Remote Ready Biology Learning Activities

Students learn that vaccination or a previous coronavirus infection reduces the risk of severe Covid-19.

They learn how the immune system responds to a coronavirus infection and analyze how this response differs after a first vs. second exposure to the coronavirus.

Then, students analyze the biological effects of an mRNA vaccine and develop an evidence-based explanation of how vaccination protects against severe Covid-19.

In this activity, students analyze information about the molecular and cellular basis for sickle cell anemia and sickle cell trait. This provides the basis for understanding how a single gene can affect multiple phenotypic characteristics.

Students also create a Punnett square, analyze a pedigree, and evaluate the relative advantages of Punnett squares and pedigrees as models of inheritance.

The Teacher Notes include several optional questions which apply student understanding of the biology of sickle cell trait to practical and policy issues.

In this minds-on analysis and discussion activity, students analyze the inheritance of sex chromosomes. Students use a Punnett square to predict the sex ratio of births and compare their prediction to data for individual families and for the entire US.

As students analyze the reasons why many real families deviate from Punnett square predictions, they learn about the probabilistic nature of inheritance and the limitations of Punnett square predictions.

In this minds-on activity, students analyze evidence about achondroplasia to learn how a mistake in DNA replication can result in a new mutation that affects a child’s characteristics.

This analysis and discussion activity reviews several basic genetics principles and helps to counteract several common misconceptions about genetics.

In this analysis and discussion activity, students learn that different versions of a gene give the instructions for making different versions of a protein which can result in different characteristics.

Additional questions guide students as they review how genes are transmitted from parents to offspring by the processes of meiosis and fertilization.

Then, students analyze several examples that illustrate how inheritance of genes can result in similarities and differences between family members.

Concepts covered include Punnett squares, dominant and recessive alleles, incomplete dominance, and polygenic inheritance. These concepts are reinforced in an optional final review page.

University of Pennsylvania biologists Ingrid Waldron and Lori Spindler offer free professional development workshops for high school biology teachers and middle school life science teachers. They have recorded this workshop about Energy Metabolism.

Links to the materials:

• How do organisms use energy?
• Using Models to Understand Cellular Respiration
• How do muscles get the energy they need for athletic activity?
• Food, Energy and Body Weight

Recorded October 24, 2020

In this minds-on analysis and discussion activity, students learn how a child inherits one copy of each gene from each parent through the processes of meiosis and fertilization.

Then, students follow the alleles of a human gene from the parents' diploid cells through haploid gametes and diploid zygote to a child’s diploid cells.

They learn how the possible outcomes of meiosis and fertilization are summarized in a Punnett square.

We recommend that this activity be followed by "Meiosis and Fertilization Produce Genetic Diversity"(https://serendipstudio.org/exchange/bioactivities/gendiversity).

A hands-on version of this activity and the recommended subsequent activity is available as “Meiosis and Fertilization – Understanding How Genes Are Inherited”.

In this minds-on analysis and discussion activity, students learn how the cell cycle produces genetically identical daughter cells. They analyze how DNA replication and mitosis work together to ensure that each new cell gets a complete set of chromosomes with a complete set of genes.

To understand how a single cell (the fertilized egg) can develop into the trillions of cells in a human body, students analyze an exponential growth model for the increase in number of cells. The final section provides a brief introduction to cellular differentiation.

This activity can be used as an introduction to mitosis or to reinforce understanding of mitosis. A hands-on version of this activity is available as “Mitosis and the Cell Cycle – How a Single Cell Develops into the Trillions of Cells in a Human Body”.

In this minds-on analysis and discussion activity, students review mitosis and meiosis as they compare and contrast these two types of cell division. The Teacher Notes for this activity include an optional mitosis and meiosis card sort for additional review.

The Student Handout is available in the first two attached files and as a Google doc designed for use in online instruction and distance learning. The Teacher Notes, available in the last two attached files, provide instructional suggestions and background information.

To begin this hands-on, minds-on activity, students view a video about ecosystem changes that resulted when wolves were eliminated from Yellowstone National Park and later returned to Yellowstone. Then, students learn about food chains and food webs, and they construct and analyze a food web for Yellowstone. Finally, students use what they have learned to understand a trophic cascade caused by the elimination of wolves from Yellowstone.

This learning activity provides an introduction to the learning activities, Carbon Cycles and Energy Flow through Ecosystems and the Biosphere and Trophic Pyramids. All three of these activities are included in Food Webs, Energy Flow, Carbon Cycle and Trophic Pyramids, which is intended for classroom instruction.