Scientists pinpoint genes behind famous beak variations.
by Geoff Marsh published 11 February 2015

This is a nice update on recent research into the finch phylogeny. It includes video and an interview with Leif Andersson about his research on the evolutionary relationships between species based on genomic sequences. 

from RStudio

Covers dplyr and tidyr

from RStudio

These are the teacher notes associated with the student activity. This activity uses Populus software to have students run simulations with gametic frequency data.

These are the teacher notes associated with the student activity. Students will work with phenotypic data from Drosophila populations to understand allele frequencies and Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. Students are asked to calculate and interpret a variety of population genetic statistics, including X² and D (gametic disequilibrium).

These are the teacher notes for the student activity. Working with allozyme genotype data, students are asked to compute and interpret genotype frequencies and fixation indices.

This lesson plan, created by Discovery Channel, is for grades 6-8 and its goal is to study native vs introduced species and their effects. It's been hard to find resources for older kids.

Very rudimentary. The "Classroom Investigations" are for grades 5-8. However it is not uninteresting and includes links to simulations and worksheets. It was created by the National Science Teachers Association. Could be a fun resource to included if for no other reason than because it's cute. The "Galapagos Guide" is within the site, explaining different areas of the islands. The "Resources for Teaching Evolution" tab does not have designated grades and appear to be a little more intensive. It contains things like discovery channel videos and a virtual tour of a volcano. 

John recommended looking into the work of Robert Bowman and this is his section from the larger work about galapagos finches Notícias de Galápagos 1 (which would probably be helpful but most of the rest of the work is in Spanish) much of it is comparing the giospiza to other species of song birds, and goes into why the galapagos finch is the perfect subject for studying bird song in an evolutionary focus. 

This article is really nice because it connects song and beak morphology all in the realm of evolution. It's a quick read and good for beginners but also pretty interesting for anyone

Will have to look into more, but from what I've seem it's an evolution focused lab based in separating finch species. Seems to be a premade lab 

Ok so it's actually really cool! The premise is you're trying to sort finches into two groups based on song sound, spectrograms, beak shape and appearance, at the end you can check how close you were. Theres another activities for differentiating finches that's not quite as related and tabs to learn about spectrograms and  Daphne Major. Both are pretty basic crash courses but would be very helpful for a beginner or an introductory activity. I'll definitely provide a walk through because it's super fun!!

Very cool multimedia

A bit outdated, but links out to other interesting bird data sources, which include a lot of citizen science. 

The modules, "Species Concepts in Birds" and "Sound Trees" use song data. Lessons are well developed with learning objectives, instructor guides, student handouts, how-to's on the Macaulay library and RavenViewer, and some assessment ideas.

The first results from a major project to measure the reliability of cancer research have highlighted a big problem: Labs trying to repeat published experiments often can't.

That's not to say that the original studies are wrong. But the results of a review published Thursday, in the open-access journal eLife, are a sobering reminder that science often fails at one of its most basic requirements — an experiment in one lab ought to be reproducible in another one.

The ability of statistics to accurately represent the world is declining. In its wake, a new age of big data controlled by private companies is taking over – and putting democracy in peril

by William Davies

The goal of these multi-week activities is to use Cancer Biology as a theme to introduce concepts in the cell cycle, cell biology, genetics and signal transduction.

These activities are appropriate for high school and Introductory Biology classes.

Learning Objectives:

1. Identify the different stages of the cell cycle.
2. Estimate the duration of the different stages of the cell cycle from microscopic examination of onion root tips slides.
3. Relate deficiencies in cell cycle regulation to development of cancer
4. List the names, chromosomal location and functions of genes identified in various types of cancer
5. Describe how mutations in cancer driver genes can result to abnormal cell biology and development of cancer cells