My Science Box

Summary
Variation in a population is the raw material on which natural selection works. How do scientists measure and quantify variation in traits? We use garden snails as a model organism in order to describe and measure several different traits. Groups are given a small population of snails and must devise an objective way to measure a trait of their choosing (length, mass, speed, color intensity, stripes, withdrawal reflex reaction time, number of pennies it can carry, etc.). There are many ways to extend this activity. For instance, scientific protocols may be traded between groups, hypotheses may be made concerning what individuals will survive better in different environments, and snails may be tagged and released into one or more environments and the populations monitored over time. A long term open-ended project such as this provides a natural extension and assessment opportunity for both evolution and ecology concepts.

Summary
The following are a series of real world genetics problems that relate to the genetic disorders cystic fibrosis and sickle cell anemia. They may be used to give students practice with Mendelian genetics and molecular biology or at the end of the unit to assess their understanding of various concepts.

Objectives
Reinforce and assess students understanding of real world genetics issues.

Sickle Cell Anemia
Sickle-shaped red blood cellsSickle cell disease is a disorder that affects the red blood cells. Red blood cells use a protein called hemoglobin to transport oxygen from the lungs to the rest of the body. Normally, red blood cells are round and flexible so they can travel freely through the narrow blood vessels.

Patients with sickle cell disease have a mutation in a gene that codes for part of the hemoglobin protein. As a result, hemoglobin does not form properly, causing red blood cells to be oddly shaped. These irregularly shaped cells get stuck in the blood vessels and are unable to transport oxygen properly, causing pain, frequent infections, and damage to the organs. Patients with sickle cell disease only survive to be 20 to 30 years old. About 1 in 500 babies born in America has the disease.

The normal hemoglobin nucleic acid sequence looks like:
T A C C A C G T G G A C T G A G G A C T C
A T G G T G C A C C T G A C T C C T G A G

Summary
Inspired by observations of finches on the Galapagos Islands, Charles Darwin came up with an idea that is perhaps the most influential idea in all of science - natural selection. In this classic activity, students learn about natural selection by becoming birds foraging for food on an island (a large area of the schoolyard or classroom). The prey (beans) vary in their coloration such that some blend into the environment better than others. The birds vary in the type of beak they have (plastic forks, spoons and knives). Each season, any prey that survives has a baby bean the same color as the parent. In addition, the most successful birds has a baby with the same beak trait while the least successful birds die (and are reincarnated as the babies of the successful birds). Over several generations, the bird and bean populations shift depending on the environment. Well camouflaged beans survive and reproduce. Birds with beaks that can easily capture beans survive and reproduce. In this way, students model natural selection in 2 species and get a very good idea of how natural selection works.

Here's my current syllabus for an introductory college biology course for undergraduates planning on entering elementary teaching. This is NOT your traditionalcollege biology course. The goal of this course is to give students mastery over theconcepts required of K-8 students in California in a hands-on, experiential way.

Big Ideas

Performance Tasks

• Students will be able to design an organism that could live in Pt Reyes, both today and what adaptations it would need in order to live there in one million years.

This series of activities is designed to complement a semester long introductory biology course for non-majors (general education) at a 4 year university. These activities are designed to be used to review material from the week's lecture in an activity-based way that is practical to implement in a  section of 25-75 students.

The original course is structured in 3 segments:

Week 1 - Pretrip

Monday - Observation Mariposas in the classroom, camouflaging into the room, see whose lasts the longest between 6th and 7th grade.   

Objective: