Learning Exercises

This activity allows students to use bioinformatics tools to identify mutations found in hemophilia and cystic fibrosis.... see more

A one page activity that takes students to several websites related to the obesity epidemic. First they can calculate... see more

This is an out of class exercise that allows students to explore biological molecules that contain heme like molecules... see more

In an introductory biology course, a lecture is often devoted to describing the functions of each organelle. While this... see more

This module focuses on the generation of a standard curve based on the activity of an enzyme. A plasma cholesterol assay... see more

This module focuses on the generation of a standard curve based on the sizes of protein or nucleic acids separated on a... see more

This module explores half life and how the declining amount of a parent radioactive isotope can be expressed by an... see more

This module introduces the math behind PCR reactions and precedes a second module on quantitative PCR. The PCR reaction... see more

This module introduces the math behind quantitative PCR reactions and follows a module on PCR. The PCR reaction is best... see more

This is designed as an in-class activity in which students are asked to predict which biomes would be present at a... see more

An interactive lecture in which students use data on feeding habits and habitat, skeletons, and DNA sequences to draw... see more

In this activity students examine karyotypes from five individuals to try to identify which chromosomes determine gender... see more

In this activity, students are assigned different alleles of the gene for phenylalanine hydroxylase to research using... see more

This module introduces students to the basics behind translation of a messenger RNA sequence into protein. In addition to... see more

Students use Biology Workbench and Protein Explorer to align either orthologous or paralogous sequences and then... see more

Students use mitochondrial D-loop sequences of orangutan, chimpanzee, gorrilla, human and neanderthal sequences to... see more

This is a good introductory exercise to familiarize students with the features and information that can be obtained... see more

Students align three DNA sequences and design primers that will amplify all three samples. In addition to alignment... see more

Students will use human, neanderthal, chimpanzee, gorilla and orangutan D-loop mitochondrial sequences to perform a... see more

A couple of practice problems in translation. Students can either do these manually or use a linked web-based program to... see more

Practice problems in designing PCR primers and understanding the products of the first three rounds of PCR amplification.... see more

A exercise on designing effective DNA primers. This exercise asks students to design primers that would bind to two... see more

Students are asked to use electronic PCR to identify sequence tagged sites (STS) in some large segments of human genomic... see more

Genome projects generate tremendous amounts of genomic DNA sequence every year. Scientists wish to identify individual... see more