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10 Resources for Teaching Cell Membranes - Science Lessons That Rock

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One of my favorite parts of the cell unit is teaching about membranes. If you ask me, they are by far the most important part of the cell. Everything the cell does is because it is responding to signals received by the membrane. While many students think the nucleus is in charge, it is in ...

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This could be a great way to teach genetics and it makes learning about Mendel much more relatable!

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Gregor Mendel is considered the father of modern genetics. He was an Austrian monk who worked with pea plants to explain how children inherit features from their parents. His work became the foundation of how scientists understand heredity, and he is widely considered a pioneer in the field of genetics.

Pea Plants and Mendelian Genetics

In Mendel's famous pea plant experiments, he deliberately cross-pollinated pea plants with obviously different features to discover some important things about how offspring inherit traits from their parents.

The Experiments

Mendel measured seven specific characteristics of pea plants:

1. Smooth or wrinkled ripe seed

2. Yellow or green seed albumen

3. Purple or white flower

4. Inflated or constricted ripe pod

5. Green or yellow unripe pods

6. Axial or terminal position of flowers

7. Tall or dwarf stem length

What He Discovered

Between 1856 and 1863 Mendel experimented on the Pisum sativum, or pea plant, species. His experiments led him to make three generalizations:

1. Offspring acquire one hereditary factor from each parent. This is known as the law of segregation.

2. Different traits have an equal opportunity of occurring together. This is known as the law of independent assortment, and today's scientists understand this to be largely inaccurate. Some genes are in fact, linked together and appear more often together.

3. Offspring will inherit the dominant trait, and can only inherit the recessive trait if he inherits both recessive factors. This is known as the law of dominance.

Most scientists of his day rejected Mendel's work. It wasn't widely accepted until after he died. During his lifetime, most scientists believed offspring inherited traits by blending, that is offspring inherited an 'average' of the traits of the parents.

Demonstrating Mendelian Genetics

Mendel is said to have tested over 28,000 plants to come to his conclusion. While the scope of his project is probably not realistic for you to recreate, you can study genetics using plants.

Who's the Father?

Who's the Father is an experiment in which students will experiment on plants to predict observable traits. You can recreate the experiment using Wisconsin Fast Plants® ( Brassica rapa) - which are designed specifically so students can use them to study genetics. They also grow faster - a complete life cycle takes 28-30 days. This experiment will take approximately six weeks of daily observations to complete. It's best suited for older students in middle school or high school who are studying genetics.

Materials

Instructions

1. Construct your lighting and watering systems first. Wisconsin Fast Plants® need continuous fluorescent light, and a continuous supply of fertilizer and water. You can either build homemade versions of these, or you can purchase pre-made kits through Carolina Biological. Both options are linked above in the materials list.

2. Plant the seeds (you do not need to use all of them) according to the growing instructions. You'll want to start by planting the non-purple, yellow-green leaf seeds (this will be referred to as the first-generation offspring, or O1.) Also plant the non-purple stem, hairless seeds. (These seeds are the mother seeds, referred to as P1). Make sure you label which is which!

3. In approximately four to seven days, your plants should grow. Observe the stem and leaf colors of both sets of plants and record your observations in your lab notebook. The best way to quantify your observations is to count the phenotypes (count the number of plants that have non-purple stems, the number of plants that have yellow-green leaves, etc.)

4. Discard the mother plants, but maintain the offspring plants.

5. Write a hypothesis as to how the offspring plants inherited their observable genetic traits. For example, if you observe that most of your offspring plants have non-purple stems but yellow leaves, you may assign these as dominant traits. If you observe that some of your offspring plants have purple stems and green leaves, you might assume these are recessive traits. Based on your observations, create a testable hypothesis. You'll want to try to guess the father plant's stem and leaf colors based on your hypothesis.

6. Intermate the plants using a bee stick or Q-tip. To do this, gently swap the bee stick on one plant, ensuring that the plant has pollen, and then sharing it with another plant. Do this several times to make sure that each plant receives pollen from several other plants, both with like and unlike observable traits. Do this once a day for three days.

