Natural History Education Portal

Meet Sinlan (Sheila) Poo who works with amphibians at the Memphis Zoo. Learn about Sinlan's research in applied conservation and how they use biodiversity data to study endangered species.

Meet Dr. Rachel Hackett, a conservation plant biologist at the Michigan Natural Features Inventory.  We learn about Rachel's job and the restoration of threatened and endangered species. Rachel provides some examples of "new" populations and students discuss ways to determine if the population is a remnant or introduced population. 

Meet Diane Srivastava, director of the Canadian Institute for Ecology and Evolution, and learn how they sythesize and save biodiversity data.

Meet Thomas McElrath, a insect collection manager at the Illinois Natural History Survey and beetle researcher. Tommy explains the value of data standards while discussing beetles and variations in sex.

Meet Lauren Esposito, the Curator of Arachnology at the California Academy of Sciences. Learn how they use community science to inform new species discovery.

Answer Key associated with Mysterious Occurrences Module

Using QGIS, this module introduces students to zoonotic pathogens, host biogeography, the "One Health" concept, forming hypothesis, and natural history museums within the Hantavirus system.

A module guiding students through the process of mapping biodiversity data and building a biodiversity dataset to study the spread and impacts of the invasive aquatic plant species, European frog-bit (Hydrocharis morsus-ranae L.). 

This is a collection of resources focusing on GUIDs (Globally Unique Identifiers) on what they are, what role they play in digital natural history collections, and how to incorporate them in research based work.

A module guiding students through the review of different biodiversity data sources to identify patterns in the distribution of the Sin Nombre Hantavirus in the United States. English, Spanish, and Portuguese versions included.

In this module, students will investigate the mutualistic relationship between Agave its bat pollinators and the effects of coevolution on the morphological adaptations of the species involved.

In this set of activities, you will use the Michigan Trees Coloring book to learn and practice plant identification. You will also simulate some of the steps of specimen preparation by keying an d labeling your plant “specimens”.

In this module, students will explore Western Science and Traditional Ecological Knowledge and review a case study of how the TEK of the Inuit provided a way of knowing and understanding the biology of the bowhead whale in the Alaskan arctic.

In this lab, we will be making and testing hypotheses about how the biodiversity of groups of organisms may vary through time.

In this lab, you will explore the diversity of flower and fruit adaptations that have evolved to accomplish pollination and seed dispersal and you will investigate the coevolution of angiosperms and their pollinators.

Students will learn R basics while downloading biodiversity data from multiple data repositories. This module will walk students through installing R, navigating R,writing reproducible scripts in R, and using R to download biodiversity data.

The research uses natural history collection data to explore a potential phenological shift between an orchid that employs sexual deception and a solitary bee.

Access and clean an open source herbarium dataset using Excel or RStudio.

Access and clean an open source polar bear dataset using Excel.

Investigate data standards within the context of the Alpine Chipmunk and the Grinnell Study.

The video and exercise provides insight into how researchers are using digital data resources to investigate biodiversity in prairie fen wetlands.

In this module, students will be investigating a louse gene with an unknown function to determine if it might be important in the evolution of the louse ecomorphs.

This exercise investigates the form and function of lice and their relationship to their bird host.

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

Adapted for online learning: In this lab, you will explore the physics of flight, the adaptations that make powered flight possible, and the evolution of powered flight in vertebrates and invertebrates.

This is an introduction to the idea of data visualization and the importance of presenting data for understanding.

Students access, clean, configure, and standardize a dataset and create a relevant