This guided inquiry activity is designed to help students understand that people get all of their knowledge from their senses, and that is why our senses are so important.
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Students are presented with an engineering challenge that asks them to develop a material and model that can be used to test the properties of aortic valves without using real specimens. Developing material that is similar to human heart valves makes testing easier for biomedical engineers because they can test new devices or ideas on the model valve instead of real heart valves, which can be difficult to obtain for research. To meet the challenge, students are presented with a variety of background information, are asked to research the topic to learn more specific information pertaining to the challenge, and design and build a (prototype) product. After students test their products and make modifications as needed, they convey background and product information in the form of portfolios and presentations to the potential buyer.
- Author:
- Michael Duplessis
- VU Bioengineering RET Program, School of Engineering, Vanderbilt University,
This activity is a guided inquiry by students into balancing ecosystems through food chains and webs.
- Author:
- Bill Dent
This video lesson shows students that math can play a role in understanding how an infectious disease spreads and how it can be controlled. During this lesson, students will see and use both deterministic and probabilistic models and will learn by doing through role-playing exercises. The primary exercises between video segments of this lesson are class-intensive simulation games in which members of the class 'infect' each other under alternative math modeling assumptions about disease progression. Also there is an occasional class discussion and local discussion with nearby classmates.
- Author:
- Richard C. Larson
- Mai Perches
- Sahar Hashmi
This activity is a classroom and field study activity where students learn how to record focused observation.
- Author:
- Lisa Arcand ,Battle Creek Elementary School, St. Paul, Mn based on a presentation by Andrew Jurek from Stonebridge Elementary School, Stillwater, Mn.
- Arcand, Lisa
- Lisa Arcand ,Battle Creek Elementary School, St. Paul, Mn
Conditional Remix & Share Permitted
CC BY-NC-SA
This course is an introduction to computational biology emphasizing the fundamentals of nucleic acid and protein sequence and structural analysis; it also includes an introduction to the analysis of complex biological systems. Topics covered in the course include principles and methods used for sequence alignment, motif finding, structural modeling, structure prediction and network modeling, as well as currently emerging research areas.
- Subject:
- Biology
- Life Science
- Material Type:
- Full Course
- Textbook
- Author:
- Burge, Christopher
- Fraenkel, Ernest
- Gifford, David
- Date Added:
- 01/01/2014
Conditional Remix & Share Permitted
CC BY-NC-SA
Since the discovery of the structure of the DNA double helix in 1953 by Watson and Crick, the information on detailed molecular structures of DNA and RNA, namely, the foundation of genetic material, has expanded rapidly. This discovery is the beginning of the "Big Bang" of molecular biology and biotechnology. In this seminar, students discuss, from a historical perspective and current developments, the importance of pursuing the detailed structural basis of genetic materials.
- Subject:
- Biology
- Genetics
- Life Science
- Material Type:
- Full Course
- Textbook
- Author:
- Zhang, Shuguang
- Date Added:
- 01/01/2005
Conditional Remix & Share Permitted
CC BY-NC-SA
Why are things in nature shaped the way they are? How do birds fly? Why do bird nests look the way they do? How do woodpeckers peck? These are the types of questions Dr. Lorna Gibson's freshman seminar at MIT has been investigating. We invite you to explore with us. Questions such as these are the subject of biomimetic research. When engineers copy the shapes found in nature we call it Biomimetics. The word biomimic comes from bio, as in biology and mimetic, which means to copy. Join us as we explore and look for answers to why similar shapes occur in so many natural things and how physics change the shape of nature.
- Subject:
- Biology
- Life Science
- Physical Science
- Physics
- Material Type:
- Full Course
- Textbook
- Author:
- Gibson, Lorna J.
- Date Added:
- 01/01/2004
Conditional Remix & Share Permitted
CC BY-NC-SA
Are you interested in investigating how nature engineers itself? How engineers copy the shapes found in nature ("biomimetics")? This Freshman Seminar investigates why similar shapes occur in so many natural things and how physics changes the shape of nature. Why are things in nature shaped the way they are? How do birds fly? Why do bird nests look the way they do? How do woodpeckers peck? Why can't trees grow taller than they are? Why is grass skinny and hollow? What is the wood science behind musical instruments? Questions such as these are the subject of biomimetic research and they have been the focus of investigation in this course for the past three years.
- Subject:
- Biology
- Life Science
- Physical Science
- Physics
- Material Type:
- Full Course
- Textbook
- Author:
- Gibson, Lorna J.
- Date Added:
- 01/01/2005
This activity is a classroom activity to invistigate seeds and plants.
- Author:
- J. Scherf, Cook Elementary, Cook, MN
- Scherf, J.
