Try out these brainteasers on yourself and your friends to see how your memory works and how what you know influences what you learn. Also, see what you think about the nature of science with an on-line evaluation.
If someone told you that a fly or a slug could teach you about your own memory, would you believe her? Perform on-line experiments to explore learning and memory in fruit flies. Reproduce real scientific data and see how understanding learning and memory in fruit flies can improve your own study skills.
Dig deeper! Find out what the molecules and genes inside a neuron do to form a memory. Then study the scientific evidence that supports our knowledge of molecules and memory.
Is butter better? Is aspirin safe? Scientific conflicts like this make news all the time, and we need to evaluate both sides of the debate. Read a summary of a new debate over the growth of new neurons in memory centers of the brain. Look at actual research articles from the journal SCIENCE to decide for yourself who you side with.
Have students put what they have learned to use! Give them the opportunity to develop a new product to enhance memory by having them use the information gained throughout this unit. Then, evaluate what they have learned about the nature of science with an on-line evaluation.
SCIENCE is the premier scientific research journal in North America. Our materials rely upon information published in SCIENCE, and we are proud of our association with this journal. The editors have granted us the unique privilege of including text and graphics from SCIENCE within this curriculum. What this means is that biology teachers and their students see how the latest scientific research
connects to what they are studying.
Memory is one of the keys to who we are and how we function. But what is a memory? This unit explores the question through activities centered around the nature of science.
