Monday, February 5, 2007

Prokaryotes, Eukaryotes, & Viruses Tutorial

I really appreciated this tutorial, especially the explanation of the differences between prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells, which I never quite understood from high school biology. The information on viruses was fascinating. I didn't know exactly how viruses worked, but the description of them being intracellular parasites that infect a cell and take over its genetic make-up really made sense to me. I also found the following statistic to be staggering: "since 1981, there have been 2.5 million deaths by AIDS and 20-40 million deaths by malaria." This makes me wonder why we have focused our efforts so heavily on the dialogue and cure of AIDS, and yet malaria has been a much more pervasive killer. I greatly appreciated the end of the tutorial that's entitled, "Sympathy for the life of bacteria." It was really funny and creative how they presented the information. I think similar presentations would be very effective for high school students in order to make the material more engaging.

No comments: