BioDigital Human - great anatomy resource for education

BioDigital Human is an incredible resource for anatomy. It is a very powerful resource, that lets you view the human body in 3D, hiding and removing layers, creating custom views, and much more. It is a great way to be able to visualize the human body for biology, anatomy and medical students.

It does require updated browsers and access to advanced graphics performance, so it may not work on all computers.

Here is a great video from their site that shows it in more detail:

Related:

Google Body is now Zygote Body - explore the human body in 3D

InnerBody - anatomy and physiology resources

Healthline Body Maps - human anatomy resource

Anatomy Arcade - interactive anatomy resource

Visible Body - human anatomy 

Excellent Medical Animations for teachers and students

The University of Pennsylvania Health System has a great web site with medical animations. The animations show and explain many different medical problems, anatomy and physiology and the human body.

As I viewed different animations I quickly realized how useful this can be in a classroom. Health, Biology, Anatomy and Physiology, Emergency Medical Technician, Paramedic, Pre-med and Nursing students will all find this site useful as they learn about the human body and it's systems. 

The site is easy to navigate, with a listing of all of the animations on one page. They are sorted by topic/body system. There are animations about each body system, diseases, pregnancy, surgeries, and medical problems.

You will need to make sure you have Adobe Flash, Adobe Shockwave, and Quicktime installed on your computer to view the animations.

InnerBody - Human Anatomy and Physiology resources

InnerBody is a site that has resources to help learn about human anatomy and physiology. There are animations, graphics, descriptions and links to help students learn about the human body. There are charts, models and diagrams to help explain the anatomy. The interface is easy to use and search to find what you are looking for. This is a great resource for any human anatomy and physiology class.

BioBuilder - informative animations and activities for synthetic biology

BioBuilder is a free resource with animations and activities about synthetic biology. The animations are about the interactions between a lab scientist and a learner as they brainstorm about topics and issues in science, engineering, technology and even community. There are also lab activities available.

There are also "bioprimers" which are one page curriculum resources to go with the animations for high schools and early college.

Synthetic Biology: "Synthetic biologists apply engineering principles and extend genetic engineering techniques to construct new genetic systems". This is a new field with lots of implications. 

There is also another website that has some other great resources and ideas for using BioBuilder. 

http://openwetware.org/wiki/BioBuilding:_Synthetic_Biology_for_Teachers

Biology Corner - awesome resources for Biology and more!

The Biology Corner is a fantastic web site my wife uses quite often. The site has resources for teachers including lesson plans, web quests, quizzes, and much more. The site is set up by "class" - Anatomy 1 and 2, AP Biology, Biology 1 and 1a, Biology 2 and 2a, and Physics.

Worksheets are also sorted by topic, and images and media have their own menu.

The material is very useful and I like the class format for the resources. It is set up sequentially and allows for easy scanning for resources.

iBioSeminars - Free Biology videos online

iBioSeminars is a site that contains free Biology videos. The videos are on-demand lectures that are available to view online or download. Each video starts with an extended introduction so that students can understand the topic better. They are mainly geared towards college, but teachers could use them to review concepts or learn about new topics and they could also be used with AP Biology classes.

There is an education page on the site that has lecture notes, questions and answers, and short video clips to use for teaching. The videos cover a huge range of Biology topics and subjects.

Google Body is now Zygote Body and it's live

Google used to have a great 3D human anatomy resource called Google Body Browser. It was an interactive way to explore the human body. It's been described as "Google Earth" for the human body.

Google shut it down when they shut down Google Labs, but Zygote, the company that developed it for Google, has brought it back as the Zygote Body.

The site is new and you need to use a browser and OS that supports webGL. Most new browsers support this, but Windows XP does not. (for more information on webGL, go here.)

What's really neat about Zygote Body, is that you can hide/shade different body systems to explore in more detail. You can move the image around in 3 dimensions, zoom in and out, and get a really good view of anatomy. You can even search for body parts and turn the labels on and off.

There is also an Android app on the way.

This is a good resource for Biology, Anatomy, A&P and medical classes to use.

Endangered Species FactSheets

Kid's Planet has a great resource on endangered species of the world, E-Species Fact Files. The site has fact sheets on over 50 endangered species, organized by area of the world.

The site links to the Defenders of Wildlife site. Each fact sheet has photos, information on the habitat and dangers to the animal.

This is a great resource to use with any class to show students how important protecting these species is.

Virtual Owl Pellet Dissection

In today's ever shrinking education budgets, finding something free that can substitute for costly materials is always a good thing.

I use virtual labs and simulations in my physics classes often due to lack of lab equipment or safety concerns. My favorite is PhET.

One activity that I know a lot of Biology teachers do is the owl pellet dissection. However, owl pellets are not cheap and they are one use. I just learned about a virtual owl pellet site, KidWings, from Richard Byrne on his blog.

 The Virtual Owl Pellet Dissection lets students take apart an owl pellet and explore what the owl ate. The site is Flash based. It was fun working through the simulation.

The site also has other information about birds and is a great resource for science teachers.

Genome - resources about the National Genome project

Genome.gov is the National Institutes of Health site on the National Human Genome Research Institute.

The Education page on it has a huge amount of resources for educators, including fact sheets, genetics careers, all about the Genome project, webinars, lesson resources, links, and an online education kit about the project.

