Practice module included in Teaching Issues and Experiments in Ecology (TIEE) Volume 10

A project to compare effects of a continuum of landscape alteration intensities on plant diversity, biomass, and ecosystem services, and to explore human socioeconomic connections to plants in the environment.

Biostatistics Using R: A Laboratory Manual was created with the goals of providing biological content to lab sessions by using authentic research data and introducing R programming language to biology majors.

Module for Ecology & Evolution course covering island biogeography principles, The scientific process and hypothesis testing, statistical methods (t-tests, regression), and online database use and availability

Teaching students how to code and analyze data in R is important for the fields of biology and ecology. Olivia Tabares and the Ecological Forecasting Education Working Group created this resource to encourage individuals who are teaching biostatics with R. These infographics are intended to provide encouragement and suggestions for working with students who are learning R.

This mini-case study provides undergraduate ecology students with experience in how to read climate diagrams and how to put them together. The activity includes a discussion of actual and potential evapotranspiration.

In this activity, students will use data from natural parks to examine trophic cascades.

Course materials for BIO 263 Ecological Data Analysis

TIEE Module- How does nutrient pollution impact stream ecosystems locally and nationally?

Students use their number sense to make observations and come up with reasonable guesses or explanations for the patterns shown.

Students observe insect pollinators and other floral visitors in their backyards, or campus, or nearby natural areas to describe plant-pollinator networks and assess how the assemblages from their sites compare to those in a range of landscapes.

This module introduces students to the research supporting ‘growth mindset,’ the idea that you can increase your brainpower and ability through effort

Teaching notes from my use of BIOMAAP Growth Mindset teaching materials in my 300 level Ecology class for majors.

In this "lunch with a Scientist" episode, we interviewed a medical student and medical doctor to help us understand the path to medicine. Becoming a medical doctor is a very daunting task but with the right resources, students can find their way onto the path a bit easier. This resource is great if you have students interested in going into medicine and are struggling with deciding what to major in, what the time commitment is, what the prerequisites for med school are, and what life after medical school is like.

This framework, developed by ISKME in partnership with SERC, provides a practical reference for curators and authors of STEM OER, with 23 accessibility criteria, or elements, to reference as they curate, design and adapt materials to be accessible.

Science and society have always been intertwined. Today, scientists are increasingly encouraged to interact with the public by conducting transparent and participatory engaged scholarship, as opposed to the prevailing one-way transfer of information model. A renewed focus on the "broader impacts of science" from funding agencies has increased the urgency to train scientists equipped with an understanding of how their work intersects with the public interest. While aspiring scientists in STEM fields routinely develop disciplinary expertise and research skills, universities must also prepare undergraduate students for careers in STEM disciplines, where skills and knowledge to effectively engage with the public are increasingly necessary. This lesson guides students through an exploration of the broader impacts of scientific research, allowing students to situate their conceptual learning within a societal context. Through a jigsaw exercise, students examine specific examples of public engagement strategies used to translate science into the public sphere. A discussion of the article 'Science's new social contract with society' defines key concepts surrounding the shifting relationship between science and society (1). Finally, students synthesize their understanding of complex science-society interactions in a concept mapping exercise. Student understanding of the concept 'broader impacts of science' is assessed using formative (e.g., discussion, concept map) and summative (e.g., pre-post minute paper) assessment. Self-reported data and pre-post analysis indicates that students found the lesson engaging, emerging with a deeper and more nuanced understanding of the interactions between science and society.

Primary Image: "Students discuss the broader impacts of science in an active learning environment.” The primary image accompanying this lesson showcases students in a small group discussion as part of the lesson. Student permission was obtained for the use of this photograph, in compliance with the Institutional Review Board (IRB).

