Print This PageTechnical & Safety Info
Educational Websites
A wide range of information can be found on the websites listed below. In the area of science, one can find information on subject areas such as cell biology, genomics, bioinformatics, molecular biology, transformation, plant biology and plant pathology. In addition to the science information, some of the websites include modules in other subject areas such as mathematics and history. Instructors can find lesson plans and designed experiments for students of all ages.
Curriculum/Lesson Plans/Laboratory Protocols
AgBiosafety—University of Nebraska-Lincoln
The University of Nebraska website contains an education center with educational materials relevant to crop biotechnology and the current debate on the genetic modification of food. This site also contains lesson plans for educators, information on the regulatory system in the United States, biotech crops, and answers to frequently asked questions. New to the site is a section on Biofuels.
Agriculture in the Classroom
Agriculture in the Classroom is a grassroots program coordinated by the United States Department of Agriculture. Its goal is to help students gain a greater awareness of the role of agriculture in the economy and society, so that they may become citizens who support wise agricultural policies. This website is your resource for lesson plans and classroom resources about agriculture for grades K-12.
Arizona State University---Center for Bioenergy & Photosynthesis
The Center for Bioenergy and Photosynthesis has a great webpage with links to short courses on photosynthesis. The levels of the coursework range from elementary school to undergraduate. The short courses include quizzes/tests to be taken by the students on completion.
Biology Lessons for Prospective and Practicing Teachers
This site provides lessons in the areas of molecules and cells, population biology. It provides student instructions, teachers guides, downloads, mapping exercises, summaries for key ideas presented in the lessons and alternative ideas for future discussions.
Biotechnology Institute
The Biotechnology Institute is a nonprofit organization dedicated to education and research about the present and future impact of biotechnology. It offers educational and research programs for teachers, students, opinion leaders and general audiences to raise awareness and understanding of biotechnology.
Biotechnology Online—Teaching Resources – Biotechnology Australia
A website sponsored by Biotechnology Australia. The site provides balanced, factual information on biotechnology and is to be incorporated into the science curriculum of secondary schools in Australia. Biotechnology Online covers the areas of health and medicine, human uses, environment, and food and agriculture. The information on this website is arranged in the form of educational leaflets and covers areas from "what is biotech" to DNA fingerprinting to Australian governmental regulations of biotechnology. The website also contains an extensive glossary of terms used in the area of biotechnology Activities include text case studies, experiments, interactive activities, student worksheets and teacher notes.
Boston University School of Medicine—City Lab
City Lab is a biotechnology learning laboratory at Boston University School of Medicine. City Lab offers a list of modules and curriculum guides for teachers and students in middle school and high school. Each module or investigation is defined in a mystery context. The activities are thought provoking and encourage creativity and learning.
California Foundation for Agriculture in the Classroom
This website was designed to increase the awareness and understanding of agriculture in California. However, the resources found on this website can be beneficial to all teachers and students. The resources include lesson plans, web links, and creative ideas to enhance the learning experience.
Carolina Science and Math
These pages are a resource for teachers and contain curriculum materials in the science subject areas of biotech and genetics, earth science, elementary science, environmental science, life science, and chemistry.
Center for Biology Education
This website is sponsored by the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The site contains resources for teachers and BioLEARN Activity Development Resources in the areas of biology, ecology and taxonomy and analogies for teaching genetics concepts.
Dolan DNA Learning Center
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory has developed an animated site entitled “DNA from the Beginning”. The site includes information in the subject areas of genes and heredity and covers both plants and animals. In addition to printed information, the site includes video interviews, biographies, and an image gallery for each subtopic.
European Initiative for Biotechnology Education (EIBE)
The European Initiative for Biotechnology Education (EIBE) seeks to promote skills, enhance understanding and facilitate public debate throughout Europe. Founded in 1991, EIBE has become an active European multidisciplinary network of experts in biotechnology education drawn from 20 centers in 17 European countries. The main activity of the Group has been to generate teaching materials for 16 -19 year olds. EIBE Units are collections of activities including a variety of experimental protocols, practical activities, role-plays, information and debates.
Eureka Science
A National Science Teachers Association recommended website. The web-pages contain information about DNA, RNA, cells, proteins, and cloning. The web-pages are also animated to enhance the learning experience.
Genetic Science Learning Centre
This site contains multiple sections on genetics. Interested parties are provided with on-line and hands-on activities and laboratory protocols.
Illinois Corn Growers Association
Earth Friendly Facts & Information on the Environment and Agriculture. Provides curriculum and activities on corn products including ethanol.
Iowa State University -Biotechnology
Select ‘educational resources’. This site contains online courses in Biotechnology Education, classroom lab activities, step by step tutorials for lab activities, curriculum units, links to news stories, and biotechnology topics of interests. New to the site are curricula for grades 9-12 concerning molecular technologies.
Learn.Genetics
This site is a product of the Genetic Science Learning Center at the University of Utah. This site contains a long list of “print-and-go activities ranging from the basics on DNA to genetics, cloning and health issues.
