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Another case is ready for you: "East Meets West: An Infectious Disease Case" by Harry M. Zollars, Catherine D. Santanello, and Marcelo J. Nieto, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Southern IL University Edwardsville.   Ying is sick and is progressively getting worse. His parents' clashing views on Eastern and Western medicine prevent them from agreeing on a course of treatment. As the case unfolds, students follow the progression of their son's illness. After a physician is finally seen and the results of tests are evident, students should be able to narrow the list of possible etiological agents and suggest a potential treatment. In addition, the students should integrate the different health beliefs into the final treatment as well as the aspects of patient counseling. The case works well as an interrupted case that can be assigned to individual students or student teams. This case is appropriate for graduate courses with a component in health care, therapeutics, medicinal chemistry, medicinal plants, microbiology, epidemiology, or cultural competency. Instructors can choose to focus only on the medical components of the case or incorporate the cultural and ethical aspects, depending on course goals and subject area.

This case study introduces students to the complex field of immunology and the wide variety of host-pathogen interactions that drive evolutionary change.  The case begins with a basic overview of the phases of the immune response and how each contributes to host defense against an invading pathogen.  In order to delve deeper into each phase, students explore the metaphor of a battle in which a host and pathogen are locked in combat in order to understand the individual components of the immune response.  Once students successfully understand how the immune system works in general, they are then asked to think creatively about how a pathogen that wants to survive could evolve to evade the immune response, and to find concrete examples in the literature.  The overall goal is for students to gain a deeper understanding of the immune response and how host-pathogen interactions drive coevolution of both host immune components and the pathogen itself. The case was originally designed for an introductory biology course, but can easily be adapted for use in a variety of different courses and levels.

Post the link to the Science News article "Life on Earth may have begun in hostile hot springs" to your virtual classroom. Ask students to read the article for homework and prepare for online class by answering the first question. Before the class meets, provide the students with the links to all articles they will need for class. Class discussion can be conducted via Zoom; the research and recipe-building components can be conducted in breakout rooms.

This interrupted case study, designed for an introductory biology or environmental science course, introduces students to the complexity of ecosystems by examining changes in trophic interactions and abiotic factors in a freshwater ecosystem as a result of human actions. The case narrative describes the recent and undesirable appearance of decomposing algae (Cladophora glomerata) on a public beach in the Laurentian Great Lakes. Students are asked to use the scientific method by creating hypotheses and examining observational data to describe biotic and abiotic components of the Great Lakes ecosystem. The case requires students to differentiate between benthic and pelagic environments (e.g., the influence of depth and phytoplankton density on light availability, and the availability of phosphorus) and the interactions between organisms in both environments. Students also examine shifts in these interactions as a result of the newly introduced zebra and quagga mussels, which have ultimately resulted in the algae's presence on the beach. There are also opportunities to discuss the impact of these ecosystem changes on people who own property and/or visit the beach.

Explore DNA replication and the roles of various components in this process. You'll interact with this virtual lab to collect data, make observations, analyze findings, and draw conclusions.

A team of Indian biologists has demonstrated that a key component of the water buffalo genome can be manipulated to produce foreign proteins in the buffalo's milk (J. Biotechnol. 2015, DOI:10.1016/j.jbiotec.2015.02.001). The findings suggest the possibility of modifying the genetic material of water buffalo-that is, creating transgenic buffalo-to produce protein drugs, says team member Subeer S. Majumdar, of the National Institute of Immunology, in New Delhi.

Multiple sclerosis is an autoimmune condition in which components of the immune system mistakenly attack the fatty lining around nerves in the brain and spinal cord. The majority of drugs currently used to tackle the symptoms of MS, therefore, focus on preventing this destruction by targeting the immune system. But a team of scientists think they may have found a different approach to treatment: targeting stem cells already present in the patient's nervous system.

This case study centers on an active teaching game that simulates a cholera outbreak among five villages along a river, similar to the Haitian outbreak of 2010. By enacting the behaviors of fictional villagers, students learn how trade, travel, sanitation practices and geographic location contribute to the spread of diarrheal disease. Documenting various contamination events of village water supplies allows students to trace the progression of the disease and illustrates how adequate sanitation facilities provide protection against the bacteria Vibrio cholera. Originally designed for an undergraduate upper-division biology course focusing on the epidemiology of diseases, the simulation is also appropriate for microbiology and public health courses, as well as lower division undergraduate biology courses and high school. Biology or epidemiology components of the case study can be highlighted depending on the emphasis of the course being taught. The game can be completed within a 45- to 60-minute class period. Playing cards are available from the Supplemental Materials tab; detailed instructions are found in the teaching notes.

