TED Talks: Visual development

Below are links to some TED talks that address visual development and can extend students covering sections 8.4 visual development and 8.5 making sense of what we see:

How brains learn to see

Our brains are miswired

Optical illusions show how we see

TED talks: Bioengineering and remote controlled bugs

This talk is great for discussion on ethics, progress in tissue engineering etc. This touches on topics covered by the excellent three part series from Channel 4 called Animal Farm.

A Level video: Nephron structure and function

This is an excellent video for A level revising the nephron. Recommend that students review structure of the kidney first so they understand how the nephron is situated in the cortex and medulla of the kidney:

AS Level Biology: cystic fibrosis videos

I had a good look at the range of available videos and these very short ones seem to be the most informative:

Video 1: Very short introductory video explaining what CF is

Link to video on About.com (1.25 minutes)

Living with CF videos:
1: This video 8.22 minutes. I found this a very useful video to show the students so the appreciate the seriousness of the disease. It is quite emotional.

Dying Young

2. This video lasts about 9 minutes and outlines the treatments and medications required in one day for a 10 year old girl. Again it is useful to show as it highlights to the students all the medications, and the reasons for them.

Day in the Life

This video lasts for 3 minutes 30 seconds and is an excellent overview of  how CF is inherited, symptoms and treatment:

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: