LENScience
Senior Biology Learning Resources
These resources originate from the LENScience Senior Biology Series and are designed to aid learning for senior secondary school students. Original recordings of the seminars, as well as student and teacher resources, are all accessible via these web pages.
Topics
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Feast or Famine: Understanding Gene Expression
These learning resources explore how environment during early development impacts gene expression throughout life and how scientists in New Zealand are working to try to understand more about this important phenomenon.
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Huntington's Disease: Understanding a Mutation
These learning resources focus on the role of mutations in disease. Huntington’s disease (HD) is a disease of the brain caused by the inheritance of a mutated autosomal dominant allele of the Huntington’s gene.
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Insight into Blindness: Science Partnership for Discovery
The resources presented in these web pages explore scientists’ collaboration with one whanau as they work to discover the genetics behind a serious visual impairment.
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Aneuploidy and Related Biotechnologies
These resources explore inherited conditions caused by gene and chromosome mutations. The focus is on aneuploidy, which is is the most commonly identified chromosome abnormality in humans.
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Breast Cancer and Biotechnology
The learning resources presented in these web pages explore the topic of breast cancer, the hallmarks of cancer and biotechnologies that are being used to treat cancerous cells.
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Animal Navigation: Magnetic Sense
The learning resources presented in these web pages explore the topic of animal navigation and migration, why animals migrate and the innate senses some animals have that aid in this process.
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Food for a Hungry World: Optimising Plant Growth
These web pages explore the issue of plant growth optimisation and the research that scientists have conducted into plant cell cycles.
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Circadian Rhythms: Keeping Time
The learning resources presented in these web pages explore the human biological clock and recent research on the effect of general anaesthetics on the functioning of this clock.
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Harnessing Biodiversity
The learning resources explore the topic of biodiversity, ecosystem services and how humans can benefit from these provisions.
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Ancient Secrets in the Seaweed: Climate Change and Evolution
These web pages explore research into Bull Kelp populations in the Southern Hemisphere and the work Ceridwen Fraser has done into understanding past climate change events.
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Rethinking Polynesian Origins: Human Settlement of the Pacific
The learning resources presented in these web pages explore human settlement of the Pacific and Polynesian origins.
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The Evolving Brain: Social Interaction and Complexity
The learning resources presented in these web pages explore the factors that have led to the evolutionary success of the human race over time.
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Walking Upright: The Cost of Human Evolution
The learning resources presented in these web pages explore the factors that have led to the evolutionary success of the human race over time.
