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Using Balloons to Teach Biology
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by Tricia Glidewell
Marist School
Atlanta, Georgia
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| | To Demonstrate the Dispersal of Viruses From a Cell
Materials:
- balloon
- hole punches from your hole punch (or other small paper objects)
- pin
Add several dozen hole punches (holes from your hole punch) to a balloon. Inflate the balloon and tie off. When you are discussing release of viruses from an infected cell, stand in a central location in your classroom and burst the balloon with a pin. Analyze how many students were exposed to newly released viruses from this one dispersal.
Warning: Do not use anything that can injure students (like metal) when the balloon explodes and sends the pieces out.
This activity was developed in a Cornell University summer institute.
To Demonstrate Antibody Specificity and Agglutination
Materials:
Three different colors of round balloons (about twice the number of students in the class)
Have the students blow up the balloons and disperse them around the room. After introducing antibody structure, ask students to stand and assume the position that an antibody would have (arms in a "V" above their heads). Ask them which part of their structure is the antigen-specific portion (their hands). Have them pick up balloons and hold them aloft. Ask them what is wrong with the picture. Even though they are all portraying the same antibody, they will have three different kinds of antigens attached. Specify one color of balloon as the antigen for which they (the antibodies) are specific. Some students will have to drop balloons. Prompt them to figure out how to fill their sites; eventually they will figure out that more than one antibody can be attached to each antigen. The entire class may end up interconnected (or agglutinated), representing a clump of matter large enough for phagocytic cells to recognize as foreign.
This activity was developed in a Cornell University summer institute.
To Illustrate Genetic Ratios
Materials
- balloons of different colors to represent genetic traits
- wide tape or pins to attach the balloons to the wall or bulletin board
Use different colored balloons to represent expected genetic ratios from crosses; attach them to the wall or board for display. For example, for a monohybrid cross involving seed color in pea plants, you would have the following arrangement:
| P |
Yellow (balloon) X green (balloon) |
| produces |
| F1 |
All yellow (2 balloons) |
| produces |
| F2 |
3 yellow (3 balloons) : 1 green (balloon) |
A cross of red- and white-flowered plants in an organism that exhibits incomplete dominance would look like the following:
| P |
Red (balloon) X white (balloon) |
| produces |
| F1 |
All pink (two balloons) |
| produces |
| F2 |
1 red (balloon) : 2 pink (2 balloons) : 1 white (balloon) |
This activity was developed by Linda Bruce, an AP Biology teacher in Bowling Green, Kentucky.
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