When an elementary school teacher calls in sick to work, she finds out that she is not the only one who will be missing school that day.  Children from her fifth grade class have also become ill and parents are calling to report the absences. The concerned principal of the school finds out the fifth grade class had a field trip to one of the local parks the day before. The case shows the areas visited by the class and provides discussion between the principal and a physician that teaches the readers about water quality and EPA standards for bacteria levels in recreational water. The case has an optional lab component that provides the theory for three methods that can be used to conduct microbial water analyses.  Procedures are included for teachers to lead a lab activity to test water to identify which location in the park caused the illness. This case study and accompanying laboratory activity are recommended for an environmental engineering course or a lower level science course.

The cellular life cycle, also called the cell cycle, includes many processes necessary for successful self-replication. Beyond carrying out the tasks of routine metabolism, the cell must duplicate its components - most importantly, its genome - so that it can physically split into two complete daughter cells. The cell must also pass through a series of checkpoints that ensure conditions are favorable for division.

myBrainshark is a superb tool that allows students to add a voiceover to PowerPoint presentations, Word documents, videos and photo albums -- or to simply produce podcasts. It then blends the visual and audio components together into a video presentation. In the classroom, your students can present completed projects using myBrainshark, rather than face-to-face, or they can use it for mock presentations allowing the teacher to give feedback before the real presentation. The former can help bolster the confidence and communication skills of introverted and/or passive learners. Teachers can also turn their PowerPoint presentations into narrated video presentations (e.g. explanation of concepts) that students can watch outside of school hours. The most immediate limitation of this tool is that presentations cannot be downloaded in the free version. If you are looking for a tool that also allows for video narratives along with PowerPoint presentations (instead of basic audio), I would suggest Present.me.

Components of the immune system called antibodies are found in the liquid portion of blood and help protect the body from harm. Antibodies can also be used outside the body in a laboratory-based assay to help diagnose disease caused by malfunctions of the immune system or by infections.

The most venomous animal on the planet isn't a snake, a spider, or a scorpion; it's a snail-a cone snail, to be precise. The Conus genus boasts a large variety of marine snails that have adopted an equally diverse assortment of venoms. Online today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers report an especially interesting addition to the animals' arsenal: insulin. According to the paper, this marks the first time insulin has been discovered as a component of venom.

This interactive case discussion was created to emphasize the clinical relevance of population genetics, but is also a suitable resource for teaching the basic principles of population genetics while relating them to human genetic variation. Our understanding of human genetic variation has deepened over the past decade due to fine-scale genome mapping. Applying this knowledge to the evaluation of ancestry-based genetic testing strategies, such as direct-to-consumer genetic testing, is an important component of the practice of culturally-competent medicine and a relevant way to teach the foundations of population genetics, including Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium.

Blood typing interactive game

Interactive requiring shockwave:  Replicate DNA, transcribe and translate a sequence of virtual DNA.  Reading and information includied.  Good webquest component.

This interrupted case study for the flipped classroom introduces the human microbiome from the perspective of one of its occupants, Heidi Helicobacter (Helicobacter pylori).  Heidi lives in the gut of Kristen, a college student, and discusses her fellow microbial inhabitants, functions of these various microbes, and alludes to factors that can disrupt the healthy human microbiome. Students prepare for class by viewing several brief videos and then discuss in class whether Kristen should undergo a fecal microbiota transplant to treat her Clostridium difficile infection.  A lab component has students model, using colored beads, how antibiotics can act as a selective agent for drug-resistant microbes such as C. difficile. The case concludes with Kristen about to give birth to a new baby several years later.  Students listen in as Kristen's microbes discuss the formation of the new baby's microbiome. The case has been used successfully in a general biology class and could easily be adapted for a microbiology, human physiology, ecology, or evolution course.

This case study is designed to help students learn about the ecosystem services of Earth (Biosphere 1) by examining the challenges faced by the designers who tried to replicate its components in Biosphere 2. In 1991, four men and four women entered Biosphere 2, a man-made closed ecological system in Arizona, to see if eight biospherians could be sustained by this miniature version of Biosphere 1. The project succeeded in producing most of the food needed, but required additional oxygen before the end of the two-year experiment. After an introduction to Biosphere 2, students learn about the four main types of ecosystem services and discuss how Biosphere 2 might provide these services. At the end of the case, students calculate their own ecological footprint, demonstrating how humans are overreaching the ecosystem services of Biosphere 1, just as the biospherians could not be sustained by the ecosystem services included in Biosphere 2. The case is suitable for an introductory undergraduate course in biology, ecology, or environmental science.

From single-celled organisms to giant redwoods, Life Science explores all of Earth's life forms. Use interactive, animated activities to identify the living and nonliving components of an ecosystem, design a Venn diagram to compare the migrations of monarch butterflies and red knot shorebirds, and take a virtual field trip to a solar farm. Resources in Life Science gives you a wide range of topics, including the cell cycle, genetic disorders, and bioethics.