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Teacher Resources

COVID-19 Distance Learning Resources for Teachers, Students, and Parents

Salk Education Outreach understands the challenges of finding and/or creating lessons, activities, and other resources to support distance learning. Please see the resources linked below and check back often for updates! Stay safe, stay well!

Distance Learning Resources/Opportunities for Science
Click HERE for a table listing of resources that may be of use for teachers, students, and parents looking for information and activities in science distance learning. New resources added often!

SciChats@Salk
SciChats is a video-conferenced-based science outreach program that pairs students in a classroom (or an alternative learning setting) with a volunteer scientist for an interactive conversation about what it’s like to be a scientist.

During the current situation we will be doing periodic short live-stream SciChats on our social media platforms. Please follow Salk Education Outreach for announcements:

Teachers interested in setting up specific SciChats for streaming to their students click HERE to request or email scichats@salk.edu for more information.

Salk Podcast – Where Cures Begin
Where Cures Begin is Salk’s podcast that highlights cutting-edge science and the researchers making it all possible. On the podcast, hosts Allie Akmal and Brittany Fair interview Salk’s internationally renowned and award-winning scientists to explore the very foundations of life, and learn about new understandings in neuroscience, genetics, immunology, plant biology and more. Where Cures Begin is a production of the Salk Office of Communications, and can be heard on Apple and Google podcasts, Stitcher, or click and listen on the episode webpages.

Video Resources

  • Action! Science
    Designed to illustrate the critical thinking processes involved in developing scientific experiments, videos in this series follow our high school Scholars interns through their summer research projects. Videos are annotated with discussion stop points and supporting curriculum resources are provided.Click HERE to access. Additional videos and resources will be added soon.
  • Virtual Lab Tours
    • Stem Cell Core Facility
      Salk Institute Stem Cell Core Assistant Director Ken Diffendiffer takes the viewer on a virtual tour of the Stem Cell Core facility and explains how these cells are cared for and used in research.
    • Plant Biology at Salk
      Shelly Trigg, a researcher in Salk’s Plant Biology group, takes the viewer on a virtual tour of the Salk plant biology lab facilities and explains how and why Salk researches plants.

More Video Resources

  • Cancer
  • Neuroscience/Genetics
  • Plants/Climate Change
    • Virtual Lab Tour featuring the Plant Molecular and Cellular Biology Laboratory under the direction of Joanne Chory
      https://youtu.be/BFF_C3yCj4A
  • Immunology
    • Virtual Lab Tour featuring the Molecular and Systems Physiology Laboratory under the direction of Janelle Ayres
      https://youtu.be/54CCziZ3luk
  • Proteins/Genetics
    • Virtual Lab Tour featuring the Clayton Foundation Laboratories for Peptide Biology under the direction of Alan Saghatelian
      https://youtu.be/OZZk5ud7ViE
  • Stem Cells
  • Ellen Potter Research Connections for Teachers Symposium talks
    • Inaugural symposium, October 2016: The Cutting Edge of Science
      Peter Salk: Peter Salk, son of Jonas Salk, discusses the importance of teachers on his father’s career path and the role of Education Outreach at Salk
    • Ron Evans: New Frontiers in Diabetes Research
    • Reuben Shaw: Cancer Research: The Future is Now
    • Patrick Hsu: Programming Life – A discussion of the uses of CRISPR-Cas9 in genome editing
    • October 2018: Harnessing Plants for the Classroom
      Joseph Ecker: Why in the World Would We Work on a Weed?
    • Joseph Noel: Plants, Carbon and Climate Change – Put a Cork in it!
    • Wolfgang Busch: Growing Roots for the Future
    • October 2019: Modeling and Scientific Inquiry in the Lab
      Kathleen DelGiorno: Describes the developing story of how questioning techniques led to her current research
    • Ken Diffenderfer: Discusses how Stem Cell models have developed and changed as new discoveries are made
    • Ron Evans: Understanding disease risks in cancer leads to new therapies

Salk Activity Kits

Education Outreach offers free training and equipment for teachers to perform biotechnology activities in their own classrooms on their own schedule. Click here for more information about each kit. Email education@salk.edu for upcoming required training workshops.

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