Art lesson ideas are presented that could be integrated into biology units.
Esther Carbit, Art
Lakeview Education Arts Partnership
Lakeview, IL
Bubonic Plague and Jill Paton Walsh's Parcel of Patterns: A Model for Linking Biology and Literature
This unit is developed for use with tenth-grade literature/biology students, using Jill Paton Walsh's
young adult novel, Parcel of Patterns. The literature section examines the authenticity of the historical background of the novel and the challenges an epidemic presents. In the biology section lessons are suggested in which students learn the sources, transmission, incubation, manifestation of and remedy for Bubonic Plague.
Orla Berry, Biology
Kathleen Kent, English
Mt. Alvernia High School
Newton, MA
This unit is designed for use in biology and social science classes. It touches on the phenotypic condition (deafness) and its interrelationship to the social and cultural developments of the people of Martha's Vineyard in the late 1800s. Included are the essential questions and possible activities for the topics of social acceptance, social explanations, pattern of inheritance, genealogy and genetics.
Linda McIntosh, Biology
Rob Mather, History
Dana Hall School
Wellesley, MA
Endeavor: An Interdisciplinary Project for Biology and Geometry
This unit is designed for use as a final project in marine biology and geometry classes. Students use their skills in both subjects to design a closed community in the depths of the sea for the final project. Students are given the opportunity to apply geometric concepts and balance factors in a closed ecosystem.
Ann-Marie McCoy, Biology
Paul Stanley, Geometry
Goffstown High School
Goffstown, MA
Exploring What Lives Underground
This unit introduces students to the incredible diversity of invertebrates--organisms that make op about 90 percent of the animal kingdom. Teachers create a "virtual underground habitat" that allows students to explore stones, roots and animals. Using a miner's headlamp or flashlight students experinece a unique point of view of life beneath their feet.
Christine Twombly
Candice Wroe
Harwich Elementary School
Harwich, MA
Flashers and Fakers: A Study of Camouflage in Biology and Art
This unit introduces students to role that color, shape and pattern play in visually protecting the organism within its environment. Concepts involved in camouflage in nature are shown to also apply to art.
Marion Bank, Science
Susan Leavey, Art
Marlboro High School
Marlboro, MA
Galápagos: Evolution Alive in Your Classroom!
This study of Darwin and his excursion to the Galápagos Islands allows a student to rediscover Darwin's hypotheses, peg similar questions and arrive at similar answers. Students will understand the logic behind the concept of evolution by studying the organisms as Darwin studied them.
Linda S. Samuels, Biology
Nikki K. Descoteaux, Spanish/French Linguist
Dana Hall School
Wellesley, MA
Gray Matter and Green Paint: A Mask Making Project Recognizing Self-Identity
This activity, designed to integrate biology, specifically neuroscience and art, and can be done in both biology and art classes or can be team taught. It embraces imagery, personality, color and visual intelligence.
Included are the introduction to the activity and instructions on how to make masks.
Diane Carey, Biology
Harriet Malone, Art
St. John's Prep
Danvers, MA
How Who We Are Biologically Affects Our Identity: The Deaf Experience
This unit is designed for use by high-school students in a deaf educational program. It utilizes a team approach using a deaf and a hearing teacher. The unit approaches science and world cultures from a personal and practical approach. Using genetic and historical knowledge as a basis, students analyze their own position on various issues.
Included is a case study to be used with students in either the biology or history class and a number of related questions.
Paula Hintz, Biology
Janine McNamara-O'Leary, History
The Learning Center for the Deaf
Framingham, MA
Marine Biology and the Arts: Sculpting the Artificial Reef
This unit incorporates a study of pressing marine issues with a review of some possible solutions. The curriculum reviews marine reef ecosystems, and the students then create and build sculptures that act as artificial coral reefs. Follow-up studies are done by biology/oceanography students in order to assess the ongoing population dynamics over time.
Included are instructions for creating a reef as well as how to place and monitor such as reef.
Sue Nourse, Biology
Robert Moglinicki, Art
Tabor Academy
Marion, MA
The Mojave Desert and Its Dry Ponds: A Comparison of East and West Coast Vernal Pools
This unit emphasizes language arts and science. The students will compare environmental differences between East and West coasts, with emphasis on the Mojave Desert. Students will study the differences between the vernal pools of the East Coast and the dry ponds of the Mojave Desert. The students will look at differences in the climate, soil, plant and animal life and water availability.
Marcia Zableckis, Biology
Penny Finch, Language Arts
Kennedy Middle School
Barstow, CA
Poliomyelitis: The Era of Fear
This unit is interdisciplinary for science and social studies classes designed to expose the user to the unique science behind the identification of poliomyelitis as a viral agent and the development of preventative vaccines. The personalities of the scientists involved in the epidemic are important in telling these stories which must include a close examination of the special fear and hysteria that gripped a post-war United States. This unit uses original source documents and multimedia materials.
Joseph Lapiana, Biology
Robert Winkowski, History
Dracut High School
Dracut, MA
War and the Development of Modern Medicine
This unit emphasizes the significant impact of military warfare on the evolution of medical surgical theory and practice. History and science teachers can address the study of both WWII and the Civil War from a medical/scientific point of view, and the role which war has played in the changes in medicine, more specifically, the development of penicillin and antibiotics.
Included are a role-playing activity and an activity for the biology classroom.
David Form, Biology
William Blake, History
Minuteman Science-Technology High School
Lexington, MA
Women Are From Where? Men Can Do What?
This lesson will give students a chance to investigate the differences in the male and female brain. At the end of the unit the students will be asked to design and implement an experiment of their own to explore an aspect of gender-based differences.
Anna Ciglar, Science
Nancy Gagnon, History
Mascenic Regional High School
New Ipswitch, NH