The sympathetic nervous system — our fight-or-flight response — kicks in when we face a big challenge or risk. When we’re relaxed, our parasympathetic nervous system takes over. Together these two systems make up the autonomic nervous system.
New discoveries about the natural world can inspire the design of human-made objects. In this activity, students will learn about how the overlapping feathers on birds’ wings prompted engineers to reimagine the design of aircraft wings. Students will explain how this is an example of bioinspired design and then create their own bioinspired designs.
Use this activity to have your students collect, graph and analyze anonymous class data about where different emotional responses are felt in their bodies. Then compare the class data with the findings of two recent studies, one collecting modern data and the other drawing on ancient data. To better understand why people experience emotions in different areas of the body, have students explore the physiological chains of emotional responses.
Students will review the components of respiration and photosynthesis reactions to illustrate how the two are complementary. Then students will investigate what impact megafire smoke may have had on photosynthesis for California nut trees. Then students will apply their knowledge by predicting the outcome for photosynthesis and respiration in several scenarios.
Learn how scientists use vampire bats' unusual locomotion to investigate mysteries of their blood-based metabolism. Then, answer questions about this study’s experimental design and discuss how chemical analysis data can support conclusions and answer scientific questions.
Students will learn how their bodies help protect them from bacteria, viruses and other foreign invaders. Have students review the major components of the immune system and investigate the life cycles of a few prevalent pathogens of polar bears, focusing on the mode of transmission and effects of being infected by the pathogen. Students will then infer why polar bears are being exposed to these pathogens more regularly.
A carnivorous plant enzyme and an enzyme from a symbiotic fungal friend expedite digestion of ants. Use this as an example of enzymes, to introduce catalysts to your students. Then have students investigate how enzymes relate to catalysts, create their own catalyst metaphor and find another example of a catalyst or enzyme. Have students share examples and, as a class, discuss why scientists are interested in learning more about enzymes or other catalysts and potential applications of catalysts.
When Ötzi, the mummified iceman, was discovered in 1991, researchers thought they knew how he got his ink. But new findings cast doubt on those assumptions. Learn about unconventional approaches to tattooing and answer experimental design questions, such as the importance of sample size to a scientific study and the difference between quantitative and qualitative evidence.
Students will learn about the openVertebrate project and how it is digitizing vertebrate anatomy using CT scans. Then they’ll explore the archive, form a scientific question about one of the specimens and consider how to research that question.
Patients with a genetic disorder that increases the risk of severe heart disease took a gene editing medicine called VERVE-101 in a clinical trial. Have students answer a set of graphical analysis questions to learn more about the trial’s outcomes and the scientists’ proposed next steps.
