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Biology

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What biology resources do you want to share?

Don't forget that the LGT resources Deep Cells and Interdependence support the teaching of cells, adaptation and energy transfer.

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Comments

Thu, 22/03/2007 - 5:20pm — tim.stuart

Ask a Biologist

A very helpful site where you can consult with a fully-trained biology specialist!

Ask a Scientist

Try not to flood it now....

Thu, 22/03/2007 - 4:45pm — nicole.brown

"Tic Tac Toe" - Providing choice in handling content

Tic Tac Toe (noughts and crosses to us on this side of the pond...) is a tool that allows students an element of choice in how they handle the content of a topic.

In the centre, you put the activity that you want all pupils to undertake - you then strategically place other optional activites around it. Students choose a "tic tac toe" line - (they can't zig-zag!).

This grid was designed by an e-science member - she wrote in her blog:

I used the tic tac toe grid to give choice to a Year 8 class who were learning about absorption of nutrients in the small intestine - it worked really well as it gave the kids choice - they all had to produce a PowerPoint presentation (it was a lesson to develop ICT skills as well as knowledge and understanding)

What do you think of this as a strategy?
How would you use this tool?

Tue, 13/03/2007 - 11:13pm — nicole.brown

Animations

This site has some great animations, although targeted at A level students, many can be used to extend other levels too.

http://www.wiley.com/legacy/college/boyer/0470003790/animations/animatio...

This site has loads of links to other sites that are subject and topic related so easy to navigate. Most are animations.

http://www.animations-galore.com/science.html

Thu, 22/03/2007 - 5:44pm — annalisa owen

More animations

The following link is a really great resource for Biology mostly, but other sciences are covered. It is mostly aimed at KS5 and some is too complicated, but some excellent animations!

http://science.nhmccd.edu/biol/bio1int.htm

Tue, 13/03/2007 - 11:09pm — nicole.brown

Brainpop

This is a subscription site - but there are some free trial resources such as:

http://www.brainpop.com/science/diversityoflife/penguins/

Does this site make science fun?

Tue, 13/03/2007 - 11:04pm — nicole.brown

Global warming cartoon

Here is a video based on the effect of global warming on the polar bear population... quite funny but also great for stimulating discussion amongst your class.

http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=8737233186730443531&q=global+w...

Thu, 22/03/2007 - 5:34pm — jonas.roberts

The other side of the coin!

Great video and very useful to explore the issue of whether humans impact directly on the climate...and to present the other side of the coin would be equally interesting - here is a video shown on Channel Four 'The Great Global Warming Swindle'.

http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=-4520665474899458831&q=global+...

Tue, 13/03/2007 - 11:01pm — nicole.brown

Planet Earth

If you follow the link http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/animals/planetearth/flashapp/ there is an interactive model of the Earth. You can click on different places and see clips from the programme from different parts of the world.

The link http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/animals/planetearth/realmedia/ also separates the film clips in easy to find groups.

An e-science member used the clips with a Y7 class when they were studying adaptations. She developed some questions based on Bloom’s taxonomy.

When looking at the lions attacking the elephant, the questions asked were:

  • How is the lion adapted to hunt in the dark?
  • Why were that group of lions specialised for hunting?
  • What would have happened to the lions if the elephants hadn’t gone to that particular watering hole?
    • Tue, 13/03/2007 - 10:58pm — nicole.brown

    Virtual ecosphere

    A useful resource when teaching habitats is:

    http://www.open2.net/sciencetechnologynature/worldaroundus/launcher_ecos....

    It has information on how to build your own ecosphere at home.

    A teacher from the e-science network gave the pupils an extended homework which involved making their own ecosphere and then monitoring the progress over the next few weeks i.e. did the plants grow? If they did, how much? How did the animals cope (one boy told the class that he watched a spider capture a ladybird and then wrap it up). The pupils really enjoyed making them (although not sure the parents did) and the teacher got some really good feedback from them. This activity also lends itself well to evaluative style questioning i.e. why it did so well/badly? How could you have improved on the last design? If you had left something out might the results have been different? Why?

    There is also a virtual ecosphere if you don’t want to get your hands dirty!

    Tue, 13/03/2007 - 4:21pm — nicole.brown

    Scibermonkey...

    ... it's a jungle out there so scibermonkey collects all the best websites ... throws out the nuts ... leaving you with the pick of the bunch to go ape about science and swing through school!

    (Honest... its a KS3 resource...)

    http://www.scibermonkey.org/

    Tue, 13/03/2007 - 3:57pm — nicole.brown

    Planet Science

    Helping primary and secondary science teachers to teach inspirational science in the classroom is one of the key aims of Planet Science.

    http://www.planet-science.com/sciteach/start.html

    Tue, 13/03/2007 - 3:55pm — nicole.brown

    Squashed Frogs

    http://www.squashedfrogs.co.uk/

    This website is for science teachers to search for resources, lesson plans, web links and files to help with their teaching.

    Initially set up for Oxford Brookes Science PGCE students by the PGCE students. You can download anything from this site for free.