Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Aviary used to edit biology images for a test or quiz

In my previous post, I reviewed Aviary, http://www.aviary.com/, in regards to its usefulness as a teaching tool.  An example of an educational use of Aviary is to add labels to a biology diagram.  The diagram above was produced by Pearson Education, Inc.  The diagram below has been modified using Aviary.  This diagram represents the life cycle of Obelia, an animal related to jellyfish and corals that has an interesting life cycle.  I used Aviary to add labels A-F to the diagram.  Students could be asked to create a key identifying the labeled parts.  Another possibilty is to ask a multiple choice question, such as "Which of these is a polyp specialized for feeding?"  (The answer is "A.")  Or, "Which of the following is a female medusa?"  (The answer is "C.")

Here are two more images from Pearson Education, Inc.  Photos of a spider:

 and a scorpion:
Using the image editor, these two images can be combined into one image:

This could be useful for making comparisons.  For example, using the Aviary markup tool to point out homologous structures in these two arachnids, like the pedipalps for instance:

These are very limited examples of what might be done with scientific illustrations using Aviary (reflecting my limited artisitic skills :) ).

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