Student Sheet 20 – Can plants make starch in the dark?
This protocol offers an alternative technique for measuring starch production in plants, based on the popular 'leaf disc' technique.
This protocol offers an alternative technique for measuring starch production in plants, based on the popular 'leaf disc' technique.
Online ecology practical using random sampling to measure species abundance. Helps students develop skills and plant ID techniques before going out into the field.
Our 'Plant Biology' animation shows three key processes in plant biology - respiration and photosynthesis, cell growth and differentiation, and the transport of sugar and water - within the context of a whole organism.
Holly trees are well known for their spiny leaves. In this investigation, students consider whether there is a relationship between the number of spines on a leaf and its height above the ground.
The ability to accurately observe, dissect and record an organism is a key skill for biology students. This resource is designed to meet the specifications for the A-level practical endorsement in England (CPAC). However, it will make a valuable guide to dissection and scientific drawing of a flower for those following a variety of different specifications.
In this activity, students investigate a selection of plant leaves to discover how they are adapted to deter herbivores, looking specifically at stinging nettles and docks.
This resource asks pupils to investigate the prickles on holly with opportunities for cross-curricular links.
This fun and reliable practical makes investigating photosynthesis easy, with a technique that can be used with students from KS3 to post-16, and offering quantifiable and replicable results.
In this worksheet and case study, for post-16 students, students develop their understanding of communicable plant disease and how plants respond to infection....
An arsenal of carnivorous plants makes for a fascinating, environmentally safe, insect control regime in your greenhouse or school lab
One of the SAPS 'Star Plants' for your lab, showing an extreme form of adaptation to get your students thinking
Known as the 'sensitive plant', these plants are famous for their reaction to touch, collapsing their leaflets when brushed with a finger
Most current theories of adaptation and evolution are based on an organism’s inflexible genetic inheritance, where variation depends on chance mutations to the DNA sequence. Now, biologists studying epigenetics are trying to uncover the roles of this more flexible system.
This collection of resources for 11-14 students about wind dispersal addresses important scientific ideas in biology and physics.
The Naked Scientists are scientists/broadcasters with a mission to strip science down to its bare essentials. Listen to some fun planty podcasts.
In this practical, students make a ‘hanging drop’ preparation then use a microscope to look at the microorganisms inside the hanging drop.
One of the SAPS 'Star Plants' for your lab, showing an extreme form of adaptation
Venus' Fly Traps, with their traps that snap shut around the unwary fly, are a wonderful plant for the lab.
This animation covers key topics of photosynthesis and respiration. It is intended for both GCSE and A-level / post-16 biology teaching.
In this activity students use plants found in their kitchen (herbs, spices, fruit, vegetables, carbohydrate staples) to create a classification diagram.
This 5-minute video interview with Dr Cristobal Uauy of the John Innes Centre introduces post-16 students to contemporary genomics and food security. The accompanying notes include a teachers' summary, plus student questions and answers.
This video interview with Professor John Christie of the University of Glasgow, introduces students to fluorescent reporter proteins and their importance to our understanding of cell biology.
This 5-minute video interview with Dr Charlie Clutterbuck of Manchester Metropolitan University introduces students to the history and economics of coffee and the impact of a plant pathogen on coffee production.
In this 5-minute video interview, Professor Dame Ottoline Leyser, Director of the Sainsbury Laboratory, University of Cambridge, discusses the different survival strategies of plants and animals.