In this phenomenon-driven activity, students investigate how cells are signaled to make melanin and explain how mutations in melanin pathway proteins affect the coat color of various organisms.
Getting students engaged in learning about the cell cycle can be difficult. In this Educator Voices article, educator Kathy Van Hoeck describes how she uses cancer as an anchoring phenomenon to spark student interest.
Planarians can be used to investigate a variety of biological phenomena like animal behavior, mitosis, taxonomy, and more. In this article from professor Karen Avery, see how she uses this unassuming model organism to teach concepts in cellular biology and genetics.
In this article, see a learning sequence where students explore symbiotic relationships and cell communication in bacteria (quorum sensing) by connecting their prior knowledge regarding ocean ecosystems to their understanding of symbiotic relationships.
This activity explores an image of tattoo ink particles inside cells, which serves as a phenomenon for learning about the structure and color of human skin.
Explore the microscopic world in this Educator Voices article from Pennsylvania educator Bob Cooper, who zooms in on the world of the very small with the “What Leeuwenhoek Saw” activity.
This activity explores images of animals with a mutation that affects coloration, which serve as phenomena for learning about skin color genetics and evolution.
This activity explores images of planarians regenerating missing body parts, which serve as phenomena for learning about cell division and differentiation.
Keri Shingleton explains how she uses the BioInteractive animation on cancer and cell fate to spark curiosity in her students and encourage exploration of a topic.