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Australian outfit Bridge 8, who have the admirable mission of devising "creative strategies for science and society," and animator James Hutson have created six fantastic two-minute animations on various aspects of critical thinking, aimed at school ages 8 to 10, or kids between the ages of 13 and 15, but also designed to resonate with grown-ups. Inspired by the animation style of the 1950s, most recognizably Saul Bass, the films are designed to promote a set of educational resources on critical thinking by TechNYou, an emerging technologies public information project funded by the Australian government.

Ever wonder how your brain processes information? These brain tricks and illusions help to demonstrate the two main systems of Fast and Slow Thinking in your brain.

Why is the North American population of monarch butterflies declining? In 1999, a study published in the journal Nature suggested that a variety of genetically modified corn was killing these iconic butterflies. While it was later shown that the conditions in this study did not mirror those in the field, the results garnered a lot of media attention and many people today still believe that monarchs are being killed by GMOs. This case familiarizes students with the plight of the monarchs, encourages them to think about how to test the hypothesis that a toxin is responsible for their decline, and takes a critical look at several studies that investigated the role of Bt corn in the life cycle of monarchs. This interrupted case takes 60-90 min to complete, requires little to no science background, and can be used to explore the ecology and wildlife management of monarchs; risk assessment, toxicity, and exposure; experimental design, the scientific method, hypothesis, and critical thinking; or the relationship between science, the media and the public.

The resource covers basic logic and faulty arguments, developing student's critical thinking skills. Suitable for year 8-10, focused on science issues, the module can be adapted to suit classroom plans.

"We have found that the best way to keep a record of activity and ideas is to create a table with four columns-1) Activities we did, 2) Patterns or observations, what happened?, 3) What do you think caused these patterns or observations?, 4) How do these patterns help us think about the essential question or puzzling phenomenon? "

Humans construct boundaries -- around our homes, our neighborhoods, and our nations -- to bring order to a chaotic world. But we rarely consider how these boundaries affect other creatures. In this episode of Think Like A Scientist, we meet conservation photographer Krista Schlyer, who has spent the last seven years documenting the environmental effects of the U.S./Mexico border wall, and biologist Jon Beckmann, who studies how man-made barriers influence the movement of wildlife. Schlyer and Beckmann have seen damaging impacts of the border wall firsthand, but they remain optimistic. Humans probably won't stop constructing walls and fences any time soon, but planning our boundaries with wildlife in mind can help prevent these structures from causing environmental harm.

Whether you call it textspeak, techspeak, or a reason for Shakespeare to spin madly in his grave, technology is impacting the way we think, connect, and communicate.

The next time you look in a mirror, think about this: In many ways you're more microbe than human. There are 10 times more cells from microorganisms like bacteria and fungi in and on our bodies than there are human cells. But these tiny compatriots are invisible to the naked eye. So we asked artist Ben Arthur to give us a guided tour of the rich universe of the human microbiome.

This case study was developed for an introductory biology course with the goal of integrating content (specifically, structure/function, signaling pathways, and homeostasis) while reinforcing general critical thinking skills and the scientific method (generating hypotheses, evaluating evidence, and making predictions). The case is suitable for a flipped classroom and there are several videos associated with it. The case revolves around an obese two-and-a-half-year-old boy who won't stop eating. Students become familiar with some basic concepts related to obesity and leptin signaling through the videos that they watch before class. They then use class time to work through the case (delivered as an interactive slide show, including several clicker questions) to determine the genetic basis for this child's obesity and possible therapies to manage his weight. The case could also be adapted and expanded to be used in a physiology course to explore the interaction of various hormones that regulate appetite and metabolic rate or in a cell biology class to explore JAK-STAT signaling.

Humans may in part owe their big brains to a DNA "typo" in their genetic code, research suggests. The mutation was also present in our evolutionary "cousins" - the Neanderthals and Denisovans. However, it is not found in humans' closest living relatives, the chimpanzees. As early humans evolved, they developed larger and more complex brains, which can process and store a lot of information. Last year, scientists pinpointed a human gene that they think was behind the expansion of a key brain region known as the neocortex.

After the third time he nearly died but before the fourth, David Fajgenbaum embraced a new motto: Think it, do it. "I got out of the hospital with this profound sense of, you need to make the most of every second," he says. A former college football player with close-cropped dark hair and a firm handshake, Fajgenbaum, 31, is the picture of youthful vigor now. But that belies a frightening reality. Tomorrow the symptoms with which he's all too familiar could return, sending him to the intensive care unit (ICU) with every organ failing. 

It's one of the big mysteries of cell biology. Why do mitochondria-the oval-shaped structures that power our cells-have their own DNA, and why have they kept it when the cell itself has plenty of its own genetic material? A new study may have found an answer. Scientists think that mitochondria were once independent single-celled organisms until, more than a billion years ago, they were swallowed by larger cells. Instead of being digested, they settled down and developed a mutually beneficial relationship developed with their hosts that eventually enabled the rise of more complex life, like today's plants and animals.

This case study was developed to teach students the importance of understanding the behavior of wildlife, explore the difficulty in making management decisions when the public is invested in a species, and to help students develop critical thinking and public speaking skills. Students learn about the conservation status and behavior of the black rhinoceros by reading a primary literature article and answering a series of questions. They then listen to a Radiolab podcast that explores the moral dilemma of whether it is ethically appropriate to shoot an endangered rhinoceros if the purpose is to raise conservation funds. Students are assigned one of five positions and write essays to prepare for a town hall style debate in which they examine the pros and cons of such a decision. The Radiolab podcast is based on real events, and is also representative of many ethical dilemmas that wildlife managers regularly face. This case study is appropriate for several upper division biology courses.

ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI-Most of us think of Europe as the ancestral home of white people. But a new study shows that pale skin, as well as other traits such as tallness and the ability to digest milk as adults, arrived in most of the continent relatively recently. The work, presented here last week at the 84th annual meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists, offers dramatic evidence of recent evolution in Europe and shows that most modern Europeans don't look much like those of 8000 years ago.

It is, when you think about it, sort of weird that nearly all mammals lose the ability to digest milk early in life. The Class Mammalia is, after all, defined by the gland that produces this life-giving fluid-supplier not only of necessary nutrients but also of water and molecules that protect against continual assaults from invading organisms.

Girls are less likely than boys to think that women have genius potential, a new study finds. And that stereotype can show up in kids as young as six.

It's peak cold and flu season, and mucus is making many of our lives miserable. But despite being a little icky, phlegm gets a bad rap. This germ-fighting goo contains cells and chemical compounds that help us power through a cold. You can also think of mucus as a traffic light for your health - what turns up in our used tissues can be a useful clue about the inner workings of our immune systems.

Introducing your students to Scratch will provide your students with hands-on opportunities to think creatively, solve problems and work collaboratively.  Scratch is a visual programming platform created at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) by the Lifelong Kindergarten Group at the MIT Media Lab and is available to all users free of charge. This web-based tool is designed for students ages 8 to 16 but used by people of all ages.  With Scratch, you can program your own interactive stories, games, and animations - and share your creations with others in the online community.

The Future of Research is being decided now! While we are fortunate to have a robust system of protections in place that help assure research will provide more benefit than harm, the regulations that guide research with human participants have been in place for 40 years. Society is changing, technology is changing, the capabilities and interests of all of us are changing. We need to evolve our research systems too. It is increasingly hard for one group to decide what would be considered a benefit, or a harm, for another. In this new People Matter Project video, we call to institutions and Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) to think creatively about how to conduct trustworthy research in this changing climate.

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.