This is an excellent resource for Biology and Genetics teachers to get other resources, lesson ideas and more. This is an important topic that has scientific and ethical implemcations

Virtual Eye Dissection and Eye Anatomy

The Virtual Eye Dissection and Eye Anatomy is exactly what it says. The site allows you to review the anatomy of the eye, view photos from an actual eye dissection, and then perform a virtual dissection of the eye.

This is a great resource for anatomy and biology classes, and it's fun.

FYI: It is built in Flash.

The Cell: An Image Library - great collection of cell images

The Cell: An Image Library is a free collection of images, animations, and videos of cells. The site is easy to search and contains materials from different organisms, showing cell structure, function, and processes.

The collection is a great resource for any teacher or student that is teaching or studying the cell.

The quality of the resources is excellent and this is a resource that Biology teachers are really going to want to check out. Many of the images are microscopic photographs with very high detail and the images are annotated.

You can sign up for a free account if you want to upload images or customize materials.

The entire collection is searchable and you can also browse by subject.

Free science resources for Educators from the National Institutes of Health

The National Institutes of Health has a great science education resource site with free resources for educators.

The site has research, links, resources, lesson plans, images, standards based curriculum and much more. Resources are organized by type, grade level, and subject area. There is also information on science careers and grants for educators.

The curriculum section has units on cell biology and cancer, bio-ethics, cellular and molecular biology and more. A new addition to the high school curriculum is "Evolution and Medicine" which is a guide for teachers designed to help students use scientific inquiry to understand evolutionary principles through medical research. The middle school curriculum also has a new addition: "Rare Diseases and Scientific Inquiry." In this unit, students use inquiry to explore rare diseases and their treatments as they gain a better understanding of the human body.

All of the resources are free online  and some can be ordered as hard copies for free.

The NIH is also sponsoring a Lab Challenge. The NIH K-12 LAB Challenge is a call for teachers to submit K-12 best practice labs. The labs should be safe and inexpensive and take 90 minutes or less with clear objects. The submissions will be shared with everyone on the NIH site. It is open to anyone in the US or a US Territory or DoD facility overseas. Winners will be recognized and get an electronic badge to share on their site. The entry deadline is 12/15/2011.

This is a great resource for biology and health teachers, as well as a resource for other teachers looking to incorporate these topics in their classroom. The resources are well written and can help get students excited and engaged about science.

Zygote Body coming soon - the new incarnation of Google Body Browser

Zygote Body is the next incarnation of Google Body. Google Body was a searchable and interactive 3D model of human anatomy. It was part of Google Labs, which Google is shutting down. Zygote was the company that helped create Google Body and they are going to continue the development of it. 


You can go to the launch page and enter your email address to be notified when it is up and ready. 


It's nice to see that even though Google is shutting down Google Labs, the wonderful projects that were part of it will live on in other forms. 




Other Anatomy Resources:

Healthline Body Maps - human anatomy resource

Open Heart Surgery Simulation - interactive and educational

eSkeletons - skeletons and comparative anatomy of primates

MEDtropolis - health information and Virtual Body

Anatomy Arcade

Medical Animations

Great Free Anatomy Resource

TeachOne - collection of teaching resources and information

TeachOne is a nice site to go to find different educational resources and sites. There are resources, information and links on: How to Use the Internet, General Teaching (educational technology, classroom management, lesson plans, support groups, online magazines, professional development, and teacher associations and unions), new teacher help, book recommendations, Biology, General Science and Earth/Space Science, Math, and Critical Thinking.


There are a lot of great resources here for all educators to use.

Healthline Body Maps - human anatomy resource

Healthline Body Maps is a great site for anyone teaching or studying the human body. It makes it easy to explore human anatomy and physiology. You can select different body parts, mouse over different parts for more information, and even peel away layers of the body to look at different levels.

It is free, easy to use, and a great way to learn more about human anatomy.

My Botanic Planet - fun way to learn about plants

My Botanic Planet is a neat site that is designed to help K-5 students learn about plants. It has national standardized lesson plans and interactive games to help students explore basic botany.

The teacher's resource page has lesson plans and other resources.

I found it to be fun and I learned a few things myself.

Cell Biology resource and lessons

Cell Biology is a great lesson resource from Texas A&M University. The resource is listed as a middle school curriculum, but it could easily be adapted to high school.

The site has information and lesson resources on cell biology and then has a great bingo game that teachers can use as a review game. It even has the printable bingo cards for the students and the questions and teacher guide.

Open Heart Surgery Simulation - interactive and educational

Open Heart Surgery Simulation is a fascinating, interactive site from ABC's Australian Science site that makes you the surgeon performing a Coronary Artery Bypass surgery. It is simplified, but still very exciting and educational. At each step, you are provided instructions and then you must carry out the procedure. There are three different levels of difficulty and a section to just learn about the anatomy of the heart.

This is a great tool to use with Biology, Anatomy and Physiology, or medical classes.

Animal Facts from Nat Geo - great resource

National Geographic, an excellent resource for educators, has a wonderful site with Animal Facts that I learned about from Mary Beth Hertz (@mbteach) (who is a great educator and resource for other educators).

Animal Facts is a collection of facts and information on all kinds of animals. It is arranged by type of animal: amphibian, bird, fish, etc. On the right side of the page is a listing of animals alphabetically.

Each animal page has photos, resources, fast facts, and a map of where their habitat is.

Here's the page for Giant Squid:

You can also quickly share each page via Facebook, Twitter, Buzz, Stumble upon, and email making it easier to share with your students.

It's a great resource for teachers and students.