NEW - Looking for online resources during the Covid-19 pandemic?

In addition to the links provided below, we've created a searchable table of online  resources recommended by biology teachers just like you. You can filter by category and audience to get just what you need when you need it.

Resource Links

Instructional Materials and Resources

AAI Summer Research Program for Teachers: Teaching Material Archive 
Teachers develop a curriculum unit designed to introduce high school students to key immunological concepts through activities and lab protocols. Teachers work in collaboration with an education specialist and use curriculum templates to guide the creation of these units. Teachers "field test" the units in their own classrooms and revise their curriculum units based on the experience with their students and specialist review. When finalized, these units are made available to all interested science teachers through this Teaching Material Archive on the AAI web site.

A Miniature Guide For Students and Faculty To Scientific Thinking
This miniature guide consists of the essence of scientific thinking concepts and tools. It can be used as a supplement to any science textbook, for any science class. The essence of scientific thinking concepts and tools, it focuses on the intellectual skills inherent in the well cultivated scientific thinker.

Access Excellence
Access Excellence is a national educational program that provides high school biology teachers access to their colleagues, scientists, and critical sources of new scientific information via the Information Highway. Access Excellence has accumulated some excellent sites for biology teachers. 

APSnet Education Center
A new and growing website that presents information on plant health and plant diseases. It is sponsored by the American Phytopathological Society, is completely free, and includes peer-reviewed publications with many photographs and other resources. The K-12 section is designed for teachers and includes monthly News and Views, labs and classroom activities (background information, lesson plans, class handouts), illustrated glossary, online mentors, resource catalog, and a bulletin board for questions and discussions. Many of the labs would be appropriate for general biology, ecology, and microbiology classes. There also is material for Introductory and Advanced Plant Pathology (including disease lessons, labs, topics, resource catalogs, and an illustrated glossary). Many of the materials in the introductory section are appropriate for advanced high school students. The Instructor section includes teaching notes and articles.

Biology Labs On Line
A series of interactive inquiry-based biology simulations and exercises designed for college and AP high school biology students.

Biology Lessons for Prospective and Practicing Teachers
This site contains biology lessons and teachers' guides. The lessons are targeted for K-12 teaching but the lesson plans within would greatly help any prospective undergraduate biology teacher in their lesson planning.

The Biology Project
Contains student-oriented learning materials used to support lecture, lab and discussion sections.

The Conversation
The Conversation is is an independent, not-for-profit news and information service that aims to meet a growing need for informed dialogue and debate. Information, analysis and commentary are provided from the Australian university and research sector. Subject-matter is divided into five sections: Business+Economy, Environment+Energy, Health+Medicine, Politics+Society and Science+Technology.

Curriculum Resources
This site presents a series of lesson tutorials covering the anatomy of the fetal pig, clam, perch, grasshopper, plant anatomy, starfish embryology, mitosis, and heart anatomy.

Educational Research Center of America
ERCA is a not-for-profit research organization committed to helping high school students and their families consider all of their future options, including community colleges, four-year institutions, vocational opportunities, and career choices. They connect parents, educators, and students with institutions of higher learning and other organizations, to provide guidance about what comes next after high school.

Environmental Protection Agency - Teacher Resources & Tools
Resources intended to increase environmental awareness and inspire participation in environmental activities.

The History of Science

Hypothesis-Based Learning Web Site
The web site features integrated science lessons, workshops for teachers, model lessons, and suggestions to help students develop language and mathematical skills needed to conduct experiments and record experiences. 

Lessons for Teaching Evolution & the Nature of Science
These lessons were gathered, created, developed, and classroom tested by many biology teachers from across the nation during nine years of NSF-funded summer institutes. They were designed to help teach basic concepts in the areas of evolution and the nature of science more realistically and as central to the subject, and therefore, teach a much better biology.

Merck Institute of Science Education
This site offers seminars and workshops for teachers, instructional materials and resource center.

Mini Posters - Authentic Peer Review
This blog post includes tips to create mini-posters, a way for students to present their lab experiences as "research" and a way for their fellow students to "peer review" that research in a structured and supportive environment.

Modeling for Understanding in Science Education (MUSE)
Modeling for Understanding in Science Education (MUSE) is a collaborative project of university researchers, high school teachers, and students. The educational units found here are based on several years of research at a local high school. Each of these units contains extensive information and materials for use in middle school and/or high school classrooms. 

Central to any science is the pursuit of understanding of some corner of our natural world. The pursuit of knowledge occurs in many contexts, in many 'locations' (sometimes in the field, sometimes in the laboratory, sometimes in the mind), and in diverse ways.

At the heart of the MUSE project is a commitment to providing numerous and varied opportunities for students to: 1) understand central ideas in science and about science as a modeling enterprise and 2) develop their abilities to engage in a wide-range of scientific inquiries. This web site includes materials that have been developed by this project. 