7. Once the three days are over, cut off any flower buds that were not pollinated.

8. Stop watering the plants and let them dry out.

9. Harvest the seeds and replant them, essentially starting the process again. These seeds are the second generation of offspring, or O2.

10. Make observations about the stem and leaf color of the next generation of plants. Do you think your hypothesis was correct?

11. Plant the yellow-green leaf seeds. These will be known as the 'father' or P2.

12. After a few days, observe the stem and leaf colors of the P2 plants. Do your observations support your hypothesis?

Video Directions

This video shows how to do genetics labs and will help you tackle the procedure for studying the genetics of your plants.

Online Labs

It's worth noting that if growing peas and making homemade apparatuses are a bit more than you were bargaining for, there are a few great interactive labs online.

Mendel's Peas

This online lab is a replica of Mendel's pea experiments. The lab has a handy menu so you can actually explore the lab before doing anything. The lab takes you through various steps including planting the peas, observing their traits, and then cross pollinating the first plants you grew. This is exactly what Mendel did so students can get a feel for the tedious process he went through to come up with his observations.

Pea Soup

While graphically not as exciting, Pea Soup is another online option that helps students observe two traits in pea plants. To get started, you click on the 'begin experiment' button. Then you are brought to a page where you can choose to 'mate' two different peas. Their genotypes are written for you. Then the page will show you all the options available for the 'parents' you selected. The page moves quickly, and you can miss it if you're not writing everything down.

MIT's STAR Genetics

MIT's STAR Genetics lab is a downloadable 'game' of sorts where students can mix and match genotypes of a variety of species including pea plants, fruit flies, and even cows. The program is best suited towards high school students who have a strong understanding of Biology.

Genetics Is Fun

Whether you study pea plants or fruit flies, or simply go home and observe your parents' traits and try to figure out how you got your own, studying genetics can be a lot of fun. While modern genetics identifies a few things that Mendel got wrong, his theories still apply where traits are not linked or influenced by other factors.

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Gregor Mendel's Pea Plant Experiment | LoveToKnow

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Gregor Mendel is considered the father of modern genetics. He was an Austrian monk who worked with pea plants to explain how children inherit features from their parents. His work became the foundation of how scientists understand heredity, and he is widely considered a pioneer in the field of genetics.

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Having students build their own edible DNA strands could be a great way to help them visualize how codons come together to form a genetic code - and what student doesn't love food!

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Teaching Protein Synthesis Just Got Easier - Science Lessons That Rock

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Protein Synthesis is actually a fun concept for me to teach. For me, there are 2 barriers you need to cross in order for students to learn protein synthesis:1. Learning about the steps of transcription and translation (the easier part)2. Understanding how DNA translates into gene expression (the harder part) Most of my students do ...

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Carbon Cycle Lab- Photosynthesis and Respiration - Science Lessons That Rock

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This lab is one of my top sellers in my Teachers Pay Teachers store. It is easy to set up and doesn’t require a lot of materials. However, I frequently get questions about the lab so I’m hoping this blog post will be useful to those teachers out there who about to set up this ... Read more

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I love the idea of this! This forces students to use scientific principles and experiments to try to solve a murder mystery - seems like this could be a really fun project, especially around Halloween!

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Some of these might be a little advanced for high school, but these models are really helpful for understanding some more difficult biological concepts.

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Welcome to my collection of computational models for biology and ecology. Hypothesize, test, and revise your mental models. Perturb, run, and reflect upon these thought experiments.

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One experiment I remember from Freshmen biology was when my teacher sent us out in groups of two to swab what we thought would be the germiest part of the school and then we grew bacteria cultures from that. It was actually really interesting to compare what we assumed would be gross and full of bacteria versus which swabs actually grew the most bacteria cultures.

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This could be a fun experiment for teaching students about bacteria and germs

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This site has a nice variety of online dissections; while there are some advantages to in-person dissection, students could use these to help study at home - it could also be an option for allowing some students to make up labs that they missed.

