A2 level: CT, MRI and fMRI scan videos

Here are some useful videos on CT and MRI Scans. They are slightly higher level than required but are short and are easy viewing:

video 1: CT scan (Open University part 1)

Video 2: MRI scan (Open University)

And finally a short (4 minutes) fun video from TED discussing how fMRI can be used to look inside our own brains and control it to manage things such as chronic pain:

AS coursework idea: golden rice

The issues surrounding the development of the genetically modified rice, golden rice, maybe a useful topic for the AS coursework essay. Rather than discussion of GM foods in general a look at this particular food, and the campaign and controls against it, provides a rich source of discussion. Golden rice has been modified to produce high amounts of vitamin A, a deficiency of which causes many deaths a year in the developing world:

“According to the World Health Organization, dietary vitamin A deficiency (VAD) causes some 250,000 to 500,000 children to go blind each year. Blindness and corneal afflictions are but indicators of more severe underlying health problems: more than half the children who lose their sight die within a year of becoming blind. VAD compromises the immune systems of approximately 40 percent of children under the age of five in the developing world, greatly increasing the risk of severe illnesses from common childhood infections.”

Golden Rice Project

However, the severe restrictions have been placed on the use of golden rice and, as of, writing it has not been allowed out of the lab as yet. Is the need for supplements via rice needed? Are there alternatives? Are the fears of introducing the rice into the general agricultural system justified? Do the benefits outweigh the potential risks?

To find out more follow the links below and watch the videos.

The Golden Rice Project

BBC news: Golden Rice

Articles from the Science journal (will need to pay for access)

Golden Rice: A dangerous experiment (from BanGMfood.org website)

Video 1: Excerpt from Channel 4 Animal Farm series (looking at genetic modification and tissue engineering, recommeded viewing). It is 5 minutes long and shows the techniques involved.

Video 2: Slideshow and commentary on golden rice. Gives a greater voice to those who are against the use of golden rice.

Eva Vertes: ideas on cancer

One of my AS students told me about this TED video, originally shown in 2005. Eva is only 19 years old when she presents at TED on her ideas on the causes and, belive it or not, possible uses for cancer. If you want to inspire your students to be free-thinkers, to look outside their comfort zone of textbooks and use their AS essays etc. as tools to explore the scientific issues of today then show them this video:

The link to the TED website is below:

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/eva_vertes_looks_to_the_future_of_medicine.html

More about Eva, and a shorter video of her ideas are shown on the secret lives of scientists website:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/secretlife/scientists/eva-vertes/

IGCSE Biology Classification of animal kingdom video

This video is directed at IGCSE Cambridge Biology and revises the groups students need to study for the animal kingdom. It is only 5 minutes long and revises the key external features of each group.

The link to the screencast version is here (might be useful for whiteboards): 2009-05-13_0116
The file is quite large so be patient as it may take a short while to load. Also apologies for background noise, my laptop has a very noisy fan (as well as being held together with sellotape because I dropped the laptop when rushing to my next lesson).

Videos on Biomolecules from www.edbiol.co.uk

Met up with @edbiol on twitter and checked his website out (WAIT…don’t go to his site yet, finish reading my blog first!!). Firstly, I like the website, very cool and looks much better than mine!!! I can see another weekend lost playing around with wordpress themes again.

He has posted on his site 4 videos covering lipids, carbohydrates, proteins and nucleic acids. They are similar to mine in that I think they are screencasts of PowerPoint presentations. The videos are basically key bullet points and diagrams. The sound quality is good, he has a soft northern irish accent and has a much better voice than me for videos. On some diagrams it can be difficult for a student to follow the audio because he does not use the pointer to direct attention to the section of diagram under discussion but other than that I think they would be very good revision tools for students. I particularly envision them being popped onto iPods for viewing and listening to. I don’t think it matters what exam board you do here as it is all standard biological molecules stuff.

Hopefully he will add more and I have placed a link to his site in my blogroll. Crumbs…that reminds me I should add the Mark Rothery site too!

Any way I have embedded 2 of the videos below plus a link to his site at the end so you can watch the others.

Carbohydrates (16 minutes 30 secs..ish)

Carbohydrates from neal mcknight on Vimeo.

Lipids (8 minutes 32 seconds)

EdBiol from Digmo on Vimeo.

The other two videos are on proteins and nucleic acids and can be found on Neils website:
www.edbiol.co.uk (NOW you can go visit it if you want!!)