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Welcome! Here you will find copies of most of the labs that we perform in class. Some are only available from the AP Lab book, so I cannot post those online.
Animal Behavior
- Animal Behavior: Aggressive Display in Betta
Learning the process of scientific inquiry by studying the behavior of Siamese Fighting Fish
- Animal Behavior: Food Preferences of Slugs
Students design & carry out their own experiment to test a slug's preference between two or more food sources. This exercise uses slugs to teach the difference between observation and opinion and introduces the concepts of controls & hypothesis testing.
Cells
- Cell Membranes
A kinesthetic activity that allows students to be creative in building their own models of cell membranes.
- Diffusion and Osmosis
This is an alternative to the AP Diffusion and Osmosis lab. The explanation has been simplified and the summary questions have been expanded.
- Limits to Cell Size
A fun lab that vividly demonstrates the relationship between surface area, volume and diffusion time.
- Apple Head Dolls
This is more of a holiday activity with a biology twist. A fun exercise that measures how much water is in cells and gives students a present to give to Mom!
Enzymes & Metabolism
Evolution
- Natural Selection of Butterflies
An enjoyable and educational simulation of natural selection through a game of predator and prey in camouflaged butterfly populations.
- Natural Selection of Strawfish
This lab is specificaly designed to warm students up to the idea of Hardy-Weinberg before you hit them with the math.
- Population Genetics
An alternative to the AP Hardy-Weinberg Lab.
- Human Evolution at AMNH
A lab that walks students through the Hall of Human Origins at the American Museum of Natural History. There is also a short exercise for the Hall of Biodiversity tacked on at the end, because who can go the museum without visiting the BIG Blue Whale!
- Building A Cladogram: Walruses, Whales, and Seals, Oh My!
In this lab, students use sequence information in GenBank and bioinformatics software to test hypotheses about the relationship between aquatic mammals and their potential ancestral relationship to land mammals. In the process, students learn how to build cladograms from molecular data and how to analyze them to make phylogenetic conclusions.
Genetics
- Virtual Fly Lab
Genetics studies using the excellent Drosophila breeding simulation at Virtual Fly. Students are assigned traits to analyze.
- The Chi-Square Test
What do genetics, probability, and random chance have in common?
- Meiosis
Following chromosomes through the special division process of meiosis to create haploid reproductive cells.
Molecular Genetics
- Protein Synthesis Lab -- A paper-scissor-tape activity used to help students envision the process of protein synthesis -- transcription, post-transcriptional processing, translation, and the effect of mutations.
Molecular Biology & Biotechnology
- Restriction Enzyme Digest Simulation
Use the power of a word processing program to simulate the action of restriction enzymes on the actual lambda phage DNA sequence.
- Cloning a Paper Plasmid
A nice quick paper demo on the process of cloning a gene into a plasmid using a simulation of the puc18 plasmid & the Jellyfish Glo gene sequence.
- Sanger Sequencing
Sequencing is easier to understand when you can see it in action rather than when you hear it explained in words. This is a great simulation using colored beads.
- Human Genome Scavenger Hunt
Find your way around the human genome and learn how to use the UCSC Genome Browser -- a genome search tool that many researchers use.
- Sickle Cell Bioinformatics
Design a DNA probe to diagnose carriers of Sickle Cell Anemia. Uses UCSC Genome Browser and Primer3 primer design websites. Review of genetic disease, recessive inheritance, circulatory system physiology.
Nervous System
- Anatomy of The Human Brain
Otherwise known as "The Brain Cap Lab." In this exercise you will map the human brain -- both anatomy and function -- so that you can develop a more accurate picture of what's going on inside your head :-)
- Lights, Camera, Action Potential
A great simulation of an action potential. This comes from a Neuroscience lab manual that NABT published to members in 1996. (graciously shared by Cheryl Hollinger)
Plants
- Pollen Tube Growth
This was a very informal exercise that I did one year and it worked so well I do it every year. Students set up a pollen wet mount on onion epidermis. We "incubate" overnight in a plastic container just to keep slides moist. The next day students can see pollen tube growth!
Scientific Method
- Seed Germination
A simple lab teaching the process of scientific inquiry by studying factors affectng germination of lentil seeds.
- Animal Behavior: Aggressive Display in Betta
Learning the process of scientific inquiry by studying the behavior of Siamese Fighting Fish
- Animal Behavior: Food Preferences of Slugs
Students design & carry out their own experiment to test a slug's preference between two or more food sources. This exercise uses slugs to teach the difference between observation and opinion and introduces the concepts of controls & hypothesis testing.
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