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Most biology classes will have some form of dissection - the frog is the most common. However, if you do not do an actual dissection, many of the sections below contain links to virtual dissections and image files. I also have resources at anatomycorner.com for classes that are focused on human anatomy and cat dissections.

Frog Dissection

Frog Dissection: Complete Guide - includes external anatomy, mouth, and the organs of the abdominal cavity, download available in pdf and google doc.

Frog External Anatomy - legs, eyes, mouth structures
Frog Dissection - major organs of the digestive, urogenital, and circulatory and respiratory systems

Frog Brain and Bones - remove the frog's brain, expose the bones of the lower leg

Frog Dissection Gallery - collection of labeled and unlabeled images of the frog

Fetal Pig

Fetal Pig Gallery - collection of labeled and unlabeled images

Other Organisms

Planarian Observation - test response to light and food, observe regeneration

Observation of a Live Earthworm - examine an annelid, observe its behavior Earthworm Anatomy - dissect an earthworm, locate major structures
Earthworm Virtual Dissection - using animation and photos, alternative to real dissection
Earthworm Labeling - image of an earthworm, label its parts

Squid Dissection - describes procedure for dissecting a squid and identifying structures
Virtual Squid Dissection - walk-through guide with photos of the squid

Rat Dissection

Introduction - rat classification, body regions, terminology
External - general external structures, skinning of the rat to expose muscles and bone
Head, Thoracic, Abdominal - digestive system, heart, lungs
Urogenital System - kidneys, reproductive organs
Circulatory - major veins and arteries

Anatomy and Physiology

Sheep Brain Dissection | Virtual Sheep Brain Dissection

Sheep Heart Dissection | Virtual Heart Dissection

Cow Eye Dissection | Virtual Cow Eye Dissection

Human

Kidney Coloring - color the nephron, and various other structures

Body Worlds Resources - worksheets and information about the Body Worlds Exhibit by Gunther von Hagens

*Human Anatomy and Cat dissection resources can be found at the A&P Class Site

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Most biology classes will have some form of dissection - the frog is the most common. However, if you do not do an actual dissection, many of the sections below contain links to virtual dissections and image files. I also have resources at anatomycorner.com for classes that are focused on human anatomy and cat dissections.

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Digestive Biochemistry - Bile Experiment

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Digestive Biochemistry - Bile Experiment

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This seems like a really simple/easy experiment, but would also be great for helping visualize how bile breaks down dietary fats

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I haven't finished going through all of these yet, but there are a ton of great resources in here for online biology learning!

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I know many of you are planning for different circumstances in your Biology classrooms this year. With a large population of students learning virtually and many schools forbidding science labs even in face-to-face environments, teachers are looking for virtual lab options.

In addition to virtual labs, there are some easy labs that students can do at home with household materials. Having taught homeschool Biology for the past 10 years with very small budgets, I have a lot of experience creating inexpensive labs that can be done at home. I have put some of my video labs on my YouTube channel or you can find 5 free at-home Biology labs that I've used in the past.

I've collected a list of some websites with virtual labs and simulations. Most of them are free! I hope it's helpful to you as you plan your year.

*Please note- I have experience with some of these sites, but not all. If you find information that is in error, please let me know.

Looking for more resources for distance learning?

HHMI - This site provides real science and data for students to explore through virtual labs (Free)
This site provides realistic lab experiences that let students virtually practice their skills (Free trial accounts during covid that will provide up to 8 simulations for a class for free!) Interested in more updates, science resources, and teaching tips? Subscribe to my email list below.

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I know many of you are planning for different circumstances in your Biology classrooms this year. With a large population of students learning virtually and many schools forbidding science labs even in face-to-face environments, teachers are looking for virtual lab options.

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As basic as this is, this is a great experiment for discussing osmosis and hypertonic/hypotonic solutions.

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If you are currently researching elementary school science fair projects, you'll want to add the osmosis experiment for kids to your list!

The best part about this science experiment is that you can do it at home with items you already have in the house.

It also works well in a classroom environment to teach kids about cell membranes, osmosis, and the parts of an egg!

