PBS Wisconsin Education

Meet The Lab is a collection of educational resources for middle school science classrooms, and is a collaboration between PBS Wisconsin Education, Wisconsin Institute for Discovery, Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation and the Morgridge Institute for Research.

  • Bio Builders: Superpowered by Stem Cells

    Meet the Bio Builders—a team of scientists in the Thomson Lab at the Morgridge Institute for Research who are using stem cells to repair damaged tissue and improve human health treatments. In the resources below, you’ll learn about these scientists and their lab, discover why their research matters in real life, and try out an activity.

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Information Guides

  • Stem Cell Primer

    This short informational guide outlines the basic concepts associated with human pluripotent stem cell research and potential applications of the science.

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  • Stem Cell Glossary

    This resource includes basic definitions of terminology often found in stem cell literature.

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Activities

  • Directed Differentiation

    In this activity, participants will explore how stem cells can change, or differentiate, into other cell types. This can occur spontaneously due to stress or because of changes in their environment. Participants will also discover how scientists can encourage, or direct, a stem cell to differentiate into a certain cell type by adding growth factors or changing certain conditions.

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Worksheets

The following activities focus on vocabulary presented in the Stem Cell Primer and Glossary.