Life's Greatest Miracle
This website developed by NOVA allows the student to stream the video entitled Life’s Greatest Miracle, which is the sequel to the the 1983 award-winning movie “Miracle of Life.” Lennart Nilsson is the videographer of both videos, but the newer version not only has more up-to-date videos and graphics, the scientific content is also completely updated (and narrated by John Lithglow). The entire video can be watched in short segments, which are between 5-10 minutes long. This allows you, as the teacher, to select which portions of the video best address this course level expectation.
There is a teacheru2019s guide to the program http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/teachers/programs/2816_miracle.html that includes objectives, viewing ideas, classroom activities, ideas from other teachers, related NOVA resources and an interactive for students. Depending on how the teacher introduces sexual reproduction in the classroom, the segments or video in its entirety can be utilized. There is a wonderful animation on meiosis in the first chapter entitled, Passing on your DNA. Hereu2019s a brief excerpt from the program transcript: u201c Fortunately, there's sex, the method of choice for 99.9 percent of the organisms on Earth more complex than bacteria. With sexual reproduction, two individuals each provide some DNA. Most animals put it into sperm or eggs. If the two can get together, a new being will be created, one that's different from its parents and everybody else. Where there's sex, there's variety. And when it comes to survival of the fittest, variety has a definite advantage.u201d
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eduToolbox® is a resource-sharing portal developed by the Ayers Institute for Learning & Innovation with collaborative support and funding from the Tennessee Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Education's Math & Science Partnership program.
