Professor Diane O'Dowd is known for the creative classroom techniques she uses in her introductory biology courses at the University of California, Irvine. One day she will show up with tennis balls designed to stand in for hydrogen ions or with her daughter's old Halloween wig, which stands in for a membrane vesicle. This website provides visitors with fabulous examples of her work, known as...

Baylor University's College of Medicine's BioEd Online website has garnered praise for years from teachers, scientists, and those with a general curiosity about the biological sciences. The collection of slide sets is a great tool for those educators looking to cover topics that include genetics, biology, and evolution. This 15-slide set, created by Tadzia GrandPre, Nancy Moreno, and Lisa Marie...

The original idea for BioQUEST came from Professor John R. Jungck, who taught at Beloit College in southern Wisconsin. Soon after its creation, the organization found willing partners in the guise of the Annenberg/CPB Project and other parties, including the National Science Foundation and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The goal of BioQUEST is to support "undergraduate biology education...

The Applied Mathematics Lab of the Courant Institute is an interdisciplinary research lab, combining applied mathematics, physics, and biology in experimental research and educational laboratory demonstration. The lab is described as "an arena where mathematical theory and numerical simulation collide with experimental observation and measurement." Project descriptions and research papers are...

Peter Ommundsen, instructor at Selkirk College (Canada), has put together these online resources targeting undergraduates. The resources give an overview, examples, exercises, and references in problem-based learning and critical thinking. The resources are concise and serve as helpful introductions to each topic.

Cytogenetics is the study of chromosomes and chromosome abnormalities. This website, created by staff at the University of Washington's Department of Pathology, offers visitors "the opportunity to see what chromosomes look like under the microscope and how abnormalities of chromosomes are identified." Those persons who might need a refresher on what a chromosome is can click on a brief description...

For students of human development, the Human Embryology Animations site is a worthy resource. Created by Dr. Valerie O'Loughlin at Indiana University, the goal of this site is to help students "better understand the complex processes that must occur in embryologic development." The animations are divided into five thematic sections, including General Embryology, Development of the Limbs, and...

The Department of Biological Sciences at Idaho State University offers this website as part of a project "to enhance teacher preparation in the sciences by emphasizing inquiry and experimental approaches to science teaching." The site offers one or two lesson plans (mostly at the high school level) for the following subjects: the cell; molecular basis of heredity; biological evolution;...

Getting students into the laboratory early in their college careers is quite important, and science educators can use this helpful resource to do just that. Created by Professor Sarah Elgin at Washington University, this lab exercise and guide introduces students to the molecular biology techniques used to clone a gene. Over the course of this activity, students sequence a small fragment of the...

Created by faculty at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), this website features an Introduction to Biology course designed for undergraduates from the fall semester of 2001. This is one of many free on-line publications of course materials provided by MIT as part of ifs OpenCourseWare project (last reported on in the NSDL Scout Report for the Life Sciences on March 19, 2003). This...