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Life sciences focus on all things living, exploring the patterns, processes and relationships of organisms. The goal of life sciences is to demonstrate how unifying principles can help us to make sense of the natural world and solve problems in the world we live in. High school life sciences extend student knowledge of topics such as organisms, ecosystems, heredity and evolution, integrating a long history of scientific research from multiple fields. In high school, students will build on their conceptual understanding of life sciences by investigating and witnessing the relationships among structure and function, matter and energy, ecosystems and natural selection. Students should be able to effectively communicate facts and findings, as supported in the science literacy skills covered in the Common Core State Standards.

In March 2005 High Tech High received a $250,000 grant from the California Department of Education to disseminate project-based learning methods to teachers in non-charter public schools. As part of the project, High Tech High teachers have documented successful projects to share with collaborating teachers from local districts and across the HTH network. The current volume presents the fruits of these labors. The aim is simple: to offer practitioners useful, easily adaptable models of real projects.

With support from the National Science Foundation, we assisted in developing bioinformatics curriculum for high schools and popular bioinformatics tutorials that are used in both college and high school classes. We have shared these materials at several Bio-Link workshops, and at workshops sponsored by CCURI, Tulsa Community College (SEEDBed award), and DelMar College.  Digital World Biology is also partnering with the Amgen Biotech Experience at Shoreline Community College to assist in providing professional development opportunities for high school teachers.

Written for middle school/high school audiences, "The Gene Scene" ushers the viewer into the micro-biological universe of human DNA. I co-wrote the script for this short animation, which was created for an educational CD-ROM marketed to junior high and high schools around the English- and Spanish-speaking world. The colorful cartoon explains some of the basic scientific concepts of human genetics.

Many of the following lessons were developed by Geneticist-Educator Network of Alliances (GENA) teams and have been further adapted by ASHG for use in high school (or advanced middle school) life sciences classrooms. These are identified by GENA cohort in the database. However, we have expanded the database to also include lessons developed through other ASHG programs, such as the High School Workshop. All lessons are intended to follow the BSCS's 5E instructional model (Bybee, RW, et al., 2006).

American school systems tend to put-off studying the sciences in-depth until high school. Only recently has this practice come under long-overdue scrutiny. Over 65 percent of scientists reported that their interest in science began before their middle school years, according to the International Journal of Science Education. In order to have curious, scientifically literate students who can bring innovation to a technologically based economy, it is essential that they have a strong foundation of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, with classes in these subjects beginning in the elementary grades. Perhaps the solution lies in a connected curriculum.

The goal of the sample lesson plans is to show content-area high school teachers how they can use literacy strategies to help high school students learn core content and concepts. The lessons are accompanied by narrative explanations that describe the lesson in action.

This web site provides tools and resources that support ambitious science instruction at the middle school and high school levels. Ambitious teaching deliberately aims to get students of all racial, ethnic, and class backgrounds to understand science ideas, participate in the discourses of the discipline, and solve authentic problems. We describe 4 core instructional strategies that support this kind of teaching. These "high-leverage" practices make up the Science Learning Framework (below), and have been selected based on extensive research of how young people learn science, on authentic forms of science activity, and how teachers learn to appropriate new practices.

This interdisciplinary case study uses the format of a progressive disclosure to explore certain advances in biotechnology and evaluate them within the framework of societal needs, concerns and pressures.  When faced with a heart valve transplant, a high school student and her mother must decide between multiple approaches, some current and others emergent. Highlighted in this case study are the topics of xenotransplantation, 3D bioprinting and the mature minor rule. The case includes a role-playing, public hearing activity that can be used to explore many aspects at the interface of technology and culture: religious rights, parental rights, public health care policy and safety, animal rights, economic issues of organ marketing, and psychological issues of body image.  This case study was originally designed for first year collegiate classes (introduction to biology, introduction to psychology) but is also applicable to AP high school. The flexible nature of the case also allows for expansion of several aspects for advanced classes across multiple disciplines.

