Introduction to simulation-based exercises
About this video
This video introduces Khan Academy's simulation-based exercises in high school and AP biology. Each one starts with a puzzling anchoring phenomenon, gives students an embedded simulation, and walks them through predicting, experimenting, analyzing data and building evidence-based explanations before returning to explain the phenomenon.
You'll be able to
- describe what an anchoring phenomenon is.
- list the steps of the scientific process used in simulation-based exercises.
- explain how a simulation helps me explore a biological process.
Key words
- simulation
- An interactive model on the computer that lets you change things and watch a process happen.
- anchoring phenomenon
- A puzzling or surprising real-world event that sparks curiosity and sets up the investigation.
- prediction
- A guess about what will happen, based on what you already know.
- evidence-based explanation
- An explanation supported by data you collected or observed.
Transcript
- Hi everyone. I'm Wieteke, a science content creator here at Khan Academy. We're excited to introduce a brand new type of learning experience now available in our high school biology and AP biology courses, simulation based exercises. Thanks to support from the Amgen Foundation, these interactive exercises bring science to life, letting students explore and manipulate biological processes in real time.
Along the way, students practice the same reasoning and inquiry skills that professional biologists use to study the natural world. Each simulation-based exercise starts with an anchoring phenomenon, a puzzling or surprising real-world event that sparks curiosity and sets the stage for deeper inquiry.
These phenomena provide context and help students connect biological processes to the world around them. Students are then introduced to a simulation embedded directly in the exercise with clear guidance that shows how it works and what each part represents. Each simulation is paired with scaffolded tasks that guide students through the scientific process.
As they work through each question, students are prompted to make predictions based on prior knowledge, run experiments to gather data, analyze the patterns or trends they observe, and build evidence-based explanations. Finally, students return to the original phenomenon, now equipped with a deeper understanding, and apply what they've learned to explain it.
Our simulation-based exercises cover a wide variety of topics, including how gene expression can make bacteria glow bright green, how climate change is related to the spread of mosquitoes, and how oxygen diffuses from lungs into the bloodstream, and what this means for mountain climbers at high altitudes.
All of these exercises are aligned to the next generation science standards or the AP biology course and exam description. Plus, they go hand in hand with our biology videos, articles, and other practice exercises. That means students can go from learning a concept to exploring it in action, all in one place.
Ready to bring science to life? Explore simulation-based exercises in our high school biology and AP biology courses. (soft music)
Video © Khan Academy, used under CC BY-NC-SA. Watch on Khan Academy. Puzzicle is not affiliated with Khan Academy.