You and your hormones from the Society of Endocrinology with a wealth of resources for students and teachers, including a set of podcasts and a ‘Hormones in the news’ section.
Another good website for students is the ABPI interactive webpage on Hormones which provides information on hormonal control, mainly in humans , but there is also a page on plant hormones. The resource includes a glossary of terms, quick questions, animations and downloads for teachers.
Students could be directed to read through and answer questions on specific pages for homework or particular pages could be used within class as whole class starter activities, for example page 4 has a good animation showing changes of the levels of LH, FSH, Progesterone and oestrogen during the Menstrual cycle.
Page 8 provides a useful summary and animation of the action of adrenaline
The drag and drop activity of page 5 would work well as a quick self-study activity. The quiz of page 10 is a good summary/revision activity that requires students to drag and drop labels onto a diagram of the human body to label organs and glans and then a second question to match endocrine glands with the correct hormone and then finally match hormones with function. This would work well as a timed challenge activity with students working in pairs or threes.
Hormones is a summary sheet produced By the Royal Society of Chemistry. It gives a list of common hormones of the endocrine system, their target cells and functions. The resource provides a very clear summary and would be very useful for revision. Another possible way to use this might be to ask students to undertake research and come up with their own summary sheet and then compare it to this one
Cell signaling is a detailed resource including videos and worksheets which consider how hormones bring about their designated response through their effect on a cell. Whilst the level of detail in this resource is beyond the requirements of GCSE Biology specifications, it could be useful as extension work for more able students and/or as background reading for teachers on some current research theories.
For a range of desk-based and practical activities along with detailed teacher notes, have a look at Controlling Change. In section 4 is titled ‘Chemical messengers’ the endocrine system is compared with the nervous system. Through a series of text activities, students compile information about some important glands, the hormones which they secrete, and the functions of those hormones. The importance of feedback control in the endocrine system is also reviewed.
Debate kit - IVF encourages students to consider the benefits of, and the problems that may arise from, the use of hormones to control fertility, including in vitro fertilisation (IVF). The resource makes use of role-play, which gives students a chance to explore the different sides of the issue and compare others’ points of view, as well as considering social, ethical, and factual issues in an integrated way.
Included in the kit are eight debate cards outlining the opinions of a number of different fictional characters. The question posed for the debate is: Should IVF be available on the NHS?