The Molecular Basis Of Disease: Resources From the 2009 NABT & sanofi pasteur Workshop
NABT and sanofi pasteur hosted a premier workshop focused on The Molecular Basis of Disease. This event featured prominent scientists highlighting the successes and challenges of modern biology as it attempts to solve important medical problems. Additionally, both influenza and cancer were thoroughly examined through a case study approach.

The keynote speakers of the workshop have graciously made their presentations available to NABT Members.

Molecular Medicine: Two Case Studies (Updated Materials) presented by Dr. David Dressler, scholar, author, and scientist currently at Oxford University. Dr. Dressler’s website include PowerPoint presentations on the molecular basis of diseases including The Germ Theory of Disease, Influenza and Cancer. New titles will also become available, including Germ Theory of Disease: Cholera and Germ Theory of Disease: Influenza.

Understanding and Preparing for Pandemic Influenza presented by Dr. Mary Kate Reeves-Hoche, Senior Director and Project Leader for the Pandemic Influenza project at sanofi pasteur, Inc. – USA. This presentation reviews the US Government Strategic Plans for pandemic preparedness, the current epidemiology of the H5N1 influenza (avian flu) in humans, and has updated results of world-wide clinical studies testing H5N1 vaccines in humans.

My College Options
My College Options is the largest college and career planning community in the country. Thousands of colleges and universities offer a wide range of post-secondary opportunities and resources for students to explore. Registration with My College Options provides students with their personal online college and career planning profile, where their needs, talents and interests are instantly matched with colleges and universities across the nation. In addition to providing a vital link for students to the colleges that meet their needs, benefits and resources include test preparation, scholarship matching, and expert advice on the college planning process.

The National Institute for Science Education
The NISE/College Level One (CL1) website, offers innovative tools for college teaching in science, mathematics, engineering, and technology (SMET). The NISE/CL1 website has two main components. "Collaborative Learning" and "The FLAG" (Field-tested Learning Assessment Guide).

The National Institute of General Medical Sciences 
NIGMS has a variety of free publications avaiable for teachers. Topics include Basic Research, Cell Biology, Computational Biology, Genetics and more. In addition, NIGMS produces Findings, a magazine that showcases diverse scientists who do cutting-edge research and lead interesting lives. Each issue also contains brief research highlights, a puzzle or other activity, and online extras. 

The National Science Digital Library - Portal of resources for teachers.

New Teacher Survival Guide 
The guide includes "the reflections of award-winning first-year teachers who talk candidly about their success and setbacks." The guide includes suggestions about "how new teachers can foster supportive professional relationships and what they stand to gain from them."

Project 2061
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), is an international non-profit organization dedicated to advancing science around the world by serving as an educator, leader, spokesperson and professional association. In addition to organizing membership activities, AAAS publishes the journal Science, as well as many scientific newsletters, books and reports, and spearheads programs that raise the bar of understanding for science worldwide.

Project 2061 is a long-term project designed to advance literacy in Science, Mathematics, and Technology (STEM). To achieve that goal, Project 2061 conducts research and develops tools and services, books, CD-ROMS, on-line resources, professional development, and public outreach-that educators, researchers, parents and families, and community leaders can use to make critical and lasting improvements in the nation's education system. 

Resources for Learning
A free, online database of scientific and educational materials from the American Museum of Natural History.

Resources & Advice for New Teachers
Find practical advice, How-To's, Survival Kits and online resources that integrate technology into the classroom.

Science Courseware
A collection of online simulations designed to enhance traditional middle and high school science curricula by providing supplements to experiemental laboratory or fieldwork.

Science Learning Network
Incorporates inquiry-based teaching approaches, telecomputing, collaboration among geographically dispersed teachers and classrooms, and Internet/World Wide Web content resources.

Science Standards and Lesson Bank
The Space Foundation has developed a new Web site for Pre-K-12 teachers which contains more than 200 science lesson plans organized by grade: Pre-K-2, 3-5, 6-8, and 9-12. The Bank of Standards Based Lessons follow a prescribed format for all grades: objectives, timeline, background information, materials, step-by-step lesson execution, extension, evaluation, and resources. 

SHiPS Resource Center
This site is designed for science teachers using Sociology, History, and the Philosophy of Science (SHiPS) in their lessons. Resources for teaching "history and nature of science" and "personal and social dimensions of science," profiled in many national standards are available. The website contains curriculum modules, essays, historical updates, book and video reviews, case studies and discussion about how to teach more effectively.

Spikes Science Projects
Over 400 projects, drafted by a professor.

TeacherFocus.com
Online community forum where educators can easily communicate with each other through threaded online discussions.

Teachers' Domain: Lessons from the Field
This 6 minute clip on Teachers’ Domain highlights the project-based, real-world approach to teaching science. The video segment follows a high school student who becomes motivated to learn when challenged to design his own experiment, work with professional mentors, and analyze and present his findings. Digital library of public television media resources for the classroom.