Free Science Resources for Teachers - Lesson Guides

Are you a teacher looking for an easy-to-use yet comprehensive educational resource to help plan your science lessons? Look no further! Our Free Science Resources for Teachers provides you with a hassle-free way to provide engaging lessons to your students. 

These Zero to Genetic Engineering Hero lesson plans developed by Mindfuel.ca (Alberta Science Foundation) make it easy for you to implement hands-on student activities in the classroom based on the genetic engineering concepts presented in Amino Labs kits and the Zero to Genetic Engineering Hero Guide book.

Each lesson guide includes a variety of student activities: hands-on experiments, virtual simulators, individual and group assignments, PowerPoint presentations, worksheets, and assessments with accompanying teacher keys. The Zero to Genetic Engineering Hero book and experiment kits for chapters 3 and 4 are quite important for these lessons! Lessons 1 and 2 do not require any Amino Labs kit - you can use your own materials from the classroom. 

This 4 part lesson guide covers:

1. Discover DNA,
2. Genetic Engineering & Lab safety
3. Growing and understanding E. Coli cells with a hands-on experiment using the Canvas kit
4. Genetic Engineering E. Coli cells with DNA Plasmids and controls  with hands-on experiment using the Engineer-it kit 

Building upon this foundation of free resources, more complete and in-depth instructional materials are available on our google classroom to help you further your students’ learning.

Each STEM lesson will allow you to teach the main concept through theory, virtual, and hands-on exercises. 

Each lesson includes a variety of student activities: • hands-on experiments, • virtual simulators, • individual and group assignments, • powerpoint presentations, • worksheets, and assessments with accompanying teacher keys.

Each of the 4 STEM lessons can be used independently to teach the individual concepts as part of your larger science, genetics, biotechnology module or together to form the Zero to Genetic Engineering Hero Learning Journey. 

If you are new to teaching genetic engineering and biotechnology in the classroom, our book, Zero to Genetic Engineering Hero Beginner's guide to programming bacteria is a great primer for yourself, and eventually your students. This book is divided into 7 chapters, with the first 4 chapters being directly linked to these lesson plans.

1. Discover DNA with the optional hands-on activity: DNA extraction: Extract DNA from fruit, and using the What is DNA? virtual simulator

Alberta Learning Outcomes: 9A, 10C, Bio 30 Unit C, Science 30 Outcome 3

Ontario: D3.2, B2.1, B2.2, D.2.3, D3.1

NGSS: MS-LS4, HS-LS1

TEKS: 14C

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2. Lab safety and Ethics

Alberta Learning Outcomes: 9A, 10C, Bio 30 Unit C, Science 30 Outcome 3

Ontario: A1.2, A1.4, D1.1, D1.2,

NGSS: MS-LS4, HS-LS1

TEKS: 1A

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3. Growing and understanding E. Coli cells with the optional hands-on activity using Canvas Kit: Create Living Paintings and/or using the Canvas Kit virtual simulator.

Alberta Learning Outcomes: 9A, 10C, Bio 30 Unit C, Science 30 Outcome 3

Ontario: C1.1, C1.2, C2.1, C2.3 C2.4, C2.5, B2.3, B3.1, B3.2, B3.3

NGSS: MS-LS3, MS-LS4, HS-LS1

TEKS: 9A

________

4. Genetic Engineering E. Coli cells with DNA Plasmids with the optional hands-on activity using Engineer-it kit: Get started with Genetic Engineering for bacteria and/or using the Engineer-it Kit virtual simulator

Alberta Learning Outcomes: 9A, 10C, Bio 30 Unit C, Science 30 Outcome 3

Ontario: D2.1, D2.4, D3.1, D3.2, D3.3, D3.4, D3.5, D3.6

NGSS: MS-LS3, MS-LS4, HS-LS1

TEKS: 6A, 6B, 6C, 6E,

________
These topics are related to Chapters 1-4 of the Zero to Genetic Engineering Hero learning journey.

Are you aligning with a different curriculum?

These lesson plans are free electronic downloads. A link to the lesson(s) and asset(s) will be sent to you after you complete the checkout - no credit card information will be required.