Search Results

Showing 1-20 of 30 Resources

Skin Color Interactive Video
Interactive Video

(18 min 58 sec) Embedded quiz modules test students’ understanding as they watch a short film that explores the evidence for the evolution of the variation in skin color among human populations.
Genetic Origin of Variation in Human Skin Color
Data Point

Dr. Rebecca Lamason and colleagues studied the genetic origin of variation in human skin color using a model organism, the zebrafish.
Film Guide for The Biology of Skin Color
Film Guide

The following classroom-ready resources complement The Biology of Skin Color. Featuring anthropologist Dr. Nina Jablonski, the film walks us through the evidence that differences in human skin color are adaptations to varying intensity of UV light.
Lactase Persistence: Evidence for Selection
Activity

This activity provides a case study in human evolution that connects genotype, phenotype, culture, and graphical analysis skills.
How We Get Our Skin Color
Animation

(3 min 32 sec) This engaging animation shows how human skin cells produce the pigment melanin, which gives skin its color.
The Biology of Skin Color
Short Film

(18 min 58 sec) Penn State University anthropologist Dr. Nina Jablonski walks us through the evidence that the different shades of skin color among human populations arose as adaptations to the intensity of ultraviolet radiation in different parts of the world.
Ocean Species Respond to Climate Change
Lecture

(29 min 39 sec) Coral reefs, how they are threatened by climate change, and how to protect them.
Perfect Daughters
Image of the Week

Chromosomes change form as a cell divides to ensure that each daughter cell gets a full, intact copy of the genome.
Teacher Guide: Gene Expression
Teacher Guide

Topics include: Gene expression, RNA structure and function, transcription, RNA processing, translation, and post-translational events.
The Making of the Fittest: Evolving Switches, Evolving Bodies
Short Film

(15 min 27 sec) After the end of the last ice age 10,000 years ago, populations of marine stickleback fish became stranded in freshwater lakes dotted throughout the Northern Hemisphere in places like Alaska and British Columbia. These fish have adapted to a freshwater environment drastically different than the ocean.
The Making of the Fittest: Got Lactase? The Co-evolution of Genes and Culture
Short Film

(14 min 52 sec) Follow human geneticist Spencer Wells, Director of the Genographic Project of the National Geographic Society, as he tracks down the genetic changes associated with the ability to digest lactose as adults.
The Molecular Evolution of Gene Birth and Death
Activity

An advanced lesson that describes the role of mutations in the birth and death of genes. It includes background information, examples, video clips, and animations.
Molecular Genetics of Color Mutations in Rock Pocket Mice
Activity

A lesson that requires students to transcribe and translate portions of the wild-type and mutant rock pocket mouse Mc1r genes and compare sequences to identify the locations and types of mutations responsible for the coat color variation described in the film.
Film Guides: Evolving Switches, Evolving Bodies
Film Guide

These classroom-ready resources complement the short film Evolving Switches, Evolving Bodies, which tells the story of the dramatic transformation of stickleback fish as they adapted to living in freshwater habitats drastically different from the ocean.
Regulation of the Lactase Gene
Click & Learn

Lactase persistence results from a mutation that changes how transcription factors interact, thereby affecting gene expression.
The Central Dogma Song
Clip

(5 min 55 sec) “The Assemblers” (Peter Skewes-Cox and Dr. Graham Ruby) sing about DNA and proteins.
Dengue Virus Life Cycle
Animation

(4 min 12 sec) Dengue virus has sophisticated mechanisms for entering a cell, for replicating its RNA genome, and for translating proteins.
HIV life cycle
Animation

(4 min 52 sec) How HIV infects a cell and replicates itself using reverse transcriptase and the host's cellular machinery.
Protease inhibitors
Animation

(1 min 6 sec) Protease inhibitors prevent maturation of viral proteins inside HIV particles.
Understanding Embryonic Stem Cells
Lecture

(58 min 27 sec) An overview of embryonic development, the progressive differentiation of cells, and properties of embryonic stem cells.