Lights, Chemicals, Action: Studying Red Worms’ Responses to Environmental Contaminants
Year: 2016
Type: article
Abstract: We have developed an experimental module that introduces high school students to guided scientific inquiry. It is designed to incorporate environmental health and ecological concepts into the basic biology or environmental-science content of the high school curriculum. Using the red worm, a familiar live species that is amenable to classroom experimentation, students learn how environmental agents affect the animal's locomotion by altering sensory neuron-muscle interactions and, as a result, influence its distribution in nature. In turn, the results of these experiments have direct application to human-caused environmental disruptions that cause changes in species distribution and indirectly increase the recognition that environmental chemicals affect human health. Students undertake a series of explorations to identify how red worms sense their environment and then apply that knowledge to understand the effects of chemical exposure on locomotor behavior. The activities are designed to generate critical thinking about neuromuscular processes and environmental pollutants that affect them.
Source: The American Biology Teacher
Institution: University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee
Language: English
Subfield: Education
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Quality education
Open Access status: green
Awards: Children's Environmental Health Sciences Core Center, G1753837577, Empowering Pre-service Teachers and Students With Environmental Health Research, Biology-Environmental Health Science Nexus: Inquiry, Content, and Communication, Empowering Pre-service Teachers and Students With Environmental Health Research
OpenAlex ID: W2517416980