October 15, 2015 (Vol. 35, No. 18)
URL:
http://droso4schools.wordpress.com
Rating:
Strong Points: Well done lessons, easy-to-understand language
Weak Points: None
Summary:
“Bring the fruit fly back into the classroom!” That’s the rallying cry of the people behind the droso4schools project, a project designed to help teachers implement lessons plans that teach key concepts in biology through the use of Drosophila melanogaster (the fruit fly). The “Why Fly” section of the website explains the rationale behind the push to incorporate Drosophila into lesson plans, while the “organs” section of the site compares various aspects of human and Drosophila biology. The remainder of the site is dedicated to two lessons involving Drosophila (with a third on the way). The first lesson is entitled, “The climbing assay: Learning data analysis through live experiments with fruit flies”; the second is entitled, “From gene to enzyme to evolution: Using alcohol metabolism to illustrate fundamental concepts of biology and how they interlink.” The lesson materials are well written and contain a lot of useful background information on the topics.
