Active learning ideas
Biological rhythms are the internal 'clocks' that govern our physiological and behavioural processes. Students study circadian rhythms (24-hour cycles like sleep-wake), infradian rhythms (longer than 24 hours like the menstrual cycle), and ultradian rhythms (shorter than 24 hours like sleep stages). A key focus is the interaction between endogenous pacemakers (internal biological clocks) and exogenous zeitgebers (external environmental cues).
Activity 01
Groups are given the details of Michel Siffre's 'free-running' cave experiments. They must plot his sleep-wake cycle on a graph and identify the exact point where his endogenous pacemaker took over from exogenous zeitgebers.
How does the sleep-wake cycle function as a circadian rhythm?
Activity 02
Students read a case study about a factory moving to a rotating shift pattern. Individually, they identify the biological risks; in pairs, they design a 'zeitgeber-friendly' schedule to minimise health impacts, then share their ideas with the class.
What role does the suprachiasmatic nucleus play in biological timing?
Activity 03
Create three stations for Circadian, Infradian, and Ultradian rhythms. At each station, students must add one example of a rhythm, its primary pacemaker, and one external factor that can disrupt it.
How does shift work disrupt our natural biological rhythms?
A few notes on teaching this unit
Watch Out for These Misconceptions
The sleep-wake cycle is entirely controlled by the sun.
While light is a powerful zeitgeber, the cycle is primarily driven by the internal SCN. Siffre's cave studies prove that our internal clock continues to run even without sunlight. Collaborative analysis of these studies helps students see the dominance of internal pacemakers.
All biological rhythms are 24 hours long.
Students often confuse 'circadian' with all biological rhythms. Using a gallery walk to categorise rhythms by duration (ultradian vs infradian) helps clarify that biological timing happens on many different scales.
Methods used in this brief
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