Career and Technology Studies Grades 10-12

This activity illustrates the changes in architectural barriers between 1955 and 2005. Watch the animation, making choices about how you will get to the post office.

These media resources from Medal Quest and PBS help students explore how science, technology, engineering, and math support athletes with physical disabilities as they compete at elite levels.

This medical dictionary is written for consumers and provides very clear information as well as illustrations about many medical conditions

We're kicking off our exploration of muscles with a look at the complex and important relationship between actin and myosin. Your smooth, cardiac, and skeletal muscles create movement by contracting and releasing in a process called the sliding filament model. Your skeletal muscles are constructed like a rope made of bundles of protein fibers, and the smallest strands are your actin and myosin myofilaments. It's their use of calcium and ATP that causes the binding and unbinding that makes sarcomeres contract and relax.

Hank calls in a friend to do his push-ups for him today to explain how skeletal muscles work together to create and reverse movements. Hank and Claire also demonstrate the role size plays in motor units, the three-phase cycle of muscle twitches, and how the strength and frequency of an impulse affect the strength and duration of a contraction. This episode also explains twitch summation, tetanus, and isotonic vs. isometric movements.

This site provides high-quality images of bones and an interactive environment in which to examine and learn about skeletal anatomy. View the bones of a human, gorilla, and baboon and to gather information about them from the osteology database.

This online exhibit describes the structure and function of the human heart and lungs. There are animated diagrams and videos that demonstrate how these organs work.

This 6-minute video is a visual and musical journey of the human auditory system. Human's ability to hear is explained with beasts and storms and strange faceless dancing humans armed with larger-than-life ossicles.

Check out this "human brain atlas" using data from thousands of people, using the same imaging techniques neuroscientists use (MRIs and PET scans) to see inside the human brain.

Bones might seem rock-solid, but they’re actually quite porous inside. Most of the large bones of your skeleton have a hollow core filled with soft bone marrow. What does bone marrow do?

When you breathe, you transport oxygen to the body’s cells to keep them working, while also clearing your system of the carbon dioxide that this work generates. How do we accomplish this crucial and complex task without even thinking about it?

Watch this animated TED video that describes how your "kidneys balance the amount of fluid in your body, detect waste in your blood, and know when to release the vitamins, minerals, and hormones you need to stay alive." (site)

This TED Talk video, with bonus quiz and resources, investigates how the heart "works by taking a closer look at the heart’s highly efficient ventricle system." (site)

Do you know your integumentary system? Your skin, which makes up 16% of your physical weight, is the largest organ in your body: laid out flat, it would cover close to 1.7 square meters of ground. But besides keeping your organs in, what is its purpose?

Your liver is the heaviest organ in your body, which simultaneously acts as a storehouse, a manufacturing hub, and a processing plant. Emma Bryce gives a crash course on the liver and how it helps keep us alive.

Beneath your ribs, you’ll find, among other things, the pancreas -- an organ that works a lot like a personal health coach.

We have over 600 muscles in our bodies that help bind us together, hold us up, and help us move. Your muscles also need your constant attention, because the way you treat them on a daily basis determines whether they will wither or grow.

A series of short animated videos that explain how systems in the body work. Created by a high school science teacher.

Nachos can provide us with energy and raw materials, by first ingesting something nutritious, propelling it through the alimentary canal where it will be mechanically broken down, and chemically digested by enzymes until my cells can absorb their monomers and use them to make whatever they need.

Nearly 200 years ago, Alexis St. Martin was shot in the stomach. He was saved by local army doctor William Beaumont but had to live out his remaining years with a gaping hole in the stomach -- allowing Beaumont to learn a lot about how human digestion works. So today we're going to walk you through that process.

When digestion goes according to plan, the small intestine performs most of your chemical digestion in the duodenum, while accessory organs including the liver, gallbladder, and pancreas contribute enzymes that all but finish the job.

The immune system’s responses begin with physical barriers like skin and mucous membranes, and when they’re not enough, there are phagocytes -- the neutrophils and macrophages. It also features the awesomely named natural killer cells and the inflammatory response, and we'll explain how all of these elements work together to save the day if you happen to slip on a banana peel.

The adaptive immune system's humoral response guards extracellular terrain against pathogens. Hank also explains B cells, antibodies, and how vaccines work.

