Charles Darwin's Game of Survival. Hands-on Activities for Teaching Biology to High School or Middle School Students. By Drs. Ingrid Waldron and Jennifer Doherty, University of Pennsylvania The expression "hands-on, minds-on" summarizes the philosophy we have incorporated in these activities - namely, that students will learn best if they are actively engaged and if their activities are closely linked to understanding important biological concepts. Many of our activities are explicitly aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards, as indicated by (NGSS) in the descriptions below and the links to the right.
Additional information is provided in Summary Tables and in the Teacher Preparation Notes for these activities. To accommodate limited budgets, most of our activities can be carried out with minimum equipment and expense for supplies. Additional resources for teaching biology are available at More Minds on Activities for Teaching Biology.
Read More Intro and Biological Molecules Is Yeast Alive? Enzymes Help Us Digest Food(revised, July, 2016) Who Took Jerell's iPod? More Minds-on Activities. S BioInteractive. Science & Nature - Caveman challenge. Mouse Actogram Game | Project NEURON | University of Illinois. This activity explores the patterns and changes in the circadian rhythms of mice, imitating the actual methods and tools that scientists use in real research laboratories. Access the Exploration Guide below for an introduction on how to use this game. An explanation of the circadian rhythm patterns you see are listed in the Mouse Actogram Responses (don't view this until you've had a chance to play the game).
Additional teacher resources are available as part of the Circadian Rhythm Unit curriculum materials. Exploration Guide (PDF)Mouse Actogram ResponsesCircadian Rhythm Unit Choose a Light/Dark Cycle The mice experience 12 hours of dark and 12 hours of light in a 24 hour day cycle. Light-Dark Cycle in Hours. S BioInteractive.