Laboratório de Tecnologia Educacional BIBLIOTECA DIGITAL               DE CIÊNCIAS

The Biochemistrycrossword was constructed by the student authors of 1st year undergraduate medical course (MBBS) with inputs from the mentoring faculty. The purpose of the crossword is to make the learning of Biochemistry more interesting to MBBS students, promote reading and introduce to further websites to facilitate self-learning. Biochemistry crossword was constructed using mypuzzlermaker.com

Physical appearance: 36 cm. The legs are short and yellow. The body is predominantly grey, darker in the back. The top of the head is black. The immature is striated and brownish. Distribution: American Continent, Africa, Asia, Australia and islands in the Pacific. Habitat: Rivers, lakes and mangroves of different sizes. Diet: Aquatic insects, mollusks, amphibians, reptiles and fish. Reproduction: The nest is a platform on the top of tall trees. Lays three eggs. Natural history: Solitary and migratory. There are saw-like structures inside the beak to help holding slippery food. May be eaten by carnivorous fish such as the trahiras (Hoplias sp.) when walking on flooded land....

Physical appearance: 11 cm. The upper parts are dark and the inferior parts yellow. There is a white bar in the supercilium. The females are smaller than the males. The immature individuals have grey belly and do not have the bar above the eye. Distribution: From Mexico to Chile. Habitat: Inhabits various environments provided there is plenty of trees and flowers. Diet: Feeds mainly on nectar. Also eats insects. Visits hummingbird feeders. Reproduction: Builds two kinds of nest. A breeding one that is compact with thick walls and a resting nest made of leaves, grass and spider webs. Lays two or three white eggs. Only the female incubates. The male helps feeding the brood with i...

18,5 cm. The body is brown, darker in the upper parts, wings and tail. The tip of the wings are cinnamon. The male’s head is light grey. The immature has buffy spots in the wings. Distribution: Throughout Brazil. From Mexico to Bolivia, Paraguay and Argentina. Habitat: Lives in any open landscape. Adapts to life in big cities. Diet: Feeds on grains and fruits. Swallows the whole seeds, thus it may be poisoned by seeds with pesticides. Searchs for food on the ground. Reproduction: Breeds throughout the year, and may have three or four broods. When mating the male raises one of the wings. They caress each other in the head and give food as gifts. It is a monogamous species. The n...

33 cm. The tail is very long. It is all black. The bill is thick and strong. The skin is also black. Male and female are similar. Distribution: From Florida (U.S.A) to Argentina. Habitat: Inhabits open landscapes with grass. Prefers moist places. Diet: Consumes arthropods, mainly grasshoppers, and small vertebrates as lizards, mice and frogs. Also eats hatchlings. Fishes in shallow water. In some seasons, mostly in the dry ones when arthropods are scarce it eats fruits and seeds. Follows cattle and tractors in order to catch insects displaced by their movements. Reproduction: The male dances around the female on the ground. It offers food as a gift for the female but sometimes sw...

41,5 cm. Medium size. The feet are webbed. Has a distinctive white mask. The chest and the belly are streaked with cinnamon. The wings are broad and black. The female is slightly larger than the male. Distribution: Tropical South America and Africa. Habitat: Wetlands, lakes, ponds, mostly in shallow water. Diet: It eats buds, seeds, insect larvae, crustaceans and worms. Food is filtered by its specialized beak Reproduction: Builds a nest on the ground in a hidden place. 8 to 14 eggs are laid and incubated by the couple for 27 to 30 days. Male and female take care of the brood. Natural history: Its vocalization is very typical. It is more active at twilight or at night, resting ...

12,5 cm. The general color is green, but the male has a bright blue area in the wings and lower back. The female does not have this blue area and the belly is somewhat yellow. There may be mutations producing all yellow or blue individuals. The plumage of the immature individuals is not as bright as the adult’s. Distribution: Tropical South America. Habitat: Forest borders, gallery forests, parks, gardens and open areas. Diet: Feeds on fruits, seeds, buds and flowers. Reproduction: It is monogamous. The couple stays together for the rest of their lives. The nest is built inside a hole in a tree that may be an abandoned nest of hornero (Furnarius rufus) or an artificial nest box. ...

35 cm. The legs and the toes are long and green. Has a red shield-like structure in the forehead that is larger in the male. The neck and inferior parts are blue. The back is brown and there is a white band in the wing. The immature individuals are brown. Distribution: All over the world, except from Australia and New Zealand. Habitat: Lives in lakes, ponds and swamps, provided there is plenty of aquatic vegetation. May be found even in very polluted places and brackish water. Diet: Feeds on vegetables and aquatic insects. Usually dives to catch the food. When it does not dive it waters the food before swallowing. Reproduction: The nest is built among the aquatic vegetation. Th...

44 cm. The tail is long and there is a topknot. The ventral region is white. The wings are dark brown with black and white streaks. Distribution: From the state of Amapá to Uruguay. Habitat: Open fields, cerrado and caating, also in landscapes modified by man. Diet: Feeds on arthropods and small vertebrates. Reproduction: The nest may be individual or collective. It is built about 5m from the ground. The female lays up to 7 eggs, but there may be more than 20 eggs in collective nests. In the collective nests there is great competition for food among the hatchlings and few them survive. Natural history: When perched it waves its tail, swinging the body in a way that some peop...

