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NOVA

RESOURCE	GRADE LEVEL	MEDIA TYPE
Blood Vessels Help Tumors Grow In this video segment, adapted from NOVA, Dr. Judah Folkman uses the scientific method to discover how cancer cells induce the formation of new blood vessels, which in turn nourish those cancer cells.	6-12	Video
Body Needs This interactive feature from the NOVA "Dying to Be Thin" Web site describes the nutritional needs of the body and how to meet them.	3-8	Interactive
The Costs and Benefits of Treating Gene Defects In this video excerpt from NOVA, find out how whole genome sequencing saved the life of Alexis, a fraternal twin who was originally diagnosed with cerebral palsy but, in fact, had an even rarer genetic condition.	9-12	Video
Creepy Crawlies This interactive feature from the NOVA: "Odyssey of Life" Web site explores the often unwitting relationship we share with the billions of organisms that reside in our bodies and in our homes.	K-8	Interactive
The Ethical Considerations of Personal Genomics In this media-rich lesson, students explore some of the ethical, legal, and social issues related to personal genetic testing and genome sequencing.	9-12	Lesson Plan
The Ethics of Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis In this video excerpt from NOVA, learn about the advantages, disadvantages, and ethical implications of preimplantation genetic diagnosis, or PGD, a technique used to screen embryos created through in vitro fertilization for diseases.	9-12	Video
A Family Disease This video segment from NOVA: "Cracking the Code of Life" explores the implications of genetic testing for breast cancer.	9-12	Video
Fighting Back Help the immune system fight off an infection in this interactive feature from the NOVA: "Surviving AIDS" Web site.	6-8	Interactive
Finding Cures Is Hard This video segment from NOVA: "Cracking the Code of Life" explains the difficulty of curing genetic diseases such as cystic fibrosis.	9-12	Video
Finding Disease Genes This video segment from NOVA: "Cracking the Code of Life" explains the process of finding genes that cause disease.	9-12	Video
From the Cystic Fibrosis Gene to a Drug In this video excerpt from NOVA, find out how the discovery of a gene defect has led to the development of a new drug to treat patients with cystic fibrosis.	9-12	Video
Genetic Modification This video segment from NOVA: "Cracking the Code of Life" looks at the potential created by understanding the human genome.	9-12	Video
Genetics Case Studies Wrestle with ethical issues concerning genetic rights and practices from the NOVA: "Cracking the Code of Life" Web site.	9-12	Document
Genome Facts This list from NOVA: "Cracking the Code of Life" Web site provides some of the basic, yet impressive, facts and figures about the Human Genome Project.	9-12	Document
Guess What's Coming to Dinner? Browse through a table full of genetically modified (GM) foods to see what's available now and what's to come. From the FRONTLINE/NOVA: "Harvest of Fear" Web site.	9-12	Interactive
The Science Behind Appetite This video segment, adapted from NOVA, tells the story of a ballerina battling anorexia. It explains how serotonin regulates appetite, and presents some of the health risks that accompany the eating disorder.	5-12	Video
HIV Immunity Although repeatedly exposed to HIV, Steve Crohn's blood cells were never infected. Dr. David Ho investigates in this video segment from NOVA: "Surviving AIDS."	9-12	Video
How Cancer Cells Grow and Divide This animation from NOVA: "Battle in the War on Cancer: Breast Cancer" describes how oncogenes cause cancer and how cancerous cells can spread throughout the body.	6-12	Video
How Cancer Grows Follow the growth of a carcinoma from initial mutation to widespread metastasis in this feature from the NOVA: "Cancer Warrior" Web site.	6-12	Interactive
Human Genome Project This video segment from NOVA: "Cracking the Code of Life" looks at the meaning and significance of the effort to decode the human genome.	6-12	Video
Making Cortisone From Plants This video segment adapted from NOVA is a dramatized story of chemist Percy Julian’s work to synthesize cortisone. Find out how a biological process, not a chemical one, proved the key to producing cortisone in bulk.	6-12	Video
Map of the Human Heart See how the human heart moves blood through the body in this animated feature from the NOVA: "Cut to the Heart" Web site.	K-8	Interactive
Nature's Pharmacy In this interactive activity from NOVA, learn about chemicals in nature that are used in medicine.	3-12	Interactive
Nature vs. Nurture Revisited Which dictates our existence -- our genetic makeup or the environment we grow up in? Kevin Davies offers an update on this long-standing debate, from the NOVA: "Cracking the Code of Life" Web site.	9-12	Document
One Wrong Letter This video segment from NOVA: "Cracking the Code of Life" describes the genetics of Tay-Sachs disease.	6-12	Video
On Human Cloning Three cloning experts share their opinions in these interviews from the NOVA "18 Ways to Make a Baby." Web site.	9-12	Document
Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis This video segment from NOVA: "18 Ways to Make a Baby" describes a technique used to determine the health of a developing embryo.	9-12	Video
The Promise and Perils of Genetic Technologies In this media-rich, self-paced lesson, students explore some of the technologies designed to detect and treat inherited diseases and the ethical debate surrounding them.	9-12	Self-paced Lesson
Ringed-Carbon Compounds In this interactive activity adapted from NOVA, learn about alkaloids and steroids, both examples of compounds with carbon rings. Short videos with interviews, animations, and photographs are featured.	9-12	Interactive
Risky Genetics In this lesson from NOVA scienceNOW, students explore genetic testing for specific diseases, and consider the pros and cons of discovering a person's genotype for a particular disease.	9-12	Lesson Plan
RNAi Discovered In this video segment adapted from NOVA scienceNOW, learn how RNAi, a mechanism that has evolved in cells to prevent viral infection, was discovered and how it works.	9-12	Video
RNAi Therapy In this video segment adapted from NOVA scienceNOW, learn about RNAi's potential to treat a wide range of genetic and infectious diseases.	9-12	Video
The Role of Genetics in Obesity In this video segment from NOVA scienceNOW, meet researchers who are studying obesity and trying to understand the role that hormones and genetics can play in regulating appetite.	6-12	Video
The Sequencing Race Begins This video segment from NOVA: "Cracking the Code of Life" looks at one of the key players in the race to decode the human genome.	9-12	Video
Should We Screen for Cancer Genes? In this video excerpt from NOVA, learn about the advantages, disadvantages, and ethical implications of screening for genes associated with diseases, including those linked to breast and ovarian cancers.	9-12	Video
Sources of Radiation This interactive activity from the NOVA Web site explores sources of radiation, both harmful and beneficial, natural and manmade.	6-12	Interactive
Stem Cell Debate This essay from the NOVA "Life's Greatest Miracle" Web site explores the debate over the use of embryonic stem cells in scientific research.	9-12	Document
Synthesizing an Alkaloid In this video segment, adapted from NOVA, learn how chemist Percy Julian revolutionized chemistry by synthesizing the alkaloid physostigmine from scratch—the first total synthesis of a chemical compound.	9-12	Video
Synthesizing a Steroid This video segment, adapted from NOVA, tells the story of chemist Percy Julian's quest to make progesterone from a plant steroid, an important medical advancement of the 1940s.	9-12	Video
Talking Bacteria In this video segment adapted from NOVA scienceNOW, microbiologist Bonnie Bassler shares her discovery that bacteria coordinate group activity by communicating through chemical signals.	6-12	Video
Tour the Electromagnetic Spectrum Take NOVA's interactive tour of the electromagnetic spectrum and find out why your eyes are like antennae for a narrow band of electromagnetic radiation.	6-12	Interactive
Who Owns the Genome? This video segment from NOVA: "Cracking the Code of Life" examines the social and ethical implications of genome research.	9-12	Video