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In The Boneyard Project students learn about anatomy and physiology of small mammals and humans while considering ethical questions about utilizing animal products.

The data comes from the open Tree of Life Project, a collaboration among biologists and other scientists around the world. It contains decades' worth of work in phylogeny, evolutionary history of and relationships among groups of organisms. The project is about a year away from a complete tree of all life, Rosindell said. He wanted a system in place that could visualize it as soon as it's ready. Right now, OneZoom only contains mammals, but that's still more than 5,000 species, all correlated with each other and color-coded according to their threat levels. Rosindell has big plans for the rest, and he even wants to build a searchable app for smartphones, showcasing the history and relationships between all life on Earth.

This activity guides the analysis of a published scientific figure from a study that modeled the impact of an infectious fungal disease on a bat population. In 2006, a disease called white-nose syndrome (WNS) began wiping out bat populations in North America. Because many of these bats eat insect pests, the spread of WNS may devastate ecosystems and increase pest control costs. In this study, scientists mathematically modeled the effects of WNS to estimate extinction probabilities for the little brown bat (Myotis lucifugus) population in the northeastern United States. This figure shows these probabilities projected for five annual rates of population decline. Each projection is simulated up to 100 years after WNS emerged in the population. The "Educator Materials" document includes a captioned figure, background information, graph interpretation, and discussion questions. The "Student Handout" includes a captioned figure and background information.

Writing in science connection project.

In this video segment from NOVA: "Cracking the Code of Life," Eric Lander of MIT's Whitehead Institute explains the effort to decode the human genome -- from motivation to process to importance -- and explains what a genome map can do for science and what it can't -- yet.

list of 50 ideas which could be readily modified for STEM topics

wiki with examples of PBL projects across content areas

The Birds-of-Paradise Project reveals the astounding beauty of 39 of the most exquisitely specialized animals on earth. After 8 years and 18 expeditions to New Guinea, Australia, and nearby islands, Cornell Lab scientist Ed Scholes and National Geographic photojournalist Tim Laman succeeded in capturing images of all 39 species in the bird-of-paradise family for the first time ever. This trailer gives a sense of their monumental undertaking and the spectacular footage that resulted.

A decade ago, an international research team completed an ambitious effort to read the 3 billion letters of genetic information found in every human cell. The program, known as the Human Genome Project, provided the blueprint for human life, an achievement that has been compared to landing a man on the moon.

The goal of RI-ITEST is to prepare diverse students for careers in information technologies by engaging them in exciting, inquiry- based learning activities that use sophisticated computational models in support of a revolutionary science curriculum. Teachers will incorporate interactive computer models developed under the Science of Atoms and Molecules (SAM) project at the Concord Consortium. These materials were specifically designed to support a deeper understanding of science made possible through interactive computer simulations and the new physics-chemistry-biology sequence. Connections will be made between the models students use to learn science and possible careers in research and industry where computer modeling is used.

DNA is an interactive Web site where students can learn about DNA and its structure and function, the scientific history of its discovery and its development into a powerful tool in biology, technology, and medicine, and about the Human Genome Project, genetic engineering, and some of the implications and ethical issues surrounding genetic technology.

For the first time in modern history, the world's population is expected to virtually stop growing by the end of this century, due in large part to falling global fertility rates, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of new data from the United Nations. By 2100, the world's population is projected to reach approximately 10.9 billion, with annual growth of less than 0.1% - a steep decline from the current rate. Between 1950 and today, the world's population grew between 1% and 2% each year, with the number of people rising from 2.5 billion to more than 7.7 billion.

TeachEngineering.org is a collaborative project between faculty, students and teachers associated with five universities and the American Society for Engineering Education, with NSF National Science Digital Library funding. TeachEngineering.org is a searchable, web-based digital library collection populated with standards-based engineering curricula for use by K-12 teachers and engineering faculty to make applied science and math (engineering) come alive in K-12 settings. The TeachEngineering collection provides educators with *free* access to a growing curricular resource of multi-week units, lessons, activities and living labs. Initiated by the merging of K-12 engineering curricula created by four universities, the collection continues to grow and evolve over time with new additions from other universities, and input from teachers who use the curricula in their classrooms.

The National Park Service Air Resources Division in an effort to increase the public's awareness of air quality issues has developed a series of five activities for elementary and secondary schools. The activities are for grades six through eight and help teach students about Acid Rain. The lesson plan was prepared as a part of The Uplands Field Research Laboratory, Volunteer in Parks, and Interpretation of Science Project. Funding was provided by the Great Smoky Mountains Natural History Association.

University of Washington Institute for Science and Mathematics Education has created partnerships to envision, cultivate, and study equity-focused educational models and practices in areas of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). We do this work across the K-12 grade span and across formal and informal learning environments. We believe that all young people should be able to decide their own futures. Their opportunity to learn in STEM fields plays a critical role in their opportunity to do so now and in the future. We develop innovative projects that seek to deliver on this goal and closely study them to develop knowledge about how to broaden participation in STEM. The Institute is strongly affiliated with the Learning in Informal and Formal Environments (LIFE) Center.

Hyper-IgM syndrome is an X-linked genetic disorder more commonly affecting males than females. It is caused by the lack of heavy chain class-switching from IgM to other isotypes. Patients with hyper-IgM syndrome are susceptible to a variety of infections as demonstrated in this medical case study. Students are presented patient information, symptoms and a diagnosis that must be interpreted. The case was written for use with the team-based learning (TBL) format involving groups of 4-5 students per group, but it could also be completed as an individual project. The case is targeted to premedical/allied health advanced students and is appropriate for any immunology course at the undergraduate or graduate level in a biomedical science program, or health-related professional courses such as advanced physiology, pathophysiology, microbiology, or histology and cytology.

In a unique twist on human genomics studies that seek to identify genetic variants linked to human disease, researchers have combined whole-exome sequencing of 50,726 adults with the individuals' long-term electronic health record (EHR) data. The effort, by researchers at the Geisinger Health System in Pennsylvania and Regeneron Genetics Center, a subsidiary of New York-based Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, has yielded novel disease-linked variants, including loss-of-function alleles. The team behind the project, called DiscovEHR, has also found that about one in 30 of the individuals harbors a deleterious genetic variant for which a screen or treatment already exists. The group's analysis is described in two papers published today (December 22) in Science.

This interrupted case study introduces basic modeling to investigate a decline in an American marten population on an island in Southeast Alaska. Two summer field technicians working on a long-term field ecology project for one of their professors notice that there are fewer marten captures this year. Through discussions with their professor, conversations with a local fur trapper, and based on their own observations, they develop a plan to model the population and the potential causes of the decline to solve the mystery. Students use Excel or other database software along with life tables and introductory population ecology to investigate three potential causes of the marten population decline. This case was developed for use in an environmental science or wildlife management course but could also be used in an advanced science high school course or general ecology course. It would be beneficial for students to have some background in statistics including how to interpret R-squared values, p-values, and 95% confidence intervals.

All adult mammals but humans are lactose intolerant. Follow human geneticist Spencer Wells, director of the Genographic Project of the National Geographic Society, as he tracks down the genetic and societal changes associated with the ability to digest lactose as adults-or lactose tolerance.