LabLearner - The Science of Learning
Take a look at some interesting topics to research for summer with LabLearner. We will look at the H1N1 Influenza and the extinction of dinosaurs. Join the discussion on Facebook.
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Swine FluWhat is Novel Influenza A H1N1 or the Swine Flu?
This is the time of year when students are thinking about summer break, families are planning summer outings, and when most people are contemplating how to make the most of warm weather, not how to prevent getting the flu. And yet over the last month, many of us have found ourselves thinking about just that and about what was initially called the swine flu, now called Novel Influenza A H1N1.

The appearance of Novel Influenza A H1N1 highlights two important processes in biological science: mutation and adaptation. Both of these processes are intricately tied with changes in the genes of organisms. Students often study these processes in relation to evolution and to the appearance, disappearance and changing of traits of multicellular organisms such as plants and animals. In the LabLearner Program, these concepts are part of the Ecosystems and Adaptations CELL, the Inheritance and Adaptations CELL, the Adaptation CELL, and the Genes and Proteins CELL. The appearance of Novel Influenza H1N1 illustrates an example of mutation and adaptation on a smaller scale- that of viruses.

In many ways, Novel Influenza A H1N1 is similar to the common "seasonal flu" that we encounter each winter.

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Dinosaur Extinction
Why Are Dinosaurs Extinct?
Approximately 65 million years ago, half of the world's organisms became extinct, including dinosaurs. But what caused this mass extinction? If you ask this question to most adults and students above middle school age, they may ask you in turn, "What do you mean what caused the mass extinction? Everyone knows it was an asteroid impacting the earth!"

Well, actually, the asteroid impact as a cause of the mass extinction is not a fact, but a scientific theory. Albeit, it has been for almost three decades, the most supported theory of the mass extinction. As such it is the one that most scientists and science teachers put forth to students and the general public.   

But if you were to step inside this specific field of research you would find that over the last three decades there has been a heated debate as to whether the cause of the mass extinction was really the result of the asteroid impact or other causes such as massive volcanic eruptions.  

Complete article available at Facebook.
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