18,5 cm. The body is gray, slightly blue with the inferior parts lighter. The tail and the tips of the wings are blue, somewhat green. There is a spot of this color in the shoulders. Male and female are similar. Distribution: Mideast Brazil from Maranhão to Rio Grande do Sul, also in Venezuela, Colombia, Bolivia, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay. Habitat: Lives on trees, either in open areas, parks or cities. Diet: Feeds on fruits, leaves, buds, nectar including from eucalyptus trees. Also catches flying insects as butterflies and termites. Reproduction: During the breeding season the male exhibits its shoulders to the female. The nest is built by the couple and is a compact open...

37cm It is a unique bird that can only be confused with other Potoos, from which it differs by being mostly gray. Not like any other bird, the Potoo is one of the best camouflaged birds on earth. It spends the whole day quietly perched on a carefully chosen branch in a way it blends with the substrate as the bird seems to be part of the tree. The large orange eyes, which could be a flaw for the camouflage are wisely covered by eyelids with a tiny fold in the middle, from which the bird can see the surroundings as the pupil is exposed while the orange iris is hidden. In the night the bird leaves its perch flying as a falcon in hunt for flying insects that it catches with its huge mouth...

60 a 70 cm. The top of the head, the back and the wings are black and the other parts of the body are mostly grey. The immature is brown and striated. Distribution: All over the world, except from the poles and Australia. Habitat: Slow flowing rivers, lakes, reservoirs and swamps. Diet: Aquatic insects, mollusks, crustaceans, fish, amphibians and reptiles. May also eat carrion and rests of food fallen from other bird’s nests, including dead hatchlings. Reproduction: Breeds in colonies together with other species of herons. The nests are built from 1 to 7m from the ground or water. Lays two or three bluish green or buffy eggs. Natural history: During most of the day it rests...

18,5 cm. The body is gray, slightly blue with the inferior parts lighter. The tail and the tips of the wings are blue, somewhat green. There is a spot of this color in the shoulders. Male and female are similar. Distribution: Mideast Brazil from Maranhão to Rio Grande do Sul, also in Venezuela, Colombia, Bolivia, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay. Habitat: Lives on trees, either in open areas, parks or cities. Diet: Feeds on fruits, leaves, buds, nectar including from eucalyptus trees. Also catches flying insects as butterflies and termites. Reproduction: During the breeding season the male exhibits its shoulders to the female. The nest is built by the couple and is a compact open b...

22 cm. The beak is strong and black. The chest and the belly are bright yellow and the back is brown. The throat is white and the head black, with a white band above the eyes. Male and female are similar. Distribution: From Texas (U.S.A) to Patagonia. Habitat: It is one of the most generalist birds. Thrives in environments as different as rocky beaches and semi-arid landscapes. It is very common in cities. Does not penetrate dense vegetation, but may be found in forests near the riverbanks or in the borders. Diet: Also very generalist in the diet, consumes mainly insects, but also fruits, learns to catch small fish and tadpoles (as from the author’s tanks), hunts hatchlings and e...

15 cm. The male is dark grey with the top of the head black. There are white spots in the tip of the tail’s feathers and in the wings, in a pattern that is similar to other antshrikes. The female is brown. Distribution: From Peru and Bolivia to Uruguay. Absent in most of the Amazon. Habitat: Mostly in Forest borders, gallery and secondary forests. Diet: Arthropods. Beats the wings to shake the foliage, catching the insects that are scared. Reproduction: The male offers the female some food before mating. The couple builds a nest with stems and moss. The female lays three white eggs with red dots. Generally the male incubates during the day and the female in the night. The paren...

11 cm. The beak is grey. During the breeding season the male has bluish black feathers with white spots under the wings. When not breeding the feathers are black with white tips. The female is light brown. The subadult males are similar to the non-breeding adult but with the tip of the feather brown. Distribution: From Mexico to tropical South America. Habitat: Grasslands and open areas, sometimes inside cities. Diet: Feeds on seeds and insects. Reproduction: The male has a very typical breeding display. Perched in a branch it flies some 50cm upwards and comes back to the branch in a loop-like movement. During this display it shows its white feathers below the wings. When it fi...

91cm. The neck and the legs are thin and long. All white, but with iris, beak and legs yellow. Distribution: Throughout the world. Habitat: Lakes, rivers, ponds, reservoirs, swamps, mangroves, estuaries and even polluted rivers. Diet: Eats fishes, amphibians, insects. The author witnessed an egret catching and eating a mouse in a riverbank in Campinas-SP. Reproduction: Breeding takes place generally in the end of the dry season, when the food supply is more abundant for this species. During this period the adults have the egrets that are long feathers used in the courtship. The breeding couples gather in nesting sites that may have hundreds of individuals, sometimes mixing with o...

As aulas práticas são fundamentais para o desenvolvimento de habilidades relacionadas ao aprendizado de ciências. A American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB) listou uma série de habilidades que os estudantes devem desenvolver até o final de um programa de Bioquímica e Biologia Molecular, sendo a maioria delas adquirida em aulas práticas. O aprendizado da prática de investigação científica é um dos objetivos das aulas práticas. Esse trabalho propõe a sistematização e avaliação uma sequência didática que contemple o conteúdo de Bioquímica aliado ao desenvolvimento de habilidades de investigação científica. A sequência foi estruturada e aplicada na disciplina Bioquímica Bá...