Activity
Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Viral DNA Integration

For Teachers 9th - Higher Ed
How do reverse transcriptase inhibitors work? Young virologists examine the function of azidothymidine, a drug doctors use to treat HIV patients, during a hands-on modeling activity. Groups create a strand of DNA from an HIV RNA strand...
Activity
Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Viral DNA Integration

For Teachers 9th - 12th
How do viruses hijack our cells to produce more viral particles? Junior immunologists model how viral RNA integrates into a host cell's DNA using pop beads and use interactive tools to explore a virus' genome. The teacher's guide...
Activity
Exploratorium

Secret Codon - Write a Message in DNA

For Teachers 6th - 12th
String up a message. Pupils string together colored beads to code a word or short phrase. Each color represents one of the four DNA bases. Using a combination of three bases, learners create an amino acid that stand for each letter of...
Lesson Plan
Serendip

Using Molecular and Evolutionary Biology to Understand HIV/AIDS and Treatment

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
HIV mutates rapidly, making treatments challenging to find. Scholars learn about why it mutates so quickly and how scientists race to find treatments. The resource approaches the issue from both a molecular and evolutionary perspective...
Activity
Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Ebola: Disease Detectives

For Teachers 9th - Higher Ed
How did the Ebola virus first infect humans? Young virologists examine genetic sequences from the 2014 Sierra Leone outbreak to find similarities during a riveting activity. Following similar methods used by MIT and Harvard, partners...
Activity
Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Virus Hunters: Epidemiology of Nipah Virus

For Teachers 9th - Higher Ed
Who actually goes looking for a virus? Expose your class to the high-stakes life of an epidemiologist on the trail of the Nipah virus. Pupils engage in a short video, then examine how scientists predict, model, and find the source of...
Activity
Exploratorium

Breakfast Proteins - Construct a Protein through Cereal Additions

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Match my cereal sequence. Pupils view a sequence made by colorful cereal rings and create copies of it. Learners must either remember or write down the sequence to transport the code to another location. Scholars replicate the cereal...
Activity
Howard Hughes Medical Institute

HIV Protease Inhibitors

For Teachers 9th - 12th
How do doctors fight a virus that's constantly mutating? Show science scholars how we fight HIV using one of its own most fundamental processes through a thoughtful demonstration. The lesson focuses on how protease inhibitors prevent HIV...
Activity
Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Winogradsky Columns: Microbial Ecology in the Classroom

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Winogradsky columns are ideal for observing the role of bacteria and other microorganisms in an ecosystem. This student activity guide is complete with data tables for observations and analysis questions for processing what was observed....
Activity
CK-12 Foundation

Ck 12: Nucleic Acids

For Students 10th - 12th
[Free Registration/Login may be required to access all resource tools.] Online activity covers the structure and function of nucleic acids. Students will learn about nucleotides, the different types of nitrogenous bases, and the...
Activity
Science Buddies

Science Buddies: Forensic Science: Building Your Own Tool for Identifying Dna

For Students 9th - 10th
When biologists want to separate different pieces of DNA, RNA, or proteins they use a technique called gel electrophoresis. In this science project you'll build a gel electrophoresis chamber and use it to discover how many components are...
Activity
National Health Museum

Access Excellence: Genes, Dna, and Mutations

For Students 9th - 10th
A good Access Excellence site with an introduction to the processes of transcription and translation, leading to a student modeling activity.
Activity
Science Buddies

Science Buddies: Molecular Scissors

For Students 9th - 10th
Ever used a pair of molecular scissors? Restriction enzymes are molecular scissors that cut DNA into pieces. Find out which enzymes will cut, and where by making a restriction map. Then you can figure out what will happen if you change...
Activity
National Institute of Educational Technologies and Teacher Training (Spain)

Ministerio De Educacion: La Materia Viva 2 Bachillerato

For Students 9th - 10th
In this unit you can read about the molecules that compose us and understand their biological functions. It includes 18 interactive activities.