Library of Crop Technology Lesson Modules—University of Nebraska-Lincoln
The University of Nebraska has developed lesson modules in the areas of: Genetically engineering a crop, herbicide mode of action, Plant biochemistry, Nutrition & biotechnology and High school crop genetic engineering. These lessons are composed of text enhanced with images, animations, a hyper-linked glossary and quizzes. New to the site is the Plant and Soil Sciences elibrary.
Molecular Biology Notebook
A comprehensive package for the hands-on teaching of Molecular Biology. Contained on this site are numerous lesson plans for genetics in PDF format. The site also provides links to other recommended sites, e.g. Biology hyper-textbook. It has good diagrams with notes on DNA structure, DNA to RNA, RNA structure, RNA to protein, etc.
NCBE (National Centre for Biotechnology Education, University of Reading in the United Kingdom)
Contains practical activities for all grade levels. Experiments have been designed and presented in great detail. Explanations for experimental results and future activities are also included in the teacher's packet.
National Health Museum(program written and donated to the museum by Genentech)
A national educational program that provides information for high school biology and life science teachers. This site covers information on a wide variety of subjects including biotechnology, genetics, biochemistry, and the human genome. The resource center contains a visual library, e.g., the living skeleton and good color transparencies on biology and chemistry. It has a historical timeline for the development of biotechnology from 6000 B.C. to the present.
Northern Arizona University—Center for Science Teaching and Learning
This site contains curricular resources for teachers in the area of biotechnology. The lessons have been divided into twelve complete downloadable units. The units were developed to be implemented in a variety of classrooms - biology, chemistry, biotechnology, and applied science.
Online Biology Book
The Online Biology Book is hosted by Estrella Mountain Community College, in sunny Avondale, Arizona. This is an excellent resource for teachers and students on subjects ranging from general biology and chemistry to bacteria and fungi to plants and animals. Term definitions, good graphics and links to other resources are also included.
Princeton University
This resource site contains good laboratory manuals in Microsoft Word and PDF format and classroom ready protocols.
San Diego State University
A resource site containing Biology lessons for practicing teachers, teaching tips, exercises, alternative ideas, a glossary and biolinks. The subject areas for the lessons include molecules & cells, population biology. Teacher's guides and student instructions are available.
SMILE Program--Science and Mathematics Initiative for Learning Enhancement
The SMILE website is hosted by the Illinois Institute of Technology. The Biology lessons are divided into the following categories: Anatomy & Physiology, Zoology, Botany, Microbiology, Genetics, Environmental Studies and Ecology, Biochemistry, General Biology and Miscellaneous. Lessons can also be found in chemistry, mathematics and physics.
The Biotechnology Project
This site contains instructional resources developed by the Madison Area Technical College. The site contains laboratory activities, a laboratory manual and information and activities on protein purification.
The Lesson Plans Page
The website contains detailed lesson plans, ideas and activities for all subject areas. The lesson plans are grouped according to subject area and grade level. Printable versions are available.
The Team Ag Ed Learning Center
The Council for Agricultural Education, The National FFA Foundation and other partners have created this site to provide the entire agricultural education community with a single source for online delivery of new and exciting electronic instructional materials, tools and resources.
UIUC-Hughes Biotechnology Education and Outreach Program (BEOP)
The UIUC-Hughes Biotechnology Education and Outreach Program (formerly known as the Footlocker Program) is devoted to training teachers and students in biotechnology concepts and hands-on experiments. This program has two main components: (1) training teachers in biotechnology concepts and applications; and (2) loaning biotechnology equipment and supplies to high school classrooms. This website is a wonderful resource for teachers and has links to other resource sites.
US Grains Council
This site contains an education center and includes videos which trains the public on realities of the U.S. grain handling system and how this system interacts with the widespread use of biotechnology and genetically modified production tools.
University of Nebraska at Lincoln
This site presents unbiased, research-based information through lesson modules in subjects such as “genetically engineering a crop”, “herbicide mode of action”, “high school crop genetic engineering”. The site also contains links to other sites containing educational information.
USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) Agriculture in the Classroom
Contains a variety of information for students and teachers, including sections on animals, virtual field trips, cool science, agricultural science projects.
Washington University
This University has a Science Outreach Program and has developed curricula for teaching students in K-12. The newest curriculum is for students in grades 10-12 and is titled “Building Food for the Future; Agricultural Biotechnology Activities for Urban Students”. Units are available in biology, chemistry, ecology, environmental science, health and life science.
123 Genomics
A Genomics, Proteomics and Bioinformatics Knowledge Base. Beginner and advanced information is available (through live links) in these subject areas, as well as information on careers, news, and journal articles. In addition, this site contains live links for laboratory protocols, databases, interactive tutorials and resource information. This site is recommended for "advanced" high school biology students and college students with a science focus.
Good Virtual Laboratories
Cells Alive
This website contains interactive animations of cell growth and division, descriptions of plant, animal, and bacterial cells, and definitions of the cell organelles. It shows the comparative sizes of bacteria, viruses and fungi. Also included is an animation of the infection of T4 bacteriophage and HIV. The cell gallery contains pictures and explanations on how bacteria divide and multiply.
