chromosomes. Therefore, meiosis involves a reduction in the amount of genetic material. Each gamete has only half the chromosomes of the original germ cell. Explore meiosis with a computer model of dragons. Run meiosis, inspect the chromosomes, then choose gametes to fertilize. Predict the results of the dragon offspring and try to make a dragon without legs. Learn why all siblings do not look alike.

Students learn about mutations to both DNA and chromosomes, and uncontrolled changes to the genetic code. They are introduced to small-scale mutations (substitutions, deletions and insertions) and large-scale mutations (deletion duplications, inversions, insertions, translocations and nondisjunctions). The effects of different mutations are studied as well as environmental factors that may increase the likelihood of mutations. A PowerPoint® presentation and pre/post-assessments are provided.

Our Patterns Biology development team of teacher leaders has been working hard through the spring and summer of 2020 to develop distance learning versions of the Patterns Biology units. Between March and May they released Distance Learning versions of units 4 and 5, as well as paper packets that can be printed for students who do not have access to technology at home. In preparation for fall of the 2020-21 school year, the team has just published Distance Learning versions of units 1 and 2 (see below links for each unit's page). Our Distance Learning units can be used in either a fully online or hybrid school model. A Distance Learning version of Unit 3 will be released by the end of September.

A first person story is presented to the students to hook their interest in the disease. Using a jigsaw approach, students will learn about the fundamentals of Pompe disease and share information during a whole class discussion.

The Pompe Predicament was developed as a part of Biomedical Explorations: Bench to Bedside which was supported by the National Center for Research Resources and the Division of Program Coordination, Planning, and Strategic Initiatives of the National Institutes of Health through Grant Number R25RR023294. Additional support provided by the University of Florida (UF) and the UF Center for Precollegiate Education and Training.

The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Center for Research Resources or the National Institutes of Health.