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mpacts and adaptations of climate change across the major regions of the US. Also broken down across 10 sectors-agriculture, coasts, ecosystems, energy, human ,health, etc. 

In this case study students are provided with information for piecing together the story of how forest fragmentation and biodiversity loss can affect the risk of Lyme disease transmission to humans. The case introduces the dilution effect, a widely accepted theory-and one of the most important ideas in disease ecology-which suggests that disease risk for humans decreases as the diversity of species in an area increases. It also explains how landscape fragmentation, one of the most common threats to biodiversity, can influence the risk of Lyme disease for humans. Students interpret and discuss various figures to develop a concept map that connects all the individual results of the story. Students gain an appreciation for the complexity of species interactions in an ecosystem, the effects of forest fragmentation on these interactions and the possible consequences for human health. This activity was developed for an undergraduate introduction to environmental sciences course under the topic of biodiversity and conservation, but would also be suitable for interdisciplinary studies interested in examining the connections between conservation and public health.

2:25 video  Scientists have recently discovered that the limbs of some sea stars have been turning into goo, and populations are dying off! Why is this happening, and will this hurt their ecosystem? Join Laci as discusses how this disease is spreading, and why it have some negative consequences.

This lesson follows a flipped learning model where teachers don't stand before the class and lecture.  Instead, students become grizzly bear scientists and "discover" the answers to real-world research questions through scientific inquiry. Using real-world demographic data collected over 30 years on grizzly bears in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, students work individually, in three Science Teams, and as a class to determine whether or not this grizzly bear population is biologically ready for delisting.

This case study examines a variety of biological factors that may have been involved in the 2013 dolphin "unusual mortality event" (UME) on the East Coast of the United States. The story follows a news reporter and four different scientists who are preparing their notes for speaking at a public hearing about the dolphin die-off event. After reading the story, students assume the roles of these scientists and use the jigsaw method to gather, analyze, and share information.  Due to the interdisciplinary nature of environmental toxicology, this case study exposes students to four main topics: ecology of ecosystems, endocrine system/chemical messaging, immune system function, and virus biology.

Nitrogen is one of the primary nutrients critical for the survival of all living organisms. Although nitrogen is very abundant in the atmosphere, it is largely inaccessible in this form to most organisms. This article explores how nitrogen becomes available to organisms and what changes in nitrogen levels as a result of human activity means to local and global ecosystems.

Hank gives the run down on the top five ways humans are negatively impacting the environment and having detrimental effects on the valuable ecosystem services which a healthy biosphere provides.

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.

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.

Evolution is essential to our curriculum and to scientific literacy. To understand the big picture of biology, students need to understand life in terms of both its history and its future - the changing life forms and ecosystems that have arisen and changed over billions of years, as well as the mechanisms that brought about those changes and are shaping the future of life on Earth.

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Alternative labs list- AP biology teachers submit a curriculum for review and approval and must include laboratory exercises that align with their core ideas. Some of the recommended labs may be too expensive or too time consuming for your class. Listed below are some alternatives that may be acceptable as part of your overall biology curriculum.

Data rich simulation where students adjust parameters and run simulator for 100 iterations and see how 1) two plant species compete for a niche or 2) how composition of a food web changes over time Links to online textbook, videos, visuals, scientists.

Simulators which display cummulative generation graphs for variables.  Very cool data rich resource!  Includes Carbon cycle, demographis (human populations), Disease transmission, ecology, and energy simulations.

The groundwater is cold, deep and twice as salty as seawater, but the water streaming out of Blood Falls, which teems with microbes, tells us that it is unlikely to be lifeless. "The fact that the [water] contains metabolically active micro-organisms that appear to be suited to life in a dark, cold brine supports the idea that life should persist throughout the subsurface," says Mikucki. If so, those microbes could be fuelling life in the Southern Ocean. By breaking down iron-containing rocks they might be dumping as much as 170 million kilograms of iron into the ocean each year, according to the researchers' estimates, helping to explain why marine productivity is seasonally very high near to the coast.

Fact sheets explain ecological issues, define terms and concepts, and provide references for additional information.

STEM PBL cases for purchase from Wake Forest School of Medicine.  HS topics tagged.

Build food webs using interactive site