Zebrafish Video Clips

Lesson Plan: Zebra Fish as a Model for Muscle Development

Lesson Plan Standards

1.3.3 2.1.1

Engagement

Francis Hamilton described the zebrafish in 1822. He stated that the zebrafish was economically insignificant. George Streisinger was the first to pioneer the use of the zebrafish as a developmental model for studying human disease and disorders. Today, more than 3,000 researchers are listed on ZFIN, a U.S.-based research community. Recently a European research consortium was awarded 12 million Euros to study zebrafish. Too bad Francis Hamilton is not around to hear that!

Objectives

Students will be able to compare and contrast different types of zebrafish in order to identify a problem by observing a video clip and recording observations.

Lesson Materials

Zebrafish video clip
Zebrafish Observation Sheet

Procedures

Show clips of wild-type and BOP gene blocked zebrafish OR directly observe live fish in the classroom and ask students to make observations.
Present problem: Why does one fish have the ability to move it's eyes and the other does not?
Record student hypotheses.
Transition: To be able to solve this problem you need some background information on these fish and the body systems in general to help you to narrow down where the problem may be with this fish.