We describe Presentation Enhanced Learning (PEL), a flexible, lecture-free, field-tested teaching format to promote problem-based, active learning in upper-division or graduate biological sciences courses.  PEL may be implemented as a single, capstone event or as the organizing principle for an entire course.  In a PEL module, the lectures are replaced by student-led presentations created by their own backward design process and mapped to Bloom’s taxonomy.  Each presentation includes explicit assessment activities aligned with student learning outcomes (SLOs).  The instructor acts as a facilitator and guide inside and outside of class. Feedback concerning accuracy and the level of content coverage for each subject is provided by instructor via small groups meetings (before and after students deliver their in-class presentations).  This interactive time replaces instructor time devoted to traditional lecture preparation.  In our experience, these meetings initially last approximately three hours per week for courses that contain up to six groups of two to five students, with one group presenting per week.  The length of the meetings drops by approximately half, and the quality of the discussions and feedback improves, once students become familiar with the presentations style.  Assessment of student learning outcomes occurs through take-home exams, in-class assignments and assessment activities, individual and group presentation scores, and peer evaluation.  Specific grading rubrics, available to students in advance, guide all assessment scoring.  We have converted two entire lecture courses to a PEL format, resulting in increased critical thinking skills as determined by student answers to exam questions mapped to Bloom’s taxonomy.

This data module examines the relationship between mosquito vector ecology and climate across the east coast of the United States. The module is designed to merge core concepts in ecology with budding interests of the largely pre-heath student body.

Students will use data published by the World Health Organization to model the 2014 outbreak of the Ebola virus in West Africa. We begin with a simple exponential growth model and move through the modeling process to the logistic growth model.

Students will learn how to set up a population matrix model in R and use it for demographic analysis of a population, including projecting population growth, determining lambda and the stable age distribution, and conducting an elasticity analysis.

Students use small mammal data from the National Ecological Observatory Network to understand necessary steps of data management from data collection to data analysis by estimating small mammal population sizes using the Lincoln-Peterson model.

This 50 minute lecture on long-read sequencing technology covers the following items: 1) Review of RNA-Seq Short-read Sequencing, 2) Overview and benefits of Long-read Sequencing, 3) Oxford Nanopore Sequencing, and 4) Pacific Biosciences Sequencing.

The purpose of this semester-long Lesson is to give students an authentic, course-based undergraduate research experience during which they learn basic and advanced microbiological and molecular biology techniques. This project begins with the isolation of a suspected Streptomyces bacterium from a soil sample and concludes with its identification. Students collect data, regarding colony and cell morphology, biochemical characteristics, the production of secondary metabolites, and employs the PCR using custom-designed primers to the Streptomyces 16s rRNA gene. The project culminates with the identification of their soil isolate using the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) web site to perform nucleotide blasts. The blastn program provides the final piece of evidence used to confirm, or not, the identification of their isolate as a Streptomyces from 16s rRNA gene sequence data, hence the title “From Dirt to Streptomyces DNA. In addition, the Lesson focuses on the Streptomyces bacteria to address several ASM aligned goals and objectives. These include prokaryotic growth phases and ways in which interactions of microorganisms among themselves and with their environment is determined by their metabolic abilities.  In addition, this Lesson illustrates how microbial metabolism is important to a relevant societal issue, the need for new antibiotic discovery particularly given the rise of antibiotic resistance strains of clinically relevant bacteria. It also illustrates the microbial diversity of soil and the developmental/physiological strategies employed in such a competitive environment. This Lesson hopes to impart both the thrill and challenges associated with scientific discovery.

Primary image: Photomicrograph of Streptomyces colonies growing on ISP 2 agar. The Streptomyces are student isolates showing stages of morphological development. Photomicrograph by Marc A. Brodkin.

The students will analyze the human gut and vaginal microbiomes in healthy and diseased states using diversity of bacteria as determined by 16SrRNA sequence.

Creating a hands-on lab that conveys important information while simultaneously allowing for student autonomy can be difficult. This is particularly true for the field of microbiology, in which labs often rely on “recipe-style” instructions and materials that can be difficult to scale up for larger class sizes. For these reasons, microbiology concepts are often left out of introductory biology labs, the ramifications of which have been made apparent during the recent COVID-19 virus pandemic. Fundamental microbiology concepts, e.g., the prevention of communicable diseases, are important to teach in introductory biology classrooms – often a student's only exposure to biology in their academic careers – in order to create a healthier community as a whole. Therefore, this general biology lab introduces an active-learning microbiology lab that teaches students about the microbial world. Students are first introduced to the three major types of symbioses and apply these concepts to microbial organisms on a symbiotic continuum. Next, the students are given examples of mutualistic bacteria, i.e., the human microbiome, through a mini lecture prepared by the instructor. The students are then introduced to examples of parasitic/pathogenic microbes that can interfere with human health and cause relatable diseases (e.g., diarrhea, STDs, and athlete’s foot). Students then apply this information through a short matching game before learning common practices used to prevent the spread of these pathogens, including an active learning exercise and video on how to wash their hands like healthcare professionals. Finally, students are asked to generate their own questions about microbes before working through a handout that guides the students through using the scientific method to address their questions. This exercise thus provides students with the autonomy to ask their own questions about microbes, design their own experiments, prepare growth media their own way, and present their findings in a way that is both scalable for large class sizes and reduces the burden of lab prep common for microbiology labs. 

