The exploitation of African elephants in the form of ivory poaching is exacerbated by warfare. The affects of this anthropogenic evolutionary force on the African savanna elephant (Loxodonta africana) in the Gorongoas National Park in Mozambique was investigated (Campbell-Staton, et. al. 2021) after the Mozambican civil war (1997-1992).  This multipart lesson is based on this research.  Here, we explore allele frequencies, phenotypic data, and the use of a chi-squared test to determine if the population is in Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium.  Because one gene influencing tusklessness is X-linked, we also explore inheritance of the trait, using hemophilia as an example.  The data used in this part of the lesson are simulated data based on reports from Zambia.

In this activity students explore and analyze real, authentic research data paired with HHMI’s “Selection for Tuskless Elephants” video in a hands-on investigation of human impacts on elephant evolution.

In this activity students explore and analyze real, authentic research data paired with HHMI’s “Selection for Tuskless Elephants” video in a hands-on investigation of human impacts on elephant evolution using the R-Shiny App, Serenity.

This educational game allows teams of students to try to control a simulated epidemic in United States snake populations using their epidemiological and ecological knowledge. It combines a "choose your own adventure", scenario-based website with an agent based model (run in the free NetLogo program).

A compelling reason to learn something can make all the difference in students’ motivation to learn it.  Motivation, in turn, is one of the key attitudes that drives learning.  This story presents students with a compelling puzzle of a fatherless snake.  The puzzle motivates students to learn about meiosis and mitosis, since the only way to explain the origin of the fatherless baby is by mastering details of meiosis.  During the process, students work through the major steps in meiosis, compare and contrast mitosis and meiosis, and apply their understanding to predict how meiosis “went wrong” to produce an unusual offspring that did not originate through union of an egg and a sperm.  This story can be adapted for introductory or advanced students and can be scaled from a brief introduction in a single lecture to a series of active learning exercises that could take two or more lecture periods.

This is an FMN participant supplement for the TIEE module "Global Temperature Change in the 21st Century," authored by Daniel R. Taub and Gillian S. Graham in 2011.

This module examines the complicated co-evolution of Lice, Humans, and Great Apes

Introductory genetics laboratory published as GSA Learning Resource

This is an adaptation to work in R of Investigating Evidence for Climate Change (Project) by Hage, M. 2020. Students will investigate geologic and modern evidence for global temperature and atmospheric CO2 change using ice-core data and Mauna Loa records.

This is an adaptation of Calling Bull's Case Study on how caffeine free is hot chocolate versus coffee in order to make it into a student project that uses R.

A young boy wonders why his twin sister can roll his tongue, but he cannot. Case centers on meiosis.

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 is a modification of an original TIEE Module, investigating these questions: How does nutrient pollution impact stream ecosystems locally and nationally? How does land cover change impact nutrient pollution?

misinformation

Redlining was a racist, legal practice and its impacts are measurable in terms of environmental variables in US cities today. This resource examines redlining, urban environments, and climate change.

Students link human behavior in various climate change scenarios to predicted temperature outcomes at both local (their assigned Latitude) and global (Latitudinal trends) scales. This adaptation is intended to be more accessible to non-majors.

Students use data on nitrogen and phosphorus levels in streams and macrobenthic insect biodiversity to consider issues of nutrient pollution and stream health while learning to filter, summarize, and plot data.

Important learning outcomes for biology students include the ability to develop experiments as well as pull together concepts across their coursework. The field of developmental biology, especially environmental influences on development (eco-devo), provides a framework for connecting concepts including tissue dynamics, cell signaling, and physiology. An eco-devo framework also provides opportunities for experiments that are relevant to student interests and/or experiences by encompassing topics such as the impact of environmental contamination or maternal health on development. Here we present a guided course-based undergraduate research experience (CURE) for students to work with zebrafish embryos as a foundation for the design and execution of their own novel research project. The guided experiment that is performed first in this lesson explores how the weed killer atrazine might affect development of zebrafish, even though atrazine would not be expected to impact animals. The student-developed independent experiment is planned during the guided experiment and then performed in subsequent weeks by students in the second part of this lesson. The independent experiment allows students to investigate a research question related to their own interests. These experiments can be modified for a variety of courses depending on the instructor's curriculum, time constraints, and goals for the experiment. Students are particularly engaged in the lesson because it enables them to investigate their ideas and interests.

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.