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Exploring Habitat Degradation with Isopods Habitat degradation and destruction are two of the biggest contributors to biodiversity loss worldwide. This easy activity will encourage your students to explore the effects of habitat degradation on pill bugs. View »
Vinegar Eels In this lab, students observe vinegar eels. View »
Daphnia Heart Rate In this introductory physiology lab, students determine the heart rate of Daphnia magna and then test the effect of changing temperature on the heart rate. View »
Constructing a Cladogram with Hydra, Planaria, and Daphnia In this lab students compare the body structure and functions of three invertebrates to that of a vertebrate. They use their data to construct a cladogram. View »
Introduction to Ascomycetes This lab introduces students to the variation found in the fungal phylum Ascomycota. Students examine four representatives: Anthracobia muelleri, Eurotium chevalieri, Schizosaccharomyces octosporus, and Sordaria fimicola. View »
Introduction to Algae In this lab, students observe a variety of algae and record basic observations of them. View »
On the Cutting Edge: AP® Biology Mammalian Structure and Function Dissection Kit One of the best specimens to explore mammalian structures is the cat. Provide your AP® Biology students with a comprehensive survey of tissues, organs, and organ systems using the cat as a model organism. View »
On the Cutting Edge: Cat Dissection Cat dissection offers an excellent opportunity to explore mammalian anatomy using a large specimen with internal organs much like our own. View »
On the Cutting Edge: Extend Water Quality Studies Using the Yellow Perch Conducting a perch dissection lab gives students a hands-on understanding of the fish’s anatomy and how water quality affects its physiology View »
On the Cutting Edge: Rat Dissection The rat’s body structure and organ systems are relatively similar to those of a human. This similarity provides an interesting look into mammalian anatomy and allows students to make comparisons between humans, rats, and other mammals. View »
On the Cutting Edge: Starfish Anatomy Learn how to do a hands-on lesson that explores the starfish’s external anatomy, focusing on structures used for locomotion, protection, and feeding. View »
On the Cutting Edge: Understanding the Mammalian Kidney The Mammalian Kidney Dissection BioKit® offers your students the opportunity to dissect and understand this fascinating organ. View »
On the Cutting Edge: Rat Dissection External Exam In this activity, we’ll show you how to start with a thorough examination of the rat’s external anatomy that helps students gain insight about this animal’s habitat, behavior, and relatedness to humans. View »
On the Cutting Edge: Sheep Heart Dissection Dissection of the sheep heart offers students an excellent opportunity to learn about the anatomy of a mammalian heart. View »
On the Cutting Edge: Think Mink! This article explores how Carolina mink make great model organisms for introducing your students to general mammalian anatomy and physiology. View »
Grasshopper Dissection Explore basic insect anatomy with preserved grasshoppers. This dissection requires only dissecting scissors, and you can do it in a class period. View »
On the Cutting Edge: Exploring Sheep Organs Sheep organ dissection offers an excellent opportunity for students to learn about anatomical structures and functions. View »
On the Cutting Edge: Frog Internal Anatomy Exploration Frogs are excellent specimens for studying organ systems and for giving your students a hands-on appreciation of the complexity of a living organism. View »
Teaching Hardy Weinberg in the classroom In order for allele and genotype frequencies to remain stable in a given population, certain conditions must be met. But what happens when these conditions aren’t met? Help your students understand the Hardy-Weinberg principle by modeling a population of edible treats. View »
Use Guided Inquiry to Explore Your Schoolyard on Earth Day Celebrate Earth Day with an engaging activity that gets your students outside and uses the 5E process of engage, explore, explain, extend, and evaluate. View »
Introduction to Lichens In this lab students observe basic lichen types (crustose, foliose, fruticose and fruticose pendant) and discover that lichens are composite organisms, consisting of fungal and algal components. View »
Protista: Key to Algae Mixtures What are algae? In this lab students observe a variety of algae and record their characteristics. View »
Survey of Protista Protists are highly diverse. In this lab students are introduced to this diversity through observing a selection of protists and recording their characteristics. View »
Air Pollution: Tropospheric Ozone, Particulates, and Indoor Carbon Dioxide "Bad" ozone, dangerous particulates, and significant CO2 buildup—in and around your school! Access a series of field tests students can use to measure your school’s tropospheric ozone levels and the number of deposited particulates in different locations, and to study how carbon dioxide concentrations indoors vary throughout the school day. View »
Osmosis Eggsperiment Is your osmosis lesson all it’s cracked up to be? Get it cooking with this fun, hands-on activity. Using a couple of fresh chicken eggs and a few household items, students can discover the hard-boiled facts about osmosis in animal cells—unscrambling an abstract concept by making it tangible. View »
