CELLS alive! represents 30 years of capturing film and computer-enhanced images of living cells and organisms for education and medical research. The site has been available continuously and updated annually since May of 1994 and now hosts over 4 million visitors a year. All text, images, and layout are provided by me, Jim Sullivan. Every effort has been made to minimize errors or typos, but any you find on these pages are my doing as well.

The majority of the site is free of cost and registration for anyone with internet access. With up to 45,000 visitors a day during the school year, hosting costs are an issue. Students and teachers who purchase downloads for classroom use make this possible.

This lesson describes the major components and functions of the immune system and the role of engineers in keeping the body healthy (e.g., vaccinations and antibiotics, among other things). This lesson also discusses how an astronaut's immune system is suppressed during spaceflight due to stress and other environmental factors.

Free Science, Socials Studies and Health lessons developed by teachers to inspire digital-age students in support of UNICEF Canada!

All our content is free for teachers!

KBI provides a unique and tailored interactive classroom experience that is carefully curated to follow the school curriculum. In particular, our focus is on meeting the learning standards of the grade 5-12 curriculum in science and social studies that relate to:
The immune system, Disease transmission, Immunization, Pandemics, epidemics, and outbreaks; Global inequality issues in health; The role of NGOs; Antibiotic resistance; Evaluating sources …And many other topics!

Click on "How it Works" on the top menu to see the learning modules (and lessons/units available). Critical thinking, diseases, health equity, level of government, global community, immune system, diversity of living things and more.

Select the "Teacher Centre" to find a wealth of lesson plans for all subject areas. E.g., Women's day, colonization, misinformation, critical thinking, evolution etc.

We provide dozens of classroom activities and teacher resources, each of which are paired with an online quiz that students can take on their laptop, tablet, or phone. This two-pronged lesson approach enables teachers to tailor a classroom experience that is supplemented by a fun and interactive experience for the student. Our online quizzes have been developed by health and education professionals, as well as communication experts who have studied the online behaviour of students – as such, they are accurate, informative, but also engaging for the student.

Made by a Grade 5 teacher in Saskatchewan. Kids Boost Immunity (KBI) provides dozens of classroom activities and teacher resources developed by health and education professionals. 

Kids Boost Immunity matches Saskatchewan curriculum outcomes from Grades 4 to 12. You can read a description of the core lessons available for Saskatchewan students. Each grade has a tailored selection of lessons that fit their curricular need.

The Critical Thinking and Evaluating Information lessons on Kids Boost Immunity are aligned with multiple subjects within the Saskatchewan curriculum. These lessons provide examples of how misinformation can sway opinion, often by creating a sense of fear. A checklist evaluation method enables student to assess the trustworthiness of information sources. Other evaluation strategies include learning how to recognize personal bias and using a scientific approach to test ideas. For older grades there are lessons in designing experiments, creating a working hypotheses, exploring biases, and understanding correlation versus causation.

Students modify a provided App Inventor code to design their own diseases. This serves as the evolution step in the software/systems design process. The activity is essentially a mini design cycle in which students are challenged to design a solution to the modification, implement and test it using different population patterns The result of this process is an evolution of the original app.

The Science Centre has just launched a new science information project called Understanding COVID-19. This site provides information about viruses and provides links to more information about immunity and infections.