Gamequarium
Gamquarium is a website which uses games to teach science. Areas of science include plants, cells, electricity, space, energy, matter—just to name a few. The interactive games make learning fun for the primary and middle school students.
Genetic Science Learning Centre
The labs on this website cover many basic concepts, including online building of DNA, transcription and translation. Other sections include genes and blood type; inside a cell; match up chromosome pairs and what makes a firefly glow.
Howard Hughes Medical Institute – Biointeractive
This site has a very good virtual laboratory. It could be used by pupils from Secondary school and Junior Colleges to practice and revise the skills that they have just learned in recombinant DNA technology laboratories. The Bacterial ID laboratory starts from isolating a bacterial colony, growth of bacteria, PCR and DNA sequencing.
Structure of DNA
Commonwealth Scientific & Industrial Research Organization
This is an Australian website that has a link to “education” on its homepage. It contains experiments for students in the areas of biology, chemistry, physics, mathematics, technology and the environment. New activities for students appear every two months.
University of Massachusetts at Amherst
An interactive animated tutorial on DNA structure. This website is available in multiple languages.
Good Clipart Site
Classroom Clip Art
This site contains numerous free clip art in a variety of subject areas. It also has useful sites for teachers which include areas for learning as well as teacher resources for the classroom.
Online Science Quiz Sites
High School Hub
A noncommercial learning portal to excellent free educational resources for high school students. It features online learning activities in various subject areas including biology and chemistry, a quiz hub, and teacher resources.
Homework Spot
A resource for elementary, middle and high school students in all subject areas. This is also a good resource for teachers and parents involved in education. The site contains links to "ask an expert" for aiding students and teachers in various subject areas, quizzes, research areas, and reference materials.
Kids Hub
A free online learning site for elementary and middle school children. It features daily quizzes, learning activities, quizzes in various subject areas, and teacher resources.
Association for Science Education
The ASE website is dedicated to teachers, advisers, technicians, industrialists and others contributing to science education in the UK. Its goal is to promote, support and develop science education from primary through to tertiary levels by offering support, advice and information to individual teachers, schools and local colleges.
Council for Biotechnology Information (CBI)
A website dedicated to science-based information. It contains information addressing "what is biotechnology", listing the benefits of biotechnology, examining food, feed and environmental safety.
Discovery.com
Contains lesson plans for teachers in grades K-12 in all areas of science and mathematics. Suggested teaching tools are listed and demonstrated. There is also a section for students entitled “homework helper”.
Education World
This is a site especially for educators. It offers lesson plans, curriculum resources, online continuing education courses, site reviews, and technology resources for the classroom.
Energy Information Administration – Kid’s Page
The site contains information about the different sources of energy and includes six sections: Energy Facts, Fun and Games, Energy History, Classroom Activities, Related Links and Glossary.
Glossary of Biochemistry Terms
A good glossary of biochemistry terms.
Kansas State University
A source for short movies that can be watched on your computer. These movies include subjects such as “What is biotechnology”, “Risks and Benefits”. In addition, the site contains frequently asked questions, fact sheets on biotechnology, a glossary of biotechnology terms, links to other biotech sites, and more.
Lapeer County Information Depot
Contains numerous science worksheets and experiments which are downloadable. It also has sections on teaching tips.
National Biotechnology Information Center
This site contains activities, games, tutorials, courses which are intended to assist educators and to provide a fun and challenging means for students to learn necessary skills in basic scientific investigation and the biotech-related sciences.
National Institutes of Health – National Human Genome Research Institute
The site provides info on the Institute, the ethical, legal and social implications on genome research. Genetic education modules are available for teachers.
Plant Pathology Online
Publications within these sections include exercises for K-12 teachers, plant disease lessons, laboratory exercises (introductory and advanced), topics in plant pathology (introductory and advanced), an illustrated glossary, and additional resources.
PlantingScience
“PlantingScience is a learning and research resource, bringing together students, plant scientists, and teachers from across the nation. Students engage in hands-on plant investigations, working with peers and scientist mentors to build collaborations and to improve their understanding of science”.
United States Department of Agriculture
This governmental website contains information on topics such as nutrition, plants, insects, and soil. Activities have been designed for “Whiz Kids” to encourage interest in science.
University of Arizona Biotech Project
Contains designed laboratory experiments. Students would be able to complete molecular biology experiments using inexpensive ordinary food stuffs. Both the teacher edition and the student edition are included in MS Word, PDF and HTML format.
University of California-Berkeley, Scientific Outreach
This site contains a series of informative presentations including topics on crops (rice, alfalfa, fruits, vegetables), environmental issues, plants and medicine, plant diseases, and more. Under the education section, there are teaching aids, curricula, and student activities.
University of Wisconsin Biotechnology Centre
The University of Wisconsin has developed "BioTrek", a biotechnology outreach program for the public. The materials found on this site include protocols for experiments, video tapes, posters, and a range of other teaching tools. The program also discusses the social issues and news stories related to biotechnology.
