Spiders:
An Organism for Teaching Biology

Equipment and Supplies

1. Containers for spiders. Supplied by students.
2. Drosophilia fruit fly cultures. Check with Biological Supply Companies or the University of Arizona.
3. House fly cultures. See Rearing House-flies (Barrass) in references for starting and maintaining cultures.
4. Slides and video tapes of spider studies made by Deborah Schiedemantel.
5. Pooters. Homemade from plastic tubing and old nylons.
6. Study Site located on or off campus.
7. Field measuring tape, metric.
8. Acrylic paint, fine tip brushes or other applicator.
9. Dissecting microscopes, hand lenses.
10. Spider identification keys.
    
    

 

References

1. Barnes, R.D. 1980. Invertebrate Zoology. Philadelphia, PA. Saunders College/Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
2. Barrass, R. 1976. Rearing house-flies Musca domestica L. and the use in laboratory practical work. J. of Bio. Ed. Great Britian. 10(4), 164-167.
3. BSCS 1992. Biological Science an Ecological Approach. Green Version. Colorado Springs, Colorado. Kendall/Hunt Publ. Co.
4. Calver, et. al. 1990. A simple simulation for teaching capture-recapture methods of population estimation. J. of Bio. Ed., Great Britian, 24(4), 267-271.
5. Cherif, A. 1993. Relevant inquiry: six questions to guide your students. The Science Teacher. December. 26-27. National Science Foundation.
6. Crompton, J. 1950. The Spider. New York. Nick Lyons Books.
7. Foelix, R. 1982. Biology of Spiders. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press.
8. Higgins, R. C. 1982. Predation of Notiophilus (Coleoptera: Carabidae) on Collembola as a predator-prey teaching model. J. of Bio. Ed., Great Britain. 16(2) 128-130.
9. Howe, A.C. and L. Jones. 1993. Engaging Children in Science. New York. MacMillan Publishing Company.
10. Jackson, R.R. 1992. Eight-legged Tricksters. Bioscience. 42(8), 590-597.
11. Kaston, B.J. 1972. How to Know the Spiders. Pictured Key Nature Series. USA. Wm. C. Brown Company Publishers.
12. Lawson, A.E. Biology: A Critical-Thinking Approach. T13-T17. Addison-Wesley Publishing Company.
13. Levi, H.W. and L.R. Levi. 1990. A Golden Guide. Spiders and Their Kin. New York, New York. Western Publishing Company, Inc.
14. Mantel, G. and S. Heath. 1986. The use of urban open spaces for environmental education. J. of Biol. Ed. Great Britain. 20(4), 279-286.
15. National Science Foundation. Preface. Learning Cycle Project. Utah State University.
16. Shear, W. A. 1986. Spiders. Webs, Behavior, and Evolution. Stanford, CA. Stanford University Press.
17. Stokes, D. W. 1983. Stokes Nature Guides. A Guide to Observing Insect Lives. Boston, Mass. Little, Brown and Company.
18. Uetz, G.W. 1992. Foraging Strategies of Spiders. Trends in Ecology and Evolution. Elseview Science Publishers Ltd. UK. 7(5), 155-159.
19. Wise, David, H. 1993. Spiders in Ecological Webs. Great Britain. Cambridge University Press.

 

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The University of Arizona
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics
General Biology Program for Secondary Teachers
warder@email.arizona.edu