Recommends that teachers avoid cookbook-type exercises and predescribed protocols for laboratory work and instead engage students in research that can teach critical thinking, problem solving, and analytical skills. (DDR)

Points out that the standard bell-jar model used to illustrate breathing has some features that may lead to a misunderstanding of the mechanism of ventilation. Proposes modifications to the model. (DDR)

Describes a course for talented high school students that focuses on DNA science and technology. Employs Cold Spring Harbor's DNA Science laboratory manual. Engages students in performing sickle-cell anemia and thalassemia tests in rabbits. (DDR)

Discusses the scant coverage in high school textbooks of countercurrent exchange for the efficient movement of molecules across biological membranes. Argues that this is one of the most intriguing of the physiological adaptive mechanisms. (DDR)

Provides basic information on discipline-based art education (DBAE), science and DBAE, and science education and art education. Focuses on the interest that these topics and the DBAE curriculum might have for biology teachers. (DDR)

Reports on what appears to be a promising approach to the treatment and spread of cancer. Utilizes a mutant of the common cold virus that appears to kill many kinds of cancer cells but not normal cells. (DDR)

Seeks to give teachers useful information on the extent of the problem of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, mechanisms bacteria use to resist antibiotics, the causes of the emergence of antibiotic-resistant organisms, and practices that can prevent or reverse this trend. Contains 19 references. (DDR)

Reports on a student's research project on the degree of genetic diversity within the trout lily species. Enables a rough prediction of the continuance of the species and provides insight into how to manage plants that might be endangered. Contains 16 references. (DDR)

Describes an interactive game designed to help students see and understand the dynamic relationship between DNA, RNA, and proteins. Appropriate for either a class or laboratory setting, following a lecture session about protein synthesis. (DDR)

Argues that reduction in the use of antibiotics would enable antibiotic-sensitive bacteria to flourish. Presents an activity designed to show students how a small, seemingly unimportant difference in doubling time can, over a period of time, make an enormous difference in population size. (DDR)

Provides three exercises that introduce high school and college students to a common strain of the tobacco mosaic virus and the study of some basic biological processes. Activities involve inoculation of plants and observing and recording symptom development in infected plants. (DDR)

Describes a laboratory employed in undergraduate teaching that uses fruit flies to test student-selected compounds for their ability to cause mutations. Requires no prior experience with fruit flies, incorporates a student design component, and employs both rigorous controls and statistical analyses. (DDR)

Argues that the transfer of plasmid from a bacterium to a plant cell has received little attention. Presents an experiment for studying this type of genetic transformation using the causative agent of crown gall, a malignant plant tumor. (DDR)

Explains how students can perform an alternative authentic DNA fingerprinting analysis. Presents restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis and can serve as a simulated molecular epidemiology laboratory or as a simulated forensic laboratory exercise. (DDR)

Describes an experiment in which plasmid DNA is digested with restriction enzymes that cleave the plasmid either once or twice. The DNA is stained, loaded on a gel, electrophoresed, and viewed under normal laboratory conditions during electrophoresis. (DDR)