C. elegans and Alcohol

C. elegans is a free-living nematode. It is small—growing to about 1 mm in length—and lives in the soil (especially in rotting vegetation) where it survives by feeding on microbes such as bacteria. Students design, conduct, and analyze a controlled experiment testing the effects of alcohol on the roundworm C. elegans.

Grade Level: 5-8 and 9-12

Lesson Length: 1-2 class periods

This lesson is one of several BrainU lesson plans adapted for inclusion 2011-2012 Curriculum Materials for the 2011 Nobel Conference on The Brain and Being Human. Teacher resources can be found at https://gustavus.edu/events/nobelconference/2011/teachers/

We recommend the card game activity found in the NIH lesson entitled The Brain: Understanding Neurobiology from the Study of Addiction. You may download Lesson 4 (the activity is on pages 87-92) at http://science.education.nih.gov/supplements/nih2/Addiction/guide/pdfs.htm.