Classroom Resources

In this hands-on activity, students build a paper model to explore how CRISPR-Cas9 is used to edit genes.

In this activity, students build a paper model of DNA and use their model to explore key structural features of the DNA double helix. This activity can be used to complement the short film The Double Helix.

This demonstration models the first step of the HIV life cycle: the binding of HIV envelope proteins to receptors on human helper T cells.

In this hands-on activity, students model how a double-stranded DNA copy of the HIV genome is integrated into the host cell DNA.

This demonstration models how the HIV protease enzyme functions and how its activity is blocked by a class of anti-HIV drugs.

This hands-on activity accompanies the video The Great Elephant Census. Students use beans or lentils to model sample and total count methods for studying wildlife population sizes.

In this hands-on activity, students simulate the effects of decreasing pH caused by rising levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide.

In this activity, students examine concepts about the evolution of human bipedality explored in the short film Great Transitions: The Origin of Humans. They create their own trackway of footprints and compare it to a trackway of fossil footprints.

In this activity, students collect and analyze data from a hands-on model to discover why even slight variations in beak size can impact a bird’s ability to obtain food and survive.

This activity instructs students how to build their own Winogradsky columns, which provide visual examples of the diverse modes of metabolism in the microbial world.

In this activity, students simulate a lactose tolerance test, similar to the one shown in the short film The Making of the Fittest: Got Lactase? The Co-evolution of Genes and Culture, to determine which samples contain the lactase enzyme.

This hands-on activity supports concepts covered in the film Evolving Switches, Evolving Bodies about the evolution of stickleback fish. Students interpret molecular diagrams and build physical models of eukaryotic gene regulation.