Traditional college students begin their academic journey with a variety of ideas about the careers they might ultimately pursue. Some students have always known what they want to do, some have ideas about possible careers, while others have never thought seriously about their future career. The BioMap Degree Plan project teaches students in any of these stages a process for exploring biological sciences careers and guides them to build an academic plan to pursue a career. Students begin by identifying their interests and values and use the information to examine plans to pursue a specific career and broaden the scope of careers they are considering. They learn about academic programs and co-curricular learning experiences available at their institution, identify the programs and experiences that will prepare them for their career, and build an academic plan. The process of building the BioMap Degree Plan teaches students to think critically about their time in college, define their goals, and reflect on what it will take to reach those goals. The project guides students to develop the first draft of their plan, which they are encouraged to update and revise as they progress through their academic and professional careers.

Many scientists know about — and experience — discrimination against women. In this professional development lesson, graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, faculty, and other career scientists brainstorm ways to intervene and support women when they experience discrimination. Participants divide into groups, and each group discusses one of four case studies that highlight different kinds of discrimination, namely microaggressions that are gendered and intersectional, trolling, and sexual harassment. Within the small groups, individuals discuss the case study and then brainstorm ways to bring the discrimination to the perpetrator's attention and ways to dismantle sexism within each individual's environment. Then, the whole group reconvenes to discuss each case study in a way that emphasizes empowerment. Dismantling sexism seems overwhelming, but by the end of the workshop each participant can leave thinking about actions to take appropriate to their identities and career stages. Future workshops are necessary to address gender discrimination more broadly — especially as it pertains to particularly marginalized identities such as transwomen of color — and for developing deeper action plans.

Primary image: This image represents women in science — we are here, but we often feel trapped.

Signaling and gene expression are fundamental to cell biology and developmental biology. Although these topics are highly interrelated, they typically appear in separate units in a course. We use a series of short problem-based learning exercises for two complementary purposes: 1) to promote a better understanding of the mechanisms of signal transduction; and 2) to reinforce students' understanding of cell- and tissue-specific gene expression. Moreover, the exercises promote synthesis of these two topics in the context of real biological problems. The first small-group exercise that we present poses questions about the implications of cell- or tissue-specific expression of signaling molecules, encouraging students to synthesize information when thinking about biological systems. The second exercise asks students to apply the principles of signal transduction to interpret data presented in a case study based on mutations in a MAP kinase pathway that cause Noonan syndrome. Both in-class exercises present opportunities for the students and the instructor to assess the students' understanding of signaling mechanisms. Finally, we include a set of guiding questions on the Wnt signaling pathway as an out-of-class assignment, to be followed by a quiz on Wnt signaling as a summative assessment.

Manipulating gene expression is a commonly used tool to study the effect of a single gene or the hierarchy of gene networks in many different biological disciplines. When working with mice, the most commonly used techniques to manipulate genes include gene targeting via homologous recombination to achieve loss-of-function and gain-of-function mutations. Students often struggle with the concepts behind homologous recombination and the physical changes that happen at the target gene locus. Our activity uses different colored ribbons connected by hook-and-loop fasteners (e.g., those most popularly produced by the VELCRO Brand) that students use to design targeting constructs as well as to model the recombination between their constructs and the gene locus. This hands-on exercise helps students better understand the mechanisms of homologous recombination happening at the gene locus, enabling them to progress to higher-level cognition such as predicting experimental outcomes and designing their own gene targeting experiments.

In Developmental Biology classes, students are challenged with understanding how differential gene expression guides embryonic development. It can be difficult for students to realize that genes need to be turned on or off at the right time and place in order for development to proceed normally. In this lab, students working in groups perform experiments with live embryos and visualize differential gene expression allowing them to become invested in their experiment and curious about the results. This lab also addresses the benefits of Xenopus laevis as a model organism and allows students to observe the changes Xenopus embryos undergo during early embryonic stages. After the students have chosen and fixed two stages of Xenopus embryos, they perform an in situ hybridization on the embryos to visualize gene expression at two different developmental stages. They then compare their results with those from other lab groups who analyzed their embryos for different genes. The students self-reported that they better understood the concept of differential gene expression during vertebrate development and enjoyed doing this series of lab experiments working with live materials.