Hank explains how the cellular immune response uses helper, cytotoxic, and regulatory T cells to attack body cells compromised by pathogens. He also explores how cytokines activate B and T cells, and what happens if your immune system goes rogue and starts causing autoimmune trouble.

Metabolism is a complex process that has a lot more going on than personal trainers and commercials might have you believe. Today we are exploring some of its key parts, including vital nutrients -- such as water, vitamins, minerals, carbs, fats, and proteins -- as well as how anabolic reactions build structures and require energy, while catabolic reactions tear things apart and release energy.

But not everything you eat at that glorious buffet is going to be turned into energy. Your body has to work with different forms of food in different ways. In this episode of Crash Course Anatomy & Physiology, Hank takes us through more about our metabolism including cellular respiration, ATP, glycogenesis, and how insulin regulates our blood sugar levels.

Hank kicks off our look around MISSION CONTROL: the nervous system.

What do you and a sack of batteries have in common? Today, Hank explains.

We continue our tour of the nervous system by looking at synapses and the crazy stuff cocaine does to your brain.

Today Hank explains the skeletal system and why astronauts Scott Kelly and Mikhail Kornienko are out in space studying it. He talks about the anatomy of the skeletal system, including the flat, short, and irregular bones, and their individual arrangements of compact and spongy bone. He'll also cover the microanatomy of bones, particularly the osteons and their inner lamella.

oday we're talking about the anatomy of your urinary system, and how your kidneys filter metabolic waste and balance salt and water concentrations in the blood. We'll cover how nephrons use glomerular filtration, tubular reabsorption, and tubular secretion to reabsorb water and nutrients back into the blood, and make urine with the leftovers.

As we promised last week, we're not quite done talking about your pee yet. Today Hank explains how the urinary system regulates the production of urine, by maintaining a study glomerular flow rate. He'll also cover the anatomy of storing and excreting urine -- from the ureters to the urethra -- and the nervous system’s role in controlling the act of urination.

Learn about the stages of our immune response, the types of cell and the difference between our innate immune system and our adaptive immune system - and why vaccines are key to helping our adaptive immune system fight disease - in this short explainer video.

This site provides illustrations of the structures and functions of several human body systems, including circulatory, muscular, nervous, respiratory and urinary. Each section includes labeled diagrams, short answer and multiple choice quizzes.

This animated video explores the different components of the immune system and how, together, they do their vital work. "Most of the time, you may not even notice it's there, but over the course of your life your immune system will guard you against hundreds of potentially fatal threats."

Over our lifetimes, our bodies undergo a series of extraordinary metamorphoses: we grow, experience puberty, and many of us reproduce. Behind the scenes, the endocrine system works constantly to orchestrate these changes. Learn more here!

Your muscular system is a network of over 650 muscles that covers the body and is the reason we can blink, smile, run, jump, and stand upright. This video heads into the human body to see how our muscular system works.

This animated simulation demonstrates the human immune system’s response to vaccination. After viewing the simulation, students can show what they learned by sequencing and labeling the steps in the process.

For several centuries, people thought diseases were caused by wandering clouds of poisonous vapor. This video describes how scientists worked to prove "germ theory" and changed how we see and prevent disease.

If you lined up all the blood vessels in your body, they’d be 60 thousand miles long. And every day, they carry the equivalent of over two thousand gallons of blood to the body’s tissues. What effect does this pressure have on the walls of the blood vessels?

Inside you, a daily battle is being waged and your immune system is at the frontline. Most of the time, you may not even notice it's there, but over the course of your life your immune system will guard you against hundreds of potentially fatal threats

We know that germs are everywhere. Why are some of these germs relatively harmless, while others can be fatal? This video describes how germs are passed around and offers new ideas to control them.

The first ever vaccine was created when Edward Jenner, an English physician and scientist, successfully injected small amounts of a cowpox virus into a young boy to protect him from the related (and deadly) smallpox virus. But how does this seemingly counterintuitive process work?

Katharina Ribbeck reveals the mysteries of this transparent, shape-shifting layer that moistens and lubricates the vulnerable parts of our body while rendering us invisible to potentially deadly microbes.

This video tells the story of Henrietta Lacks, a woman whose DNA led to countless cures, patents, and discoveries. Trillions of lab-grown cells called HeLa, after the woman they were taken from, have been the keys to understanding cancer, virology, and genetics.

