Tag: experiment
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Comparing the Ameba to the Paramecium
With the adoption of NGSS, I’ve had to make cuts to some of the lessons that biology classes of the past enjoyed. I was sad to see it go, but we no longer do a unit on the Kingdom Protista, but I still manage to fit a microscope lab into other sections.
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Investigation: Mitosis and Cancer Cells
The first part of this investigation, students examine slides of mitosis in an onion root tip and count the number of cells in each phase of the cell cycle. An equation is then used to estimate the percentage of time the cell spends in each phase and students create a bar graph to display results. …
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Investigation: Taste Buds and Signal Transduction
As a part of the chapter on cell signal pathways, students perform a lab that examines how their taste buds are affected by Gymnema. For this lab, I simply placed a question on the board “How does Gymnema tea affect your ability to taste sweet foods?” I provided them with a list of…
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Demonstration: Can Yeast Digest Lactose?
This activity can be performed as student lead inquiry lab or as a class demonstration activity. Students should have a basic understanding of how enzymes work and the relationship between lactose and lactase. If you use Openstax, this is a great lesson to bridge the chapter on enzymes to the next one on respiration and…
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Investigation: Enzyme and Substrate Concentrations
Students who complete the Enzyme Investigation lab can further explore enzymes with this lab on how concentrations of the substrate (hydrogen peroxide) and the enzyme ( catalase) can affect the rate of reaction. In the first experiment, students simply made a judgement about the amount of bubbling to indicate reaction speed, though this is a…
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Investigation: Comparing Plant and Animal Cells
This simple investigation asks students to view cells under the microscope and compare differences between plant and animal cells. Students are instructed in the procedure for removing the epithelial cells of an onion and staining with iodine. These cells are fairly easy to see and most beginning students will have no trouble locating the…
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Lab Report Guidelines and Template
Help students organize a lab report for any experiment, includes basic layout: title, introduction, hypothesis, materials and methods, data, and conclusions.
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Investigation: What Factors Affect Seed Germination?
This activity can be used as part of a unit on plants or as an activity to illustrate the scientific method. The materials are cheap and can be obtained from the grocery store. Students design an experiment to determine what factors affect seed germination. They are given a list of variables that are appropriate…
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Investigation: What Factors Affect Cricket Chirps?
One of my favorite scientific method activities was a project that used a flash simulation to investigate cricket chirps and how the frequency is affected by temperature, humidity and wind speed. Unfortunately, flash is no longer supported by modern browsers. This alternative assignment asks students to listen (and count) cricket chirps, create a data…
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Investigation: Habitat Selection in Flour Beetles
This activity was modified from an Advanced Placement Investigation for use with freshman classes. The instructions are clear and require students to examine data and create a graph. Then students collect their own data using Choice Chambers and can choose which variables they would like to test: wet vs dry, water vs vinegar, light…
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Photosynthesis Lab – How Light Color Affects Growth
A virtual simulator that shows how plant growth changes in response to the color of light. Students measure the heights of plants grown under different colors.
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The Blue Bottle Demonstration
Most biology teachers must eventually accept the awful truth that they will need to include chemistry in their biology classes. For years, the only chemistry I had to worry about was the very simple photosynthesis equation which was fairly easy to explain and also presented in an “unbalanced” form. When I started teaching AP…
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Investigation: What Factors Affect the Heart Rate of Daphnia
This investigation starts with a guided procedure where students gather data on the heart rate of daphnia when the organism is exposed to 1% ethanol. Daphnia are tiny crustaceans that are visible with the naked eye, though a microscope or stereoscope will be needed to see their heart rate.
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Investigation: Temperature and Fish Respiration Rate
Students investigate what happens to the respiration rate of a fish as the temperature is decreased. Analyze data and create a graph.
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Investigation: Plop Plop Fizz Fizz
This investigation asks beginning students to develop a hypothesis about how quickly an effervescent tablet will dissolve and then design an experiment.