This web site was developed for pre-college teachers attending the Mid-Atlantic Regional Meeting in April, 2002, in collaboration with the Society for Developmental Biology. Please visit the SDB Education web site!

The Carnegie Institution of Washington's Department of Embryology and Department of Plant Biology are world reknowned research centers.

Visit the site developed for the February 8, 2003 workshop Meet the Visible Embryo at the National Museum of Health and Medicine, sponsored by NABT. You missed a great workshop!

Developmental Biologist Robert Horvitz wins the Nobel Prize, 2002. Horvitz describes his 9th grade science fair project.

An essay on curiosity and discovery about Frank Probst, a graduate student studying developmental biology of deafness.

Model Systems (Animals)

Be sure to visit The Human Embryo Project, check out the Carnegie Collection of Embryology and the National Museum of Health and Medicine's Embryological Development of the Human and Human Developmental Anatomy web sites

Click the icon for software to view animations

Click the pictures for additional links

Click the icon for software to view PDF files

Animal Models Click on the links (words and images) to explore the many ways that eggs, embryos, and paths of development are described --- in words, pictures and videos. Click here for amazing fly development videos. Caution---may take a long time to load.
	Amphibians Xenbase Metamorphosis	Chickscope --- Chick serial sections Description of precollege experiments with chick embryos	Sea urchins
	Worms RNA silencing patent	Humans	Xenopus
	Fruit Flies Fly egg development	Zebrafish The Zebrafish Manual Brain development Flatfish eye metamorphosis	Mice Mouse muscle and skeleton development
	Planaria, classic organisms of developmental biology RNA inhibition of regeneration Try your grasp of the French language! Planarian functional genomics	Regeneration in Planaria	Visit these 6 websites ((image has a link, too!) on Planaria and let Toby know about their ease of use for your own learning for students' independent learning

Model Systems (Plants)
Classic Papers in Developmental Genetics
Click the pictures for additional links

Plant Models Digital Imaging / Time-Lapse movie making in schools
	Peas: The first organism for deciphering the rules of genetics more than 150 years ago.	Corn genetics of development: The organism that Barbara McClintock observed to have mobile controlling elements (now known as transposons) which set the stage for recombinant DNA technology.
	Arabidopsis: A model for genetics of development and more is a common roadside weed whose entire DNA sequence is essentially known.	Fern sperm chemotaxis and fertilization. The male gametophyte is shown on the left.

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Explore these Stages of Development
Links are to web tutorials. Texts are now available online through the digital library of the National Center for Biotechnology Information
including Developmental Biology (Scott F. Gilbert), Genes and Disease (NIH), C. elegans II (Donald L. Riddle et al.), and many more.

Our Hands-On Workshops for Pre-College Teachers

Blackworm Regeneration	Bone Strength Simulation
Karen Crawford at St. Mary's College Toxicology lab activities Standards-based tox lab activity/inquiry (.pdf file) Charles Drewes' links Culturing (from England)	John Doctor at Duquesne University PTEI Tissue Engineering Tutorial Biotech Bodies (Newsweek Magazine) All the different kinds of scientists on the team The Bone Tissue Engineering Center

Back to DCACTS
Questions? Comments? Suggestions?

Additional Resources

• Developmental Detective (a developmental biologist in action)
• Dynamic Development (a tutorial)
• Developmental Mechanisms (problem sets)
• Scott Gilbert's resources for Developmental Biology (resources)
• Slack, JMW, Essential Developmental Biology. Download numerous wonderful drawings. Click on the link to download artwork. The files in the right-hand column work best.

Please send comments, corrections, suggestions to Toby Horn

Developmental Biology in the popular/scientific press...

• Ben Bova "Immortality"
• Lori Andrews "Clone Age"
• Stanley Shostak "Beyond Immortality"

• Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine, 1995

Even bacteria and fungi undergo developmental phases:

Sporulation

Growth of flagellae

Scientists are finding that yeast sporulation and the meiosis that precedes sporulation may provide clues to how sperm and eggs develop! See "The Genes We Share with Yeast, Worms, Flies and Mice" a publication of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

Cancer describes a wide variety of instances of abnormal growth and development. Cancer gives us clues to how growth and differentiation are intertwined.

Processes and Instrumentation Used by Developmental Biologists:
Suggestions/links are WELCOME! Please contact Dr. Toby Horn

Microscopy
Modern methods include using fluorescent antibodies to trace gene expression in 4 dimensions (The 4th dimension is time!). Observation of the development process is fascinating!

• serial sections

• scanning EM

• time-lapse

• college course at Mount Holyoke w/ Professor Rachel Fink, producer of "A Dozen Eggs"

Digital photography/movies
Development involves change over time, so time-lapse photography becomes a very important methodology. Plus, the imagescan be beautiful.

• Time-lapse (for high school --- learn and use math AND science skills and knowledge together.

• Professional time-lapse movies of Xenopus (amphibian) development from Rockefeller University. Some of the files are very large, so plan to download after school some day to use in class.

Genetics
Developmental biologists generate deliberate mutations using recombinant DNA technology, then examine the effects of these mutations in the progeny. Fruit flies were the earliest model system to employ deliberate mutation to study development. In the early 1900's, mutants were generated using X-rays.

Knock-outs. Genes are inactivated specifically to see effect(s) on development.

Cell ablation
Cells are physically removed by being plucked from the embryo --- by being destroyed by laser light --- or by injection of a toxin. How the organism continues its development gets traced, often by microscopy.

	The Society for Developmental Biology (SDB) is the professional organization for research scientists who are developmental biologists. Their Education page contains lots of links to valuable resources you can use in your classroom. Here are some examples both from the SDB links and elsewhere to help you learn more about developmental biology and to provide resources for lessons that address the DCPS content standards... Be sure to visit these pages: Education, The Interactive Fly and the SDB Virtual Library.
	The April 19 Teacher Workshop in Developmental Biology was hosted by the Carnegie Institution of Washington. The Carnegie Department of Embryology has a long and fruitful history. Visit the laboratories on-line by selecting "scientific staff," then selecting the lab leader.
	DC ACTS is a collaborative effort of District of Columbia Public Schools, the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Carnegie Institution of Washington to improve mathematics, science and technology education for all students in DCPS.

In Washington DC, visit the National Museum of Health and Medicine Exhibit "From Single Cells... Human Reproduction, Growth and Development." The Exhibit traces growth and development of the embryo and fetus, with specimens that show stages of human development before and after birth. On Saturday February 8, 2003 (10 AM to 2 PM), teachers "met" the Visible Embryo at the Museum. This professional development event for DCPS teachers was sponsored by the DC Chapter of the National Association of Biology Teachers.

Harvard embryology for teachers

Comments, corrections, suggestions are always welcome! E-mail Toby Horn
This web site was developed in collaboration with Dr. Ida Chow, Executive Director of the Society for Developmental Biology, Bethesda, MD