What is High School Connect?
PPI High School Connect is a website intended for High School biology classes. It has been developed through a collaboration between Drs. Alan Collmer, Magdalen Lindeberg, and Gregory Martin and the Cornell Institute for Biology Teachers (CIBT) to give High School teachers a resource to familiarize their students with research on plant-microbe interactions and illustrate the importance of genomics in modern biology.
The PPI High School Connect website aims to give our visitors a personal look into the interactions of plants and bacterial pathogens. By completing our program, you will have a much more in-depth understanding of plant microbiology and a good idea what researchers studying Pseudomonas-Plant Interactions in the genomics era hope to achieve. The website is designed so that anyone curious about science can learn a lot, even outside a classroom.
The Lab and Web Exercises page provides links to four modules focusing on how plant pathogens infect host tissues and how plants defend themselves from pathogen attack.
The four modules can be done independently or as a series.
Each module is illustrated with pictures and diagrams and is composed of four chapters:
- The chapter ‘Biological Lab ’ is an interactive laboratory experiment with a brief lesson on the module topic
- The chapter ‘Social Science Issue’ is a discussion of how the module topic impacts our own lives
- The chapter ‘Process of Science’ is a discussion of how researchers use the scientific method to answer questions
- The chapter ‘Web Exercise’ is an exercise using online free resources to familiarize you with bioinformatic tools and/or to learn more about the module topic
You will also find on our pages slideshows illustrating an experiment or a lesson, quizzes for you to test your knowledge of topics addressed and videos of interviews with a researcher.
Helpful links to improve your knowledge are provided all along the modules and in the specific pages ‘Students resources’ and ‘Teacher resources’.
A glossary of terminology is available as well as activities printouts. Teachers are provided with a special version of the printouts that includes tips and answers
The lab activities are developed to be feasible in a classroom and the specific materials needed, such as seeds and bacterial strains, are sent to teachers upon request.
Contact us for more information and to give us comments and suggestions.
We look forward to hearing from you!
