One key to student success in introductory and cell biology courses is a foundational knowledge of cellular respiration. This is a content area in which students often harbor misconceptions that make cellular respiration particularly challenging to teach. Conventional approaches presenting cellular respiration as a complex series of isolated steps creates a situation where students tend to memorize the steps but fail to appreciate the bigger picture of how cells transform and utilize energy. Instructors frequently struggle to find ways to motivate students and encourage deeper learning. The learning goals of this cellular respiration lesson are to understand energy transfer in a biological system, develop data analysis skills, practice hypothesis generation, and appreciate the importance of cellular respiration in everyday life. These goals are achieved by using a case study as the focal point. The case-based lesson is supported with student-centered instructional strategies, such as individual and group activity sheets, in-class group discussions and debate, and in-class clicker questions. This lesson has been implemented at two institutions in large enrollment introductory biology courses and in a smaller upper-division biochemistry course.

Students typically find linear regression analysis of data sets in a biology classroom challenging. These activities could be used in a Biology, Chemistry, Mathematics, or Statistics course. The collection provides student activity files with Excel instructions and Instructor Activity files with Excel instructions and solutions to problems. Students will be able to perform linear regression analysis, find correlation coefficient, create a scatter plot and find the r-square using MS Excel 365. Students will be able to interpret data sets, describe the relationship between biological variables, and predict the value of an output variable based on the input of an predictor variable.

The girdled lizards (Cordylidae) are a family of distinctively armored lizards endemic to Sub-Saharan Africa. Students examine lizards in this family to classify the lizards based on morphological characteristics.

This module introduces gene flow in the context of understanding the persistence of maladaptive traits in some populations. It is intended for an introductory biology audience.

This module introduces cohort life tables in the context of understanding demographic processes and how they affect populations. It is intended for an introductory biology audience.

We all know that understanding family history is important to understanding our place in the world. To help students learn to appreciate plants, this activity will connect family memories to specific plants that were important to them or to their ancestors. This is referred to as “botanical history.” Students will interview family members to identify a specific plant they will use for the remaining nine modules. The plant the students choose is ideally one that holds historical significance to their family (e.g., an apple tree that has provided fruits for many generations, or a houseplant that has been divided or shared on special occasions). The students will then share their stories with the class and compare the plants they have chosen with their classmates.

This activity picks up from Module 1 where students chose the plant they wanted to represent their botanical history. In that module, they each identified their plant’s family and were given its scientific name. Module 2 provides students with an overview of the four major groups of land plants (bryophytes, ferns and allies, gymnosperms, and angiosperms), as well as familiarizing students with organisms that are often mistaken for plants (e.g., fungi, lichens, algae). Students will also be introduced to the Linnaean hierarchy as applied to major plant groups. Once students become familiar with plant characteristics and distinguishing features for major groups, they will be able to identify the group their own plant belongs to.

The goal of this activity is to introduce students to herbarium specimens and why they are an important source of information. The emphasis of this activity is on examining the types of data that specimens provide and how this data can be used to answer questions in biology (e.g., species distributions, ecological interactions, genetics) and anthropology (ethnobotany). Students will explore these data by following the life of Ynés Mexía, an important botanical collector working at the turn of the 20th century. Students will study her specimens to identify the various types of data they contain.

The goal of this activity is to introduce students to biological field notebooks and how they are used by scientists during field work. Specifically, students will learn what a botanist collecting plants in the field will record in their notebook, and how this information is then used to produce a formal herbarium specimen with detailed record label. This activity will prepare students for collecting their own herbarium specimens with regard to the types of data they need to record.

This activity will guide students through the process of collecting fresh plant material that will be transformed into a permanent herbarium specimen. Students will make a specimen for the plant they chose to represent their family’s botanical history. Each student will use a field press to preserve the plant they collect and record field notes about the plant. This information will be used to prepare a permanent record label that will appear on the herbarium specimen.

This lesson plan aims to provide students with an interactive experience with nature, focusing on maple trees' diversity and ecological importance in urban forests. Maple trees, belonging to the genus Acer in the family Sapindaceae, are significant in temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere, especially in Autumn. Students engage with nature through an interactive scavenger hunt using identification cards and the iNaturalist app to document and analyze leaf characteristics. This lesson plan focuses on five common species found on the East Coast: Sugar Maple (Acer saccharum), Silver Maple (Acer saccharinum), Red Maple (Acer rubrum), Norway Maple (Acer platanoides), and Japanese Maple (Acer palmatum). The goal is to enhance students' understanding of tree diversity, leaf identification, evolutionary relationships, and ecological roles. This lesson plan results from the collaboration between Chestnut Hill College and Our Mother of Consolation School in Philadelphia, PA, funded by the Connelly Foundation.

In this lesson, students interpret graphs demonstrating synergy between antibiotics. Then, students view and reflect on an interview with biologist Dr. Cassandra Quave, whose research includes the map that they interpreted.

As biology becomes more data driven, teaching students data literacy skills has become central to biology curriculum. Despite a wealth of online resources that teach researchers how to use R, there are few that offer practical laboratory-based exercises, with teaching resources such as keys, learning objectives, and assessment materials. Here, we present a modular set of lessons and lab activities to help teach R through the platform of RStudio. Both software applications are free and open source making this curriculum highly accessible across various institutions. This curriculum was developed over several years of teaching a graduate level computational biology course. In response to the pandemic, the class was shifted to be completely online. These resources were then migrated to GitHub to make them broadly accessible to anyone wanting to learn R for the analysis of biological datasets. In the following year, these resources were used to teach the course in a flipped format, which is the lesson plan presented here. In general, students responded well to the flipped format, which used class time to conduct live coding demos and work through challenges with the instructor and teaching assistant. Overall, students were able to use these skills to practice analyzing and interpreting data, as well as producing publication quality graphics. While the modules presented range from very basic, doing simple summary statistics and plotting, to quite advanced, where R is integrated onto the command line, teachers should feel free to pick and choose which elements to incorporate into their own curriculum.