Why do we need a new flu shot every year? Vaccines for diseases like mumps and rubella offer a lifetime of protection with two shots early in life; what’s so special about the flu?

Epidemiology is the study of patterns of diseases. And most people might think that means epidemiologists are only studying things like Ebola. But the truth is much more varied. In this episode, we'll take a look at the different ways Epidemiology is conducted, including the use of...pie? It'll make sense, we promise.

This site has research-based reading strategies, lessons, and activities designed to help young children learn how to read and read better.

This PBS Learning collection has videos and interactives suitable for Pre-Kindergarten students. Filter by subject or type of resource.

This site has several activities and animated picture books to engage young readers.

Metabolism is a complex process. This video explores some of its key parts, including vital nutrients (water, vitamins, minerals, carbs, fats, and proteins) and describes two different reactions: anabolic and catabolic.

In this Crash Course video, learn about human metabolism including cellular respiration, atp, glycogenesis, and how insulin regulates our blood sugar levels.

Learn how to use nutrition information to make informed choices about the foods you buy.

The things we eat and drink on a daily basis can impact our health in big ways. This video shows how our bodies react to carbohydrates including the chemical reactions in our bodies.

This TED video includes animated explanations of how sugar affects the brain and is similar to a drug addiction. 'Dig Deeper' provides links to additional information.

This video explores the balance of microbes in our digestive system and how bacteria can break down food the body can’t digest, produce important nutrients, regulate the immune system, and protect against harmful germs. The video also shares the best foods for a healthy gut.

Welcome to Crash Course Public Health! In the next 10 episodes, Vanessa Hill unpacks what public health is, who does public health work, and why thinking about it is so important! Public Health is so much more than just washing your hands, adhering to smoking laws, or wearing your seatbelt -- although it is those things too.

We don’t know what the next big scientific breakthrough is going to be or what futuristic diseases we’ll encounter. But when it comes to our health, we actually have a pretty good idea of what could be next. And we also have some ideas about what we need to do today to prepare. In this final episode, we’re going to take a look into the future with some roadmaps from the present.

In this series our personal health is just one plot line in a rich story of evolving research and policies that make up the world of public health. So what is public health anyway? Well, public health is an approach to preventing disease, prolonging life, and promoting health for literally everyone.

Disease doesn’t care about national borders. So, in order to be proactive about protecting our health, we need to think globally. In this episode, we’re traveling around the world to look struggles and triumphs of public health on a global scale.

Society does a lot to improve our health, from sanitation to healthy foods. In this episode, we’re going to take a look at some of the basic societal elements that affect our health, and why they are often tied to economic inequality.

There is no denying the effect that our environment has on us. Things like water and air pollution are detrimental to our health. In this episode, we’ll take a look at some of the ways our environment impacts us, why marginalized and low-income populations are exposed to more environmental pollution, and what we can do about it.

Today, we are going to begin our discussion on the determinants of health which are all of the conditions we are born, live, and work in that have an influence on our overall wellbeing. Now these determinants can span everything from your education level to income level to genetic code, so today we're just going to focus on the biological factors like our age, genes, and sex, and take a closer look at their impacts.

Our identities, societies, and health are all mixed together in cool, weird, and often deeply unfair ways. One of the big factors that comes out of that mix is stress. In this episode, we’re going to go beyond the basics and look at the ways society affects our stress, which in turn impacts our health.

The things we eat and drink on a daily basis can impact our health in big ways. This video shows how our bodies react to carbohydrates including the chemical reactions in our bodies.

Dig into the science of how anabolic steroids and their recreational use can affect your body, organs and brain.

Are sports as good for us as we make them out to be, or are they just a fun and entertaining pastime? Leah Lagos and Jaspal Ricky Singh show what science has to say on the matter.

Typically, athletes stretch before physical activity to avoid injuries like strains and tears. But does stretching actually prevent these issues? And if so, how long do the benefits of stretching last? Dig into the science of stretching, and find out what it actually does to your muscles and how you can improve your flexibility.

Yoga is a blend of physical and mental exercise is widely believed to have a unique set of health advantages. But is yoga actually beneficial to your health? Krishna Sudhir examines how this ancient tradition impacts the body and mind.

Leading a more active lifestyle takes time, effort, and determination, but in the end, it's really worth the shot. Here's what will happen to your body when you exercise regularly.