Previous Features

Skip Navigation

Previous Features

Missed one of our lead stories? The links here will take you to content highlighted previously on BioEd Online.

STEM on Patrol
Teacher Guide
Activities in this guide use the 2023 Hess Police Truck and Cruiser to explore transportation issues and the way STEM applies to keeping the roads safe. Activities in this guide use the 2023 Hess Police Truck and Cruiser to explore precision driving, vehicle safety, and other issues that apply to emergency response in policing.
COVID-19 Pandemic
Resources
The worldwide outbreak of COVID-19 created the unprecedented need for education about viruses, infectious diseases, disease prevention, and public health in general. The COVID HACKS (healthy actions, community knowledge, and science) project offers lessons and other teaching resources to address these needs.

Grades: K-2
K-1: The Senses
Teacher Guide
Students learn about the brain, skull and sensory system; investigate sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch; and discover how the brain and the senses are connected. (9 activities)

Grades: K-2
Explorations: Global Atmospheric Change
Reading
Students learn about Earth's atmosphere and the greenhouse effect, identify where children live based on their clothing, make a sundial, and model Earth's atmosphere.

Grades: K-2
Safe Food Preparation
Lesson
Students learn about safe food preparation by making fruit ice cream in class.
Fun-damentals of Flight
Teacher Guide
Baylor College of Medicine and Hess Corporation have teamed to offer a unique resource for teaching STEM content to elementary and middle school students. The 2021 Hess Cargo Plane and Jet, used in combination with the free curricular guide Fun-damentals of Flight, provide a powerful STEM learning experience that engages as it teaches. Fill out the short form at the bottom of this page to download your free teacher’s guide.
Think Like an Engineer
Teacher Guide
Students follow an engineer's approach as they identify problems, brainstorm solutions, design a plan, and build, test, refine, and produce a product or solution. (8 activities)
Memory and Learning
Teacher Guide
Students discover how their brains store and retrieve information and, subsequently, how to be more effective learners. (7 activities)
STEM to the Rescue
Teacher Guide
Baylor College of Medicine and Hess Corporation have teamed to offer a unique resource for teaching STEAM content to elementary and middle school students. The 2020 Hess Ambulance Rescue Team, used in combination with the free curricular guide STEM to the Rescue, provides a powerful STEAM learning experience that engages as it teaches. Fill out the short form at the bottom of this page to download your free teacher’s guide.
Invisible Threats
Teacher Guide
How can we protect ourselves and animals from infectious diseases? Students explore the U.S. polio epidemic, different diseases and vaccinations used to fight them, the concept of herd immunity, EEHV that can kill baby Asian elephants, and the link between climate change and disease. (8 activities)
HIV/AIDS
Teacher Guide
Students read essays, conduct activities, and use actual data from the CDC and other sources to learn about HIV/AIDS and the spread of disease. (5 activities, 5 essays)
COVID 19 Safety—We All Play a Part
Video
Learn healthy tips to protect against COVID-19 infection from students at the Michael E. DeBakey High School for Health Professions, Houston Independent School District (HISD).
Sleep and Daily Rhythms
Teacher Guide
Students explore the day/night cycle and seasonal cycles on Earth; create and use sundials; and investigate circadian rhythms, sleep patterns and factors affecting the quality of sleep. (8 activities)
Legacy of Lost Canyon
Reading
Adolescent friends investigate ancient cave ruins, and learn how and why drugs were used to create cave art.
Train Your Brain: The Neuroscience of Learned Behaviors
Teacher Guide
How do we learn new skills? Are there different types of memories? Students investigate behaviors that occur without conscious thought, as well as skills that can be acquired or improved. (11 activities)
Food and Fitness
Teacher Guide
Students examine their individual energy and nutritional needs, learn about calories and true portion sizes, and use what they've learned to create special dietary needs menus. (7 activities)
Danger at Rocky River: A Memorable Misadventure
Reading
NeuroExplorer Max reveals that his grandfather has Alzheimer’s disease. When the club members arrive to visit, they learn Rocky River is rising—and Max’s grandfather is missing. Will they find Max’s Grandpa in time?
Library

BioEd Online’s library contains student storybooks, magazines, supplemental teaching aids and materials, and other items integrated with lessons found on this website.
Introduction to Mendelian Genetics
Presentation
Mendel used experimental approaches to characterize a particulate model of inheritance. In doing so, he developed the three Laws of Inheritance. Examine how Mendel made his important discoveries.
Engineering: Using Newton's Laws of Motion
Slide Set
What are Newton’s three Laws of Motion, and how are they applied in order to create design and engineering solutions?
The Brain, Neurons and Brain Chemistry
Lessons
Students learn about the brain, neurons and chemical communication in the brain and nervous system, while building understanding of the powerful effects of drugs in the brain and body, and how our choices can affect brain function and performance.
Overview of the Endocrine System
Slide Set
The endocrine system is comprised of ductless glands that produce messengers, called hormones, which regulate reproduction, development, metabolism and behavior. It interacts with the nervous system to control the activities of other organ systems.
Complex Traits
Slide Set
Students use the domestic dog as a model to learn about genetics, DNA, genetic testing, phenotypes, alleles, SNPs, and mutations related to desirable and/or harmful effects in certain dog breeds.
Allergies and Allergens
Teacher Guide
The Allergy Busters Teacher’s Guide uses an integrated approach including survey techniques and graphing to help students learn about allergies and allergy-causing organisms. (8 activities)
Roller Coasters
Lesson
Students build roller coasters from foam insulation tubing and use marbles as the roller coaster cars.
Static Electricity
Presentation
Electrify your science teaching! Static electricity is an electric charge on the surface of an object. Watch the sparks produced by a Van de Graaff generator, find out how lightning is created, and see how static charges attract and repel.
Viruses
Slide Set
Viruses have always lived among humans, and they killed many millions of people. As scientists discover the chemical rules by which each virus plays, they can begin to control how a virus affects us.
Genetics and Inheritance
Lessons
Patterns of inheritance, Mendelian genetics, variation of traits, pedigrees
The Global Carbon Cycle
Presentation
Join Nancy Moreno, PhD, as she discusses Earth’s atmosphere, climate change, factors that influence the atmosphere, and other topics related to our planet’s carbon cycle.
Measuring and Counting with a Light Microscope
Slide Set
Learn how to calibrate a light microscope for measurement, how to estimate field diameter, and how to count the number of objects in a single field.
The Cinnamon Challenge
Hot Topic
The “Cinnamon Challenge” is a social phenomenon, spread largely through social media, which carries serious risks. Remarkably, people who participate in this “challenge” willingly accept entirely avoidable risk, even though there is no apparent benefit. The rise of the “Cinnamon Challenge” demonstrates how social media can quickly spread a cultural trend among teenagers, comedians, NBA players, and even politicians.
Bird Flu, Updated
Hot Topic
Bird flu is once again in the news. Cases of human infection with the H7N9 subtype of influenza A have been reported in China. This subtype of the virus already spreads more easily from birds to humans than H5N1 did, and there is concern that it might adapt to be sustainably transmitted from human to human. This, of course, is the recipe for a pandemic.
Japanese Earthquake and Tsunamis: Before and After
Hot Topic
On March 11, 2011, a 9.0 magnitude earthquake struck northeastern Japan. The earthquake, aftershocks and related tsunamis devastated miles of the Japanese coastline.