Biology Education Articles for Teachers - Page 2

For a natural fireworks display, I recommend visiting an active volcano at night, but from a safe distance! The awesome power of molten rock exploding from the ground is geological pyrotechnics at its best! And walking on a cooled lava flow, whether the ropy, smooth pahoehoe, or the rocky aa, is ...

I recently read an article about the things that babies born this year will never experience. It made me think about how much each generation is changing because of technological innovation. As teachers, we must be aware of these changes, if we are going to continue to reach students and prepare ...

For most of my life, I never thought much about fungi. My consideration of this kingdom of organisms was limited to whether I wanted any mushrooms on my pizza. However, during my first year teaching biology, I fell in love with fungi. I now even go crazy over them when I spot them on family outin...

Of all the systems on Earth, you could argue that the hydrosphere is the most important. Water is what makes the planet habitable and sets it apart from other planets. Even Earth’s nickname, The Blue Planet, is a reference to the abundance of water on its surface.  I teach about different parts o...

Viruses are a fascinating part of the study of life, yet they are not living. To discuss the characteristics of viruses with my students, I first review the characteristics of organisms. I introduce the traits of living things early in my biology course, and revisit them often. By the time we rea...

I really like electricity! Despite the dark, bitter cold outside right now, I’m working at a computer with overhead lights on and a space heater blazing. However, the realities of dwindling fossil fuel supplies, the consequences of global warming, and worries about nuclear waste disposal make me ...

Chances are your students have heard of enzymes before they take your class. Unfortunately, they probably have no idea what they actually are. Many cleaners and products found in the marketplace tout their enzymatic action, and this is what students might be familiar with. But this is not the tru...

Global warming is an environmental problem that my students are familiar with before they walk into my classroom. Not a week goes by without a mention of the issue in the media. Unfortunately, there is a lot of confusion surrounding global warming and its consequences. My students commonly confus...

“Soil isn’t dirt,” I tell my students.  “Dirt gets on your clothes or floors; soil is an ecosystem with interacting biotic and abiotic factors.” Yet, my students continue to use the terms dirt and soil interchangeably until I show them the difference. To show my students the amazingly complex wo...

The hunting and killing of other animals for human use has been practiced as long as our species has been on the planet. Teaching about hunting, however, is not straightforward. Some students are very sensitive to the ethical implications of hunting and find the subject troubling. You can use the...

Often referred to as germs and thought of as harmful, bacteria are all around us. They are an inescapable part of life on Earth.  Amazingly, there are more bacterial cells in our bodies than our own cells!  Bacteria have simplified cellular structures and lack the nucleus and membrane-bound orga...

In the ecological hierarchy, biomes come between ecosystems and the biosphere. They represent the major ecosystem types on Earth. A terrestrial biome is defined by its climate and an aquatic biome is defined by other abiotic factors. These nonliving parts of the ecosystem dictate the adaptations ...

By autumn, I have taught my Biology class many of the underlying cellular processes of organisms. Now, a wonderful coincidence occurs, we begin discussing photosynthesis just as the leaves are turning color.  I use this as a ‘teachable moment’, and take my classes outside.  We conduct a leaf hun...

When we look out on the terrain, everything seems very stable. The Earth’s crust, however, is quite dynamic. The crust itself is thin in comparison to the size of the globe. It is broken into pieces called plates, which rest on the molten rock of the mantle. The motion and interaction of the plat...

When teaching any science course, I try to emphasize the concept of systems. An understanding of systems is invaluable for students. It can help them grasp many concepts from homeostasis to weather to population dynamics. We start by brainstorming some examples of systems. Students usually think ...