Notes for teachers

Use some lesson ideas¹ to investigate student prior knowledge.
Visit the Children’s Medical Research Institute² site and follow the link to the CMRI talk quiz at the bottom of the page. It will help students think about biotechnology and genetics. Other resources on the CMRI site include the Trivia Quiz and Gene Genius.
Numerous links to definitions/descriptions of biotechnology have been given above. Students could work in groups to each explore one link and compare that definition with the others. Students could attempt the quiz or work in groups to write their own questions and answers about biotechnology.
Experience traditional biotechnology by making yoghurt³. The link to the worksheet is at the bottom of the page.
Use the ‘Take charge of your reading’ worksheet from the background reading⁴ link for diagnostic or formative assessment.


Research task Students research and present a concept map that outlines how a scientific discovery has contributed to solving a real world problem such as: an animal disease a plant disease sewage treatment food preservation prevention of spread of infectious disease through hygiene remediation of contaminated sites eg the clean-up of toxic waste or oil spills.

Teacher notes