Virtual Labs at Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Biointeractive
July 9, 2009
If you know anything about biology, you know about the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. They are involved in a lot of important biological research, and they also make the results of this research available to the public in many ways. One way is through the Biointeractive Virtual Labs.
As the name of the site suggests, you can access five virtual, interactive labs. The topics of the labs include transgenic fruit flies, immunology, bacterial identification, cardiology, and neurophysiology. I think you’ll agree with me in that I believe this site to be most appropriate for high school biology, and maybe even best for AP biology. These virtual labs will introduce your students to some very advanced biological techniques.
Upon selecting one of the virtual labs, you are taken to an interactive environment with two components. One is the interactive portion, where you are “doing the lab” — talking to patients, moving things into test tubes, etc. The other portion is the “lab notebook,” in which you’ll find quizzes, informational guides, and notes. An example of this format is here in The Cardiology Lab. In the writing of this post, I have clicked out and back into this particular lab and it appears to remember me, though no log-in is required. Each of the virtual labs is self-contained and very student-directed, so you could use it as either a whole-class activity, or an enrichment activity for advanced students.
So, if you’re looking for a way to expose your Biology or AP Biology students to some cutting edge research techniques that don’t quite fit your school’s laboratory budget, check out these virtual labs.
Howard Hughes Medical Institute Biointeractive Virtual Labs