3:09 This HD dramatic video choreographed to powerful music introduces the viewer/student to the Biomes of Earth. It is designed as a motivational "trailer" to be shown by teachers in Biology and Ecology classrooms in middle school, high school and college as a visual Introduction to the many types of places that life calls home.

This HD dramatic video choreographed to powerful music introduces the viewer/student to the microscopic kingdom of the Protists. It is designed as a motivational "trailer" to be shown in Biology classrooms in middle school, high school and college as a visual Introduction to the amazing world of these tiny creatures.

inquiryHub high school and middle school curricula are aligned to the Framework and guided by the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). Using research-based approaches to teaching science in a deeply digital environment, students contribute resources, observations, data, and analyses to solve larger scientific problems.  inquiryHub curricula are designed to go beyond traditional science content. By focusing on phenomena relevant to students' lives and communities, the coursesprovides opportunities to authentically engage with science and engineering practices.

"What is Ambitious Science Teaching? Great teaching can be learned. This web site provides a vision of ambitious science instruction for elementary, middle school and high school classrooms. Ambitious teaching deliberately aims to support students of all backgrounds to deeply understand science ideas, participate in the activities of the discipline, and solve authentic problems. We feature 4 core sets of teaching practices that support these goals. These core sets make up the Ambitious Science Teaching Framework. The framework has been based on classroom research from the past 30 years-research that has asked, "What kinds of talk, tasks, and tools do students need in order to fully engage in meaningful forms of science learning?""

Here is a list of additional resources for Inquire High School. These inquiry resources include great links to Web sites, articles, videos, and much more that supports inquiry

At Fred Hutch, we support engaging, challenging and relevant classroom learning experiences for all students by providing access to high-quality instructional materials developed by teachers and scientists. Our free, open-source lessons and units are geared towards high school biotech and biology teachers and focus on giving students opportunities to explore biotechnology and the social dimensions of research science.

The backbone of New Tech High's unique learning environment is project-based learning (PBL). Instead of handing out daily assignments, teachers assign periodic projects that require critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, and communication.

This is a 3.5 minute HD dramatic video choreographed to powerful music, which introduces the viewer to the Origins of LIFE on Earth. It is designed as a motivational "trailer" to be shown by Biology and Life Science teachers in middle and high school and college as a visual "Introduction" to the topic of how life began.

BLOSSOMS video lessons are enriching students' learning experiences in high school classrooms from Brooklyn to Beirut to Bangalore. Our Video Library contains over 50 math and science lessons, all freely available to teachers as streaming video and Internet downloads and as DVDs and videotapes.

Students begin by watching the online video clip and completing a worksheet. After that assignment, instructors can decide which of the two activities (or both!) to use in class. In Activity 1, students identify the locations on chromosomes of genes involved in cancer, using a set of 139 "Cancer Gene Cards" and associated posters. In Activity 2, students explore the genetic basis of cancer by examining cards that list genetic mutations found in the DNA of actual cancer patients. Small-group work spurs discussion about the genes that are mutated in different types of cancers and the cellular processes that the affected genes control. The Activity 1 and 2 Overview document provides short summaries of the two activities along with key concepts and learning objectives, background information, references and rubrics, and answers to students' questions. Both cancer discovery activities are appropriate for first-year high school biology (honors or regular), AP and IB Biology. Activity 2 is also appropriate for an undergraduate freshman biology class.

This case study examines the molecular methods that were used to reverse engineer the 1918 influenza virus strain in order to try and solve the mystery of why it was so deadly. The story starts in the 1950s with the unsuccessful attempts to culture the influenza virus and follows scientists through to the turn of the century when cutting edge molecular tools enabled scientists to finally resurrect the 1918 virus through reverse genetics. The history and methods involved in resurrecting this deadly virus are reviewed in class with a PowerPoint presentation containing clicker questions (answered with a personal response system) and discussion questions (answered in small groups). This "clicker case" is suitable for high school biology and lower division undergraduate biology classes for non-majors. It could also be used in any lower division non-major class focused on human disease and the history of human disease.