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Studying soil is an easy, yet often overlooked, way to introduce students to the role of cellular respiration in the carbon cycle. The Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC) has developed a set of free classroom materials to guide educators through this activity using different methods that measure cellular respiration from soil microbes, often referred to as soil respiration.

Experiments in comparative physiology are an excellent way to teach concepts in evolutionary biology. In the most recent edition of The Caliper, we published a well-received, college-level comparative physiology experiment using scorpions and cockroaches. In response to the many requests we received for a high-school-level activity, the Vernier Biology department put their heads together and came up with an experiment that investigates the comparative physiology of snails and fish using a Vernier Optical DO Probe.

Algae beads, along with the Go Direct® SpectroVis® Plus Spectrophotometer, provide a great way to study photosynthesis and respiration. Algae beads consist of freshwater algal cells suspended in sodium alginate and hardened in calcium chloride solution. In this suspension, the algal cells can still undergo cellular respiration and photosynthesis, exchanging gases with the liquid around them.

Aquatic plants undergo photosynthesis and cellular respiration much like terrestrial plants. Oxygen dissolves into water when aquatic autotrophs release oxygen as a byproduct of photosynthesis. Dissolved oxygen can be measured directly to determine if aquatic plants undergo photosynthesis or cellular respiration in different conditions.