Looking for good educational biology movies

Posted on April 26, 2007 by | 23 Comments

I am teaching my BIO101 again starting this Monday. The class is very small, so the discussions and student presentations will not last very long. Thus, I will have extra time at the end of each lecture. This can be a good time to show some videos. So, if you know of good movies available online or that can be ordered as CDs or VHS tapes, let me know in the comments (check the link for the topics I need to cover). I have a couple of ancient tapes whcih will do in a jiffy, but I am looking for more recent and better stuff. Keep in mind that this is VERY basic biology. Thus, the cool Harvard movie of the inside of the cell won’t work – too many molecules I do not cover and nothing is labelled anyway.

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23 responses to “Looking for good educational biology movies”

  1. Sandra Porter | April 26, 2007 at 10:08 am |

    I really like the Intimate Strangers series that the ASM produced with some partners. They cover most of your topics.
    I think your students would also enjoy the videopodcasts from Microbeworld.

  2. John Wilkins | April 26, 2007 at 10:38 am |

    Go here and download some movies about DNA replication and malaria.

  4. Cameron | April 26, 2007 at 11:06 am |

    How about the PBS series Evolution? Or any program by David Attenborough.

  5. Matt | April 26, 2007 at 11:18 am |

    Bora, there is an excellent/funny/educational video about evolution. I saw it once in a class I taught (also ontro bio), and am looking for a copy someplace. It is short- and totally YouTube material..
    Title: Evolution, produced by Michael Mills. It won an Academy Award in 1971.
    Do you know this movie.. Does anyone know where ti find it?

  6. Matt | April 26, 2007 at 11:20 am |

    Also, for the behavior part of the class- Sir David Attenborough’s “Trials of Life” series is amazing. There are short clips in there that everybody should see… For instance- there is 5-10 minutes on the bower birds and sexual selection that is fantastic.

  7. ms. s | May 1, 2007 at 9:43 pm |

    I think anything by David Attenborough would work. “Private Life of Plants” has some outstanding coevolution stuff – literally the “birds and the bees” – and I’ve just shown “Life in the Undergrowth” which worked out well. That was more focused on diversity of life, although I used it as a springboard into a discussion of how behaviors might evolve as a survival strategy.

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