Copying Nature’s Success: Teaching Students About Biomimetics Ready to create a model home that draws on biomimetics? In this activity, students research, design, and build structures that incorporate ideas inspired by the natural world. View »
Cow Eye Dissection: Examining Structure and Function Use this simple, engaging dissection to teach your students about the eye's structures and their functions. View »
Easy Variation and Natural Selection Lessons with Wisconsin Fast Plants® Seed Disks Explore a technique that makes teaching variation and natural selection lessons with Fast Plants® easier than ever. In this activity, students examine the effects an abiotic environmental change (salinity) has on an experimental plot of Fast Plants®. Includes detailed background information and instructions. View »
The Dogfish Shark—Structure and FUNction! Use this simple guide to connect form and function during your next dogfish dissection activity. View »
Experiencing Air Pollution Through Inquiry Inquiring minds want to know: how does air pollution effect plants? With this activity your students can learn about the acute effects caused by common urban pollutants. View »
Muscular Typogram Flex your skills with this muscleman typogram by artist Aaron Kuehn. It offers a unique and creative way to learn the names and locations of muscles. View »
Optics of the Human Eye A cross-curricular lesson in biology and physics allows students to make a simple model of the human eye. Students investigate how geometric optics can be applied to this complex, biological structure in order to describe how the images we see are formed when special tissues in our eye, the cornea and the lens, refract the light entering the pupil to create an image on the back wall of the eyeball (the retina), like a miniature, organic movie projector. View »
Ballistics: Student Investigation Sheet How do holes left by projectiles help forensic investigators? This activity asks students to calculate the angle of incidence of several perforations. View »
Bloodstain Analysis: Student Investigation Sheet Like other physical evidence, blood often links a scene, perpetrator, and victim. This activity describes how to determine the angle of incidence of a blood drop. View »
Five Photography Terms Every Arson and Crime Scene Photographer Should Know Despite its advantages, photography remains the least understood and developed skill for arson and crime scene investigators. Learn about key terms and techniques and try a fingerprint distortion activity. View »
Water Pollution Awareness Demonstration This demonstration is an engagement activity that increases students’ awareness of the current state of global water quality. View »
Restriction Enzyme Road Trip: Enduring Understandings in DNA Biotechnology Employing an entertaining road trip analogy, students will model restriction enzyme digestion and demonstrate their learning by modeling the separation of the resulting “DNA” fragments by gel electrophoresis. View »
Human Body: Reproductive System Review Review information about reproductive methods with this graphic organizer. View »
Making a Scientific Claim: Ocean Acidification Students can use this graphic organizer to write an argument for decreasing atmospheric CO2. View »
Human Body: Endocrine System Review Review information about the endocrine system with this graphic organizer. View »
Human Body: Digestive System Review Identify the locations, enzymes, and functions of organs in the digestive system with this graphic organizer. View »
Digestion Activity: Pathway and Enzymes Explore the intricacies of digestion and the roles of enzymes with this fill-in-the-blank activity. Includes an answer key. View »
Urban Stream Syndrome Urban streams often suffer from urban stream syndrome, which is characterized by changes in nutrient levels, hydrology, biodiversity, and other factors. In this activity, students learn how to identify streams that suffer from urban stream syndrome based on visual evidence. View »
Water Quality Awareness Use this engaging activity to increase student awareness of the current state of global water quality and availability. View »
Human Body: Urinary System Review Review urinary system structure and function with this graphic organizer. View »
Developing and Analyzing Urine Samples as a Model of Kidney Function In this activity, students gain an understanding of urine composition by developing and testing models of urine samples. Includes teacher and student guides. View »
Human Body: Nervous System Review Review nervous system structure and function with this graphic organizer. View »
Chicken Wing Musculature Explore the structures and functions of muscle tissue and practice dissection techniques with this activity. View »
Human Body: Skeletal System Review Review skeletal system structure and function with this graphic organizer. View »
Human Body: Integumentary System Review Review the structure and function of the integumentary system with this graphic organizer. View »
Cutaneous 2-Point Discrimination Explore the density of receptors in the skin on the hand with this activity. View »
Butterfly Life Cycle Activities for Elementary Students Work the study of butterflies into your curriculum with this e-book of activities (for grades K–5). Includes detailed instructions, reproducible student pages, and an answer key. View »
Frog Dissection Looking for an introductory frog dissection activity? This one requires only dissecting scissors, and you can complete it in 1–2 class periods. View »