Educational resources
Research data, tools, & lesson plans free to use in your classroom
Introduction
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In our research, the Allen Institute for Cell Science collects thousands of 3D microscopy images and movies of our fluorescently tagged human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPS cells). We analyze these images to uncover and study underlying mechanisms that drive the complex multi-scale organization and dynamics of the cells.
Many educators have incorporated data, tools, and information they found on allencell.org into how they teach biology. Below, you’ll find ready-to-use lesson plans that use allencell.org data and tools in lessons for high school and college students, as well as quick-start guides for some of our datasets and tools that are most popular with educators. |
Teaching Materials
Lesson Plans
Learn about principles of cell biology with these short, ready-to-use, fully online activities by Allen Institute staff.
- Healthy Cells, Healthy Bodies introduces middle school students to the link between cellular health and human health. Materials include ready-to-use slideshows for teachers to present, videos of Allen Institute for Cell Science cell biologists presenting the same material, and activities using the open data from the Allen Cell Explorer.
- Introduction to Microscopy in Biology introduces principles of cell image analysis, with two levels of an interactive activity available for early or advanced high school students. Includes materials needed for a teacher to give the prepared presentation and a video of a scientist giving the presentation that can be played in class.
- Mitosis and Microscopy introduces principles of mitosis and image analysis to advanced high school to early college students. This lesson includes all virtual lab activity materials, as well as a webinar for teachers demonstrating the lesson.
Cell Division Virtual Lab with Real Data
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This ready-to-use, fully online virtual lab hosted on CourseSource teaches principles of mitosis to early college students.
A virtual laboratory on cell division using a publicly-available image database. Shelden EA, Offerdahl EG, Johnson GT. CourseSource: Evidence-based teaching resources for undergraduate biology education, May 2019.
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How Teachers Use Our Resources
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Three educators who use various resources from allencell.org in their classrooms shared their experiences to an audience at the American Society for Cell Biology's 2018 ASCB | EMBO Annual Meeting. The speakers present their applications of these data, tools, and approaches in classrooms ranging from high school to advanced college levels.
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Online Tools Popular with Teachers
All allencell.org tools and data are open source and available to use in your classroom, but teachers are particularly fond of these engaging resources. For a brief overview of our research goals, process, and cells, see What We Do.
Quickstart Guide for Teachers
In-depth tips for new users, detailed information on how to view and interact with the data and online tools highlighted in this section, and use cases for each resource in classrooms and curricula.
Visual Guide to Human Cells
This interactive resource designed specifically for students demonstrates major cell structures and their functions in an illustrated model of a real human cell. The illustrated cell model is accompanied by microscope images and videos, written explanations of each structure's function, and illustrations and explanations for each cell structure in each stage of mitosis.
Integrated Mitotic Stem Cell
This visual essay introduces an advanced data-driven model and visualization tool that explores human cell division. This model and the visualizations in the essay follow 15 cell structures through the whole cell cycle.
Cell Feature Explorer
Interactively view 3D images and plot measurements of cell features for over 200,000 individual human cells.
For a ready-to-use activity applying the Cell Feature Explorer, try the Mitosis and Microscopy lesson.
3D Cell Viewer
Browse and view this collection of almost 25,000 individual human cells, as well as over 7,000 cell colony sections. For a ready-to-use activity using the 3D Cell Viewer, try our Introduction to Microscopy in Biology (high school level) or A Virtual Laboratory on Cell Division (college level).
About our cells
Review observations and insights about cell behavior that our scientists have gleaned through images and video.
Quickstart Guide for Teachers
In-depth tips for new users, detailed information on how to view and interact with the data and online tools highlighted in this section, and use cases for each resource in classrooms and curricula.
Visual Guide to Human Cells
This interactive resource designed specifically for students demonstrates major cell structures and their functions in an illustrated model of a real human cell. The illustrated cell model is accompanied by microscope images and videos, written explanations of each structure's function, and illustrations and explanations for each cell structure in each stage of mitosis.
Integrated Mitotic Stem Cell
This visual essay introduces an advanced data-driven model and visualization tool that explores human cell division. This model and the visualizations in the essay follow 15 cell structures through the whole cell cycle.
Cell Feature Explorer
Interactively view 3D images and plot measurements of cell features for over 200,000 individual human cells.
For a ready-to-use activity applying the Cell Feature Explorer, try the Mitosis and Microscopy lesson.
3D Cell Viewer
Browse and view this collection of almost 25,000 individual human cells, as well as over 7,000 cell colony sections. For a ready-to-use activity using the 3D Cell Viewer, try our Introduction to Microscopy in Biology (high school level) or A Virtual Laboratory on Cell Division (college level).
About our cells
Review observations and insights about cell behavior that our scientists have gleaned through images and video.