Online Resources Series: Biology

In this first episode of my online resource series, we’re focusing on biology! This subject can be packed with complex concepts and tricky vocabulary, but I’ve rounded up 6 free online resources that will make studying biology easier and more engaging for your teen.

Here’s what we’ll cover:

🔹 CK-12 – Free, customizable biology textbooks with practice problems, videos, and simulations.
Explore CK-12 here.

🔹 PhET Simulations – Interactive simulations to help students visualize topics like cell division and natural selection.
Check out PhET Simulations here.

🔹 Khan Academy – Adaptive practice questions and biology tutorials that provide real-time feedback.
Visit Khan Academy here.

🔹 Amoeba Sisters YouTube Channel – Fun, animated videos that make biology concepts easy to understand.
Watch Amoeba Sisters here.

🔹 Bioman Biology – Interactive biology games and virtual labs for extra practice.
Explore Bioman Biology here.

🔹 HHMI Biointeractive – Engaging videos and virtual labs developed by scientists and educators.
Check out HHMI Biointeractive here.

Thanks for tuning in!

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Let's continue the conversation and explore the wonders of science together!

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hey there and welcome back to another episode of Teaching High School Science, and this is the first episode of my online resources series for high school science. Today, I'm focusing on biology. The next one will be chemistry, followed by physics. Now, biology is a subject that is rich with a lot of complex concepts and vocabulary, so the online tools that I'm going to be talking about today are going to help students be able to make sense of those complex concepts and tackle that vocabulary, and there are going to be six resources that I'm going to be focusing on. So let's dive in.

Speaker 1: 0:40

Welcome to Teaching High School Science. I'm your host, doc, a former biochemist turned high school science teacher and private tutor. Whether you're homeschooling your team through high school science or teaching online, join me as I share tips and strategies I've learned over the years for at-home and online labs and activities, breaking down complex concepts and structuring learning in a way that makes sense. Now let's dive into today's topics. The first one is CK12. Ck12 is a free online resource that provides comprehensive biology textbooks. These textbooks are online and are offered in multiple levels, from beginning all the way to advance. In addition to being online, they have a lot of interactive things embedded in these textbooks from practice problems to videos and they're customizable. You can save a text and then select which topics you want to cover or anything that you want to add. And in addition to the interactive text, there are also simulations, for instance, processes such as cellular respiration or genetics really engage your students and help them to understand the concept. Next, we have FET simulations, which is P-H-E-T simulations, and they have various simulations from different science topics and math. Now for their biology. Their simulations are not as robust as their chemistry or physics. Their simulations are not as robust as their chemistry or physics, but they do have nice simulations, especially on natural selection, gene expression and cell division. These simulations do a great job helping students to visualize these processes, and you can set up a free account that will provide you access to resources and videos that will help you to guide your students to pull out those concepts from the simulations that will better help their understanding. Now, you may have heard me mention Khan Academy before, but that is because not only is this a free resource that offers a ton of great information, they also have a ton of videos and tutorials and online practice. Now, a couple of things I like about their practice is that it's adaptive and it provides feedback, so the questions will change based on the answers to their previous questions, and this helps to scaffold them to where they need to be and, if they get the response incorrect, it provides clues and tips to help them in selecting their next answer, and I think that feedback helps to enhance their learning experience.

Speaker 1: 3:06

The Amoeba Sisters is a YouTube channel that features a wide range of engaging and humorous animated videos that explain biology concepts in a fun and simplified manner. These videos are perfect for any visual and auditory learners, and I like to use the Amoeba Sisters when I'm introducing a topic or as a review for an exam. Next is Bioman Biology and auditory learners, and I like to use the Amoeba Sisters when I'm introducing a topic or as a review for an exam. Next is Bioman Biology, and here you'll find a lot of interactive games and virtual labs, and they cover a wide range of biology topics, so I will pop these into my lessons whenever I need a review or I want them to brush up on topics that they haven't seen in a while but they're going to need for another part of biology, especially if they're going to take the content we're about to learn and add it on top of that previous content. And the last one I want to mention is HHMI Biointeractive. That is, howard Hughes Medical Institute's Biointeractive, and this provides free educational resources, including videos, interactive modules and virtual labs. Now, the cool thing about this one is that it is developed by scientists and educators.

Speaker 1: 4:12

As a recap, we went over CK12, fet simulations, khan Academy, the Amoeba Sisters YouTube channel, bioman Biology and HHMI Biointeractives. Be sure to check my show notes, because each of these are going to be linked there, and join me in the next episode where I break down some online resources for teaching chemistry and let me know if there's any resources that you like to use that I did not mention. Let me know if you have any questions, ideas or other experiences that you'd like to share. Head on over to my podcast page, which you can access by visiting my website at thesciencementorcom. Then select podcast from the menu and subscribe now to the Teaching High School Science podcast for your regular dose of motivation and just-in-time science ideas. And together let's make high school science a journey of motivation and just-in-time science ideas. And together let's make high school science a journey of exploration and achievement. Until next time, remember, curiosity leads to endless possibilities.