The need to identify sustainable forms of energy as an alternative to our dependence on depleting worldwide oil reserves is one of the grand challenges of our time. The energy from the sun converted into plant biomass is the most promising renewable resource available to humanity. This seminar will examine each of the critical steps along the pathway towards the conversion of plant biomass into ethanol. This course is one of many Advanced Undergraduate Seminars offered by the Biology Department at MIT. These seminars are tailored for students with an interest in using primary research literature to discuss and learn about current biological research in a highly interactive setting. Many instructors of the Advanced Undergraduate Seminars are postdoctoral scientists with a strong interest in teaching.
- Author:
- O'Malley, Michelle
This activity is a classroom and field activity in which students record observations of birds in their natural habitat and make connections between the structure and function of the bird feet.
- Author:
- Marja Steinberg
Fundamentals of Biology focuses on the basic principles of biochemistry, molecular biology, genetics, and recombinant DNA. These principles are necessary to understanding the basic mechanisms of life and anchor the biological knowledge that is required to understand many of the challenges in everyday life, from human health and disease to loss of biodiversity and environmental quality.
- Author:
- Graham Walker
- Hazel Sive
- Robert Weinberg
- Sallie Chisholm Mischke Michelle
- Tyler Jacks
- Eric Lander
Basic subject in ecology: understanding the flow of energy and materials through ecosystems, and what regulates the distribution and abundance of organisms. Productivity and biogeochemical cycles in ecosystems; trophic dynamics; community structure and stability; competition and predation; evolution and natural selection; population growth; and physiological ecology. Emphasis on aquatic systems.
- Author:
- Chisholm, Sallie W.
This is a field activity where students explore different types of gardens comparing how they are the same and different.
Cells with the same DNA can look and function differently from each other; consider a photoreceptor cell and muscle cell. The difference between these two cells is the result of differential gene expression. Some genes are transcribed and translated in all cells at about the same level, but other genes may be expressed in one cell type but not another. This session will briefly outline some general principles of gene regulation. In addition, a specific example of gene regulation in bacteria will be presented in detail.
- Author:
- MIT OPENCOURSEWARE
The topic of this video module is genetic basis for variation among humans. The main learning objective is that students will learn the genetic mechanisms that cause variation among humans (parents and children, brothers and sisters) and how to calculate the probability that two individuals will have an identical genetic makeup. This module does not require many prerequisites, only a general knowledge of DNA as the genetic material, as well as a knowledge of meiosis.
- Author:
- Amjad Mahasneh
Conditional Remix & Share Permitted
CC BY-NC-SA
Deals with the specific functions of neurons, the interactions of neurons in development, and the organization of neuronal ensembles to produce behavior, by functional analysis of mutations and molecular analysis of their genes. Concentrates on work with nematodes, fruit flies, mice, and humans.
- Subject:
- Biology
- Genetics
- Life Science
- Psychology
- Social Science
- Material Type:
- Full Course
- Textbook
- Author:
- Littleton, Troy
- Quinn, William
- Date Added:
- 01/01/2005
Genetics is the branch of biology that studies the means by which traits are passed on from one generation to the next and the causes of similarities and differences between related individuals. In this course, the student will take a close look at chromosomes, DNA, and genes. The student will learn how hereditary information is transferred, how it can change, how it can lead to human disease and be tested to indicate disease, and much more. Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to: give a brief synopsis of the history of genetics by explaining the fundamental genetic concepts covered in this course as they were discovered through time; identify the links between Mendel's discoveries (often represented by Punnett squares) with mitosis and meiosis, dominance, penetrance, and linkage; recognize the role of simple probability in genetic inheritance; apply advanced genetic concepts, including genetic mapping and transposons, to practical applications, including pedigree analysis and corn kernel color; identify the cause behind several genetic diseases currently prevalent in society (such as color blindness and hemophilia) and recognize the importance of genetic illness throughout history; compare and contrast advanced concepts of chromosomal, bacterial, human, and population genetics; recognize the similarities and differences between nuclear, chloroplast, and mitochondrial DNA; describe the fundamentals of population genetics, calculate gene frequencies in a give scenario, predict future gene frequencies over future generations, and define the role of evolution in gene frequency shift over time; recall, analyze, synthesize, and build on the foundational material to then learn the cutting-edge technological advances in genetics, including genomics, population and evolutionary genetics, and QTL mapping. (Biology 305)
Student teams learn about engineering design of green fluorescent proteins (GFPs) and their use in medical research, including stem cell research. They simulate the use of GFPs by adding fluorescent dye to water and letting a flower or plant to transport the dye throughout its structure. Students apply their knowledge of GFPs to engineering applications in the medical, environmental and space exploration fields. Due to the fluorescing nature of the dye, plant life of any color, light or dark, can be used unlike dyes that can only be seen in visible light.
- Author:
- Janet Yowell
- Christie Chatterley
- Malinda Schaefer Zarske
- Integrated Teaching and Learning Program,