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.

Some concepts in genetics, such as genetic screens, are complex for students to visualize in a classroom and can be cumbersome to undertake in the laboratory. Typically, very large populations are needed, which can be addressed by using micro-organisms. However, students can struggle with phenotyping microbes. For macroscopic organisms, the number of offspring produced, and the generation time can be challenging. I developed this lesson as a small-scale genetic screen of Fast Plants^®. These plants are amenable to teaching labs as they have simple growth requirements, a short generation time, and produce numerous seeds that can be stored for years. Seeds used for this screen are purchased pre-treated with a DNA damaging agent, removing the need for in-house use of mutagens. Also, students can screen the phenotypes without specialized equipment. The initial lesson begins with an examination of the first generation of plants. Later their offspring are screened for altered phenotypes. Students responded well to having full-grown plants available on the first day of the lab project. This lesson fostered student collaboration, as they worked with class datasets. Differences in growth due to mutagenesis treatment in the first generation were clear to students who had not worked with plants before. Identifying plants with altered phenotypes in the next generation was more of a challenge. This lesson incorporates key concepts such as somatic and germline mutations, the impact of such mutations on phenotype, and the inheritance of mutation alleles, and provides a hands-on way to illustrate these concepts.

Primary Image: Fast Plant^® phenotype differences observed in the M2 generation. This pot contains three full-sibling M2 seedlings from a single M1 parent plant. The seed of their parent plant received 50 Krads of radiation. Plants 1 and 2 are of standard height, while plant 3 is greatly elongated. Image by AL Klocko.

Some concepts in genetics, such as genetic screens, are complex for students to visualize in a classroom and can be cumbersome to undertake in the laboratory. Typically, very large populations are needed, which can be addressed by using micro-organisms. However, students can struggle with phenotyping microbes. For macroscopic organisms, the number of offspring produced, and the generation time can be challenging. I developed this lesson as a small-scale genetic screen of Fast Plants^®. These plants are amenable to teaching labs as they have simple growth requirements, a short generation time, and produce numerous seeds that can be stored for years. Seeds used for this screen are purchased pre-treated with a DNA damaging agent, removing the need for in-house use of mutagens. Also, students can screen the phenotypes without specialized equipment. The initial lesson begins with an examination of the first generation of plants. Later their offspring are screened for altered phenotypes. Students responded well to having full-grown plants available on the first day of the lab project. This lesson fostered student collaboration, as they worked with class datasets. Differences in growth due to mutagenesis treatment in the first generation were clear to students who had not worked with plants before. Identifying plants with altered phenotypes in the next generation was more of a challenge. This lesson incorporates key concepts such as somatic and germline mutations, the impact of such mutations on phenotype, and the inheritance of mutation alleles, and provides a hands-on way to illustrate these concepts.

Primary Image: Fast Plant^® phenotype differences observed in the M2 generation. This pot contains three full-sibling M2 seedlings from a single M1 parent plant. The seed of their parent plant received 50 Krads of radiation. Plants 1 and 2 are of standard height, while plant 3 is greatly elongated. Image by AL Klocko.

In this lab, students will work with messy data to try to answer the question “How do plants inherit cotyledon color?”

This authentic research experience lesson teaches the core concept of systems and the competencies of quantitative reasoning, communication, and the ability to apply science. The research is student driven, the results are unknown, and the students engage in an iterative process to gather data, collaborating with classmates.  It is designed for first-year biology majors, in a class size of 15-30 students who can work in groups of three.  Students will learn to properly design an experiment, work as teams, analyze data, evaluate conclusions, and communicate findings to others. Additionally, this lesson also incorporates self-reflection and peer assessment when students produce a poster as a summative assessment. Over a five–week period, students will explore how an abiotic factor affects growth, reproduction, and survival of Daphnia.  Students are asked to compare their results to published literature. By the end, students should have a better understanding of science as an ongoing process where results are being updated and furthering the state of knowledge.

This case describes a three-part assignment in which students discuss key processes that regulate the stability and resilience of the Earth system and our increased risk of generating large-scale abrupt or irreversible environmental changes. Here, we use the planetary boundaries concept as a case study. Students are first asked to complete a pre-reading assignment in which they illustrate their perceptions of the degree to which human activity has changed nine earth system processes (e.g., nitrogen cycling, biodiversity loss, ocean acidification). Students then read primary literature on the planetary boundaries concept and complete a reading assurance assignment in which they summarize the reading and reflect on questions generated by the reading. In class, students work together in assigned groups to create a diagram of their collective perceptions and identify processes for which there was the largest misalignment with those presented in the paper. Students then discuss and summarize the evidence used by the authors to justify where these processes stand with respect to the safe operating space for humanity. The lesson concludes with a facilitated discussion and lecture on sustainability governance. This lesson provides students with a "capstone" activity to integrate ecological concepts discussed over the course of a semester and frames a larger discussion on socio-ecological aspects of global environmental change.

Primary image: Example of a student’s illustrated perceptions prior to reading ‘A safe operating space for humanity’ (Rockström et al. 2009). The wedges represent an estimate of the extent to which humans have changed nine earth system processes.