Primary Image: R‐Mini‐Course: An Introduction to R. The primary image was generated with BioRender to be a small representation of the applicability of R that we cover in our course.

Scientists have the tools and knowledge to develop safe, effective vaccines, from trials to vials. This resource addresses the process by which vaccines are designed, tested and regulated. Key concepts include 1. Mechanisms of immune recognition for SARS CoV 2 2. Vaccines vs therapeutics 3. Vaccine types and sources - nucleic acid, viral vector and attenuated/inactive vaccines 4. Vaccine development pipeline 5. Exploratory research and vaccine design for SARS-CoV-2 - spike protein target 6. Vaccine production 7. Testing and clinical trials 8. Challenge trials 9. Regulatory review and approval

In this lesson, students interpret a map of species occurrences. Then, students view and reflect on an interview with biologist Dr. Jennifer Dean, whose research includes the map that they interpreted.

An introduction to the Scientific Method for Introductory Biology students using plant and animal richness and environmental data from ephemeral ponds and permanent wetlands.

PhyloCards are educational trading cards that teach people about biodiversity, conservation, and ecosystem relationships. We used this educational tool to explore the Wissahickon Valley's biodiversity in Philadelphia, PA, and to engage our college students in learning more about our local species and environmental issues. This activity aims to teach about native and non-native species, food chains, and the human impact on the local ecosystem. The game integrates core ecological concepts like biodiversity and species interactions while touching on human-environment interactions.

This activity picks up from Module 1 where students chose the plant they wanted to represent their botanical history. In that module, they each identified their plant’s family and were given its scientific name. Module 2 provides students with an overview of the four major groups of land plants (bryophytes, ferns and allies, gymnosperms, and angiosperms), as well as familiarizing students with organisms that are often mistaken for plants (e.g., fungi, lichens, algae). Students will also be introduced to the Linnaean hierarchy as applied to major plant groups. Once students become familiar with plant characteristics and distinguishing features for major groups, they will be able to identify the group their own plant belongs to.

In order to introduce students to the concept of molecular diversity, we developed a short, engaging online lesson using basic bioinformatics techniques. Students were introduced to basic bioinformatics while learning about local on-campus species diversity by 1) identifying species based on a given sequence (performing Basic Local Alignment Search Tool [BLAST] analysis) and 2) researching and documenting the natural history of each species identified in a concise write-up. To assess the student’s perception of this lesson, we surveyed students using a Likert scale and asking them to elaborate in written reflection on this activity. When combined, student responses indicated that 94% of students agreed this lesson helped them understand DNA barcoding and how it is used to identify species. The majority of students, 89.5%, reported they enjoyed the lesson and mainly provided positive feedback, including “It really opened my eyes to different species on campus by looking at DNA sequences”, “I loved searching information and discovering all this new information from a DNA sequence”, and finally, “the database was fun to navigate and identifying species felt like a cool puzzle.” Our results indicate this lesson both engaged and informed students on the use of DNA barcoding as a tool to identify local species biodiversity.

Primary Image: DNA Barcoded Specimens. Crane fly, dragonfly, ant, and spider identified using DNA barcoding.

Speciation provides a framework for classifying biodiversity on Earth and is a central concept in evolutionary biology. To help undergraduate students learn about speciation, we designed a student-centered lesson that uses active-learning techniques (e.g., clicker questions, small group work, and whole class discussion) and compares multiple species concepts (morphological, biological, and phylogenetic) using giraffes as an example. Giraffes were chosen as the focus of this lesson because they are familiar and have broad appeal to students; are in danger of becoming extinct; and have ecological, economic, and cultural importance. Students also learn about contemporary giraffe conservation issues and the current debate in the literature regarding the total number of giraffe species. Students then apply their knowledge by working in small groups on speciation scenarios that highlight organisms across the tree of life. Student understanding is assessed using multiple-choice pre/post-test questions, in-class clicker questions with peer discussion, and exam questions. Here we provide details about the lesson and report that student learning is improved.

Prokaryote gene regulation: Lac

Hemocytometer

HeLa Cells

The goal of this article is to describe an active learning exercise that can be used in a variety of advanced microbiology courses, including bacterial physiology, ecology, or systems biology. The gut microbiome is a multi-species bacterial community that is impacted by outside factors, such as the food we consume or treatments with antibiotics, and impacts our health. In this active learning experience; students start with a simple 'pasta' simulation of a gut microbiome, adapted from a previously published lesson, where different types of pasta in a plastic bag simulate different bacteria in the gut and the composition of the pasta types is representative of diet related differences in the microbiome. Students will then mimic an antibiotic treatment by removing certain pasta/bacteria and replacing them with beans/different bacteria. Next, students will analyze the gut microbiome at the level of phylum, genus, or species. With the help of assigned scientific literature, students will learn how the composition of the gut microbiome responds to diet, a process that is accompanied by the synthesis of bacterial fermentation and other bacterial metabolic products that elicit a molecular response in the host intestinal cells. Students will gain an initial understanding of how these changes impact human health. Through this experience, students will increase their knowledge of bacterial metabolic pathways and products, improve their understanding of the complex community that constitutes the microbiome, analyze the microbiome at multiple systematic levels, and apply their knowledge in a context that is relevant to human health.