The inspiration behind this osmosis experiment is a mix between the classic naked egg experiment and a demonstration of a cell membrane lab.

Cell Membrane Experiment with an Egg: Osmosis Experiment for Kids

This twist on the classic naked egg science experiment illustrates the concept of osmosis in a fun and surprising way for kids. Osmosis for kids has never been easier to explain.

Add a few variables and you're ready to have an easy science fair project without stress.

How to Explain Osmosis to a Child

Keep reading to learn the osmosis egg experiment explanation.

The inside membrane of an egg is a semi-permeable membrane. The inside of the egg has a lower water concentration than the container, so over time, the membrane of the egg allows water to seep into the egg.

This makes the egg much bigger. The membrane is made partially of keratin protein, which is also found in human hair.

At first, children will likely think that the egg's membrane is solid, but the soaking the egg in the red water will show that the membrane is semi-permeable, but strong enough to hold the water once it is removed from the container.

Monkey hypothesized that the molecules of the yolk were "full" and could not accept any additional chemical bonds which prevented the water from entering the yolk.

Thanks to a reader, we now know that the proteins in the yolk are impermeable, so the dye cannot get through! So Monkey was close.

How to Turn the Osmosis Experiment into a Science Fair Project

The difference between a science demonstration and a science experiment is a hypothesis, variables, and testing.

For this osmosis experiment, kids could answer questions like:

What material dissolves eggshell the fastest?

Do all eggs have a semipermeable membrane?

Are there materials that will make an eggshell stronger instead of weaker?

Is there a way to prevent the osmosis process from happening?

Is it possible to pull the liquid back out onto the outside of the membrane?

Answering these questions with variables and testing and recording the data will make this a super easy osmosis addition to classic science fair projects.

Red Blood Cell Osmosis Activity Supplies

What You Need for a Science Fair

You'll want to have these supplies on hand before doing your science fair project. Shop the included Amazon storefronts to make things easier and don't forget to download the free science fair planning checklist before getting started!

Science Fair Project Planning

When you're planning your project, you want to keep everything organized. Click the image below to get my free science fair project checklist so you can start organizing your project from the start.

You may also want to check out this list of science fair project research supplies.

Supplies for a Science Fair Project

There are so many supplies for science fair projects that are individual to each project, but if you want a general list of possible supplies and inspiration for your project, check out my selection of science fair experiment supplies on Amazon.

Supplies for a Science Fair Presentation

Your science fair presentation is important! It should look presentable and eye-catching. Check out this list of my favorite science fair presentation supplies.

Osmosis Science Fair Project Directions

Follow along with these directions to make your own osmosis science demonstration using an egg!

Phase One

This part of the experiment follows the basic instructions for the naked egg science experiment. First, soak your raw egg in about 2 cups of vinegar for about 24 to 48 hours.

The vinegar will dissolve the egg shell because the acid reacts with calcium carbonate that makes up an egg's shell.

This produces carbon dioxide, calcium, and water. When the surface of the vinegar is scummy and bubbly, you are ready to start phase two.

Phase Two

Fill a large container about halfway full with water. Add red food coloring to turn the water red. Carefully move your naked egg into the red water. Let the egg sit for about 24 hours.

Phase Three

Remove the egg from the water. It should now be a bright red, but completely egg shaped.

If you dry the egg with a paper towel, you can see that it is completely dry and will not leak.

How does this work? It is all about osmosis!

Popping the egg will reveal that the inside white of the egg has turned red, but the yolk has remained orange.

Although the membrane surrounding the egg yolk and white can soak up water, the yolk itself does not.

More Science Fair Project Ideas

Cow Digestive System Project for a Science Fair

20+ Science Fair Projects with LEGOs that are Educational and Fun

20 Fun and Easy Slime STEM Fair Projects

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Osmosis Experiment for Kids: Blood Cell Membrane with an Egg

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If you are currently researching elementary school science fair projects, you'll want to add the osmosis experiment for kids to your list! The best part about this science experiment is that you can do it at home with items you already have in the house.