{"id":4499,"date":"2014-04-06T10:17:45","date_gmt":"2014-04-06T15:17:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kabt.org\/?p=4499"},"modified":"2014-04-10T08:48:22","modified_gmt":"2014-04-10T13:48:22","slug":"nsta-2014-ideas-and-resources","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kabt.org\/?p=4499","title":{"rendered":"NSTA 2014 – Ideas and Resources"},"content":{"rendered":"

As I sit here among the clouds, thousands of feet in the air speeding back toward the central time zone, I am reflecting upon my time spent in Boston.\u00a0 The NSTA national conference has drawn to a close and I am making the realization that I have accumulated several exciting ideas that I hope to implement in my classroom over the next year.\u00a0 Perhaps some of you would be interested in adapting these things for use in your classroom as well.<\/p>\n

Epigenetics in Arabidopsis<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

This is probably one of the most exciting resources for me in this year\u2019s sessions.\u00a0 A presenter from Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories shared an experiment that uses several procedures to elucidate epigenetic regulation of the FWA<\/i> gene in Arabidopsis thaliana<\/i>.\u00a0 The gene is heavily methylated in the wild type phenotype, which leads to normal flowering.\u00a0 The FWA-1<\/i> mutant has delayed flowering by a couple weeks, and results from only a lack of silencing at this locus.<\/p>\n

The presentation showed resources for growing both phenotypes in the lab and capturing the difference in time lapse (more on this later).\u00a0 She then went on to show how DNA isolation, PCR, and electrophoresis can be used to show there is only a difference in epigenetic regulation and zero difference in base pair sequence.\u00a0 This hits my biotechnology objectives in AP Biology in a fantastic, and coherent, way that I have not achieved before.\u00a0 I even plan to loop my BLAST work in with this experiment, likely as a chance to spiral rather than as primary exposure to the tool.<\/p>\n

The kits are sold through Carolina (and likely other suppliers) and a link to the lab manual the presenter shared can be found here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Arabidopsis_thaliana\"<\/a>

Arabidopsis thaliana – Wikimedia Commons<\/p><\/div>\n

Time Lapse in the Classroom<\/b><\/p>\n

I left the above presentation wondering how I could have my students create their own time lapse videos instead of using the existing videos (which there are, and they\u2019re great by the way).\u00a0 Enter a session on time lapse videos in the classroom.\u00a0 A few tricks and an inexpensive resource with a free option make me believe I can actually start doing this with all my students.<\/p>\n

Lapse it<\/a> is the app I found to be the option I am interested in using.\u00a0 The free features are great, and the pro version is only two bucks and you get all the functionality you could want.\u00a0 Use some dedicated counter space to allow students to setup their planters and have them use tape to define the corners of their shots.\u00a0 Each day they can use an iPad, phone, or basic camera to take the same photo each day of their plants.\u00a0 The pro version of Lapse it will stich all those photos together into a video using any frame rate you choose. \u00a0The free version can capture the video within the app, but something this long term will likely need the pro version.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m thinking the free version would be great for shooting a lab procedure at some point.\u00a0 Using ring stands and clamps students can setup an iPad or phone to capture a picture every so often (maybe every 5 or 10 seconds) as they conduct a lab.\u00a0 In the end they\u2019ll have a brief video of their procedure they could use for peer review or replication by a partner classroom.\u00a0 If anyone is interested in trying the replication route, let me know!<\/p>\n

Biology Rocks<\/b><\/p>\n

The last session I\u2019m pretty excited about was my own.\u00a0 While I have been fired up about this content for a while, what makes this worth including now is the 100% redesign of our website.\u00a0 We are making all our resources available for free, because we want to ensure every teacher that wants lab guides and resources can use them regardless of the financial means of their district.\u00a0 All the digital resources are free, and even the print resources are now available even lower than our cost.\u00a0 I\u2019m super excited about this change, and I hope you all are too.\u00a0 You can find all our stuff at biologyrocks.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n

There was much more available at NSTA than I saw, so I\u2019d be interested to hear from others that were able to attend.\u00a0 Did you see anything in other sessions that changed your perspective or solved a problem?\u00a0 NSTA in Boston is over, but the collaboration doesn\u2019t have to be!\u00a0 Chime in, and let\u2019s get a dialogue started.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As I sit here among the clouds, thousands of feet in the air speeding back toward the central time zone, I am reflecting upon my time spent in Boston.\u00a0 The NSTA national conference has drawn to a close and I am making the realization that I have accumulated several exciting ideas that I hope to
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