Investigations into eutrophication

This brief resource gives five starter ideas for students and classes who want to investigate eutrophication, with options including using duckweed, algae and other plants.

Student Sheet 21 - Measuring the biomass of duckweed (Lemna minor)

A useful way to calculate the amount of duckweed in a pond or an aquarium.

Light Banks for use in the classroom

If you're planning to use fast plants in the classroom, you'll need a light bank. Here are some details of suppliers.

Video demo - How do nettles sting?

This video demo shows a quick and easy plant practical for your biology lab. Using Universal Indicator paper, students investigate the pH of nettle stings. This can easily be built up into a broader investigation, or used as a quick practical to introduce the topics of plant defences, adaptations and specialised cells.

Floating garlic - growing roots

Here is a simple way of growing garlic roots for the root tip squash practical

The Structure of Flowers

Diagram of a dissected flower with stamens and carpel, in this case a Brassica rapa (fast plant)

The Structure of a Flowering Plant (Brassica rapa)

Diagram of a flowering plant, in this case a Brassica rapa ('fast plant') showing the root and shoot systems.

A science garden: illustrating various topics in biology

Ideas for plants for a science garden to illustrate topics including genetic variation, hybridisation, plant evolution, chimeras and mutation.

Growing duckweed - what nutrient level and pH level is recommended?

Notes on growing duckweed in the classroom

Investigating adaptation and defence - spines on holly leaves

Holly trees are well known for their spiny leaves. In this investigation focusing on adaptation and defence, students consider whether there is a relationship between the number of spines on a leaf and its height above the ground.

Student Sheet 18 - Koch's Postulates

Robert Koch was a bacteriologist who lived from 1843 to 1910. In his work on diseases, he was trying to establish whether a microbe, obtained from a diseased patient, was in fact the cause of the disease. This protocol allows students to demonstrate and test Koch’s Postulates, using apples infected with the fungus Penicillium expansum.

Measuring Stomatal Density

Stomata control the movement of gases in and out of a leaf, making carbon dioxide available for photosynthesis, and controlling the loss of water from the leaf through transpiration. There are a number of ways to measure stomatal density, and the different techniques are explored here. These include using clear nail varnish, Germolene New Skin and water-based varnish.

Microorganisms - a world in a hanging drop

Do all microorganisms look the same? Can they move and change shape? What do they feed on? How small are they . . . and are they actually alive? This activities looks microorganisms under a microscope using the hanging drop technique.

Student Sheet 24 - Microscale Investigations with Catalase

A simple yet accurate protocol looking at the results of the enzyme catalase, found in nearly all aerobic cells (animals, plants and microbes).

Student Sheet 14 - Phosphatase Enzymes in Plants

A worksheet and accompanying teachers' notes looking at phosphatase enzymes extracted from germinating seeds.

Student Sheet 13 - Effects of sugar on root explants

This protocol allows students to examine the growth of root explants of a 7 day period. It is a demanding technique, suitable for post-16 students with good lab skills.

Investigating mitosis in allium root tip squash

A protocol allowing students to see mitosis in action.

Investigating osmosis: measuring the water potential of a potato cell

Two methods to investigate osmosis and the water potential of a potato cell, including the standard measurement by weighing and the more visual, but challenging, Chardakov method.

Student Sheet 20 - Can plants make starch in the dark?

Can plants make starch in the dark? In this practical, students investigate the conditions needed for starch production in a leaf, using leaf discs and carrying out the starch test. The resource includes worksheets and teachers' notes.

Student Sheet 3 - Investigating Photosynthesis with Leaf Discs

This teaching resource offers a fun, quantifiable and reliable way for students to get hands-on when investigating photosynthesis, by punching small discs out from leaves and watching them rise and fall as gas is evolved.