Primary image: Microbes sampled from the iPhone of a curious individual. Fungal colonies can be seen as fuzzy, white or colorful mounds while bacteria appear as opaque, smooth streaks on the media.

This interactive assignment engages students in a hands-on exploration of microbial diversity and the importance of microbes in ecosystems. Designed for General Biology II and Introduction to Microbiology courses, the activity accommodates class sizes of 10-30 students. Within a 55-minute class period, students work in groups to research, analyze, and present various microorganisms. This guide includes detailed steps for instructors, a student worksheet, a PowerPoint presentation with microbial images, and quizzes to assess student learning.

Students develop scatter plots of growth rings by tree diameters and determine the equation of their best fit line.

Students use published scientific data to determine which types of nanoparticles would be best to use to deliver cytotoxic drugs directly to cancer cells. Then they learn about the scientist who generated the data.

This classroom modeling project applies mathematical techniques to solve a problem related to drug dosage patterns. Suitable for high school or undergraduate students. Prerequisite: Calculus I.

The Project Leadership Program is a pedgagogical approach that is designed to improve teamwork through the integration of shared leadership experiences. The program involves three components: a web-based App called Project Leadership, active engagement of student teams, and supportive coaching from instructors. This resource describes the program in more detail, shares user guides for the App, and provides examples of ways to integrate the program in different contexts.

This collection of activities explores the relationship between blood flow, pressure, and the factors of resistance through graphs and modeling direct and inverse variation.

This math modeling task is appropriate for high school Precalculus students. The students use their knowledge of transformations of trigonometric functions to create models for horizontal and vertical positions of a toy train moving on a circular track.

Conquer basic math and statistics used in biology while exploring classroom-ready resources. Concepts include central tendency and variation, spreadsheet skills, graphing, and data analysis with Chi-Square and T-Tests

This is a workbook of solved problems created by Dr. Juergen Gerlach at Radford University

Pedagogical research in science education has shown that students effectively learn science by doing science. As a result, there is increased interest in bringing research-like experiences into the classroom, particularly for laboratory courses. This lesson describes a structured inquiry laboratory module focused on the examination of muscle cell differentiation. Muscle differentiation is a complex process that provides a unique opportunity for undergraduate students to explore various aspects of cell biology in the laboratory. The students engage in a project spanning eight weeks in which they utilize three complementary techniques (including fluorescence microscopy, Western blotting, and reverse transcriptase-based polymerase chain reaction) to examine the morphological and genetic changes that occur during muscle cell differentiation in culture. The instructor assesses students on the quality of their laboratory notebooks, including how thoroughly they document each experiment, as well as on their participation in discussions regarding experimental design, techniques, and results. Ultimately, students compile their work into an individually written research report, the format of which parallels typical journal articles published in the field of cell biology. The design of this module allows students to explore fundamental cell biology concepts while learning key experimental techniques. In addition, the instructor teaches this module in a structured inquiry-based manner to engage students in learning through investigation and discovery.

Primary Image: Myogenin and desmin expression in C2C12 myotubes. Visualized by immunofluorescence for myogenin, a muscle-specific regulatory transcription factor (green) and desmin, a muscle-specific cytoskeletal intermediate filament protein (red). 400X total magnification.

Pedagogical research in science education has shown that students effectively learn science by doing science. As a result, there is increased interest in bringing research-like experiences into the classroom, particularly for laboratory courses. This lesson describes a structured inquiry laboratory module focused on the examination of muscle cell differentiation. Muscle differentiation is a complex process that provides a unique opportunity for undergraduate students to explore various aspects of cell biology in the laboratory. The students engage in a project spanning eight weeks in which they utilize three complementary techniques (including fluorescence microscopy, Western blotting, and reverse transcriptase-based polymerase chain reaction) to examine the morphological and genetic changes that occur during muscle cell differentiation in culture. The instructor assesses students on the quality of their laboratory notebooks, including how thoroughly they document each experiment, as well as on their participation in discussions regarding experimental design, techniques, and results. Ultimately, students compile their work into an individually written research report, the format of which parallels typical journal articles published in the field of cell biology. The design of this module allows students to explore fundamental cell biology concepts while learning key experimental techniques. In addition, the instructor teaches this module in a structured inquiry-based manner to engage students in learning through investigation and discovery.

Primary Image: Myogenin and desmin expression in C2C12 myotubes. Visualized by immunofluorescence for myogenin, a muscle-specific regulatory transcription factor (green) and desmin, a muscle-specific cytoskeletal intermediate filament protein (red). 400X total magnification.

Students analyze sea surface temperature (SST) data from NOAA to predict coral bleaching at four locations in the Bahamas. They then compare their predictions to authentic research collected about coral mortality and temperature fluctuations

This module introduces how to determine whether observation is significantly different from expectation in the context of understanding Chi-square Test. It is intended for an introductory biology audience.

The students will practice identifying the appropriate basic statistical tests when given a scenario and learn how to run and interpret those statistical tests in R.

Lesson on what it means for biological processes to be Poissonian, published in CourseSource

In this lesson, students will have the opportunity to work through a chi-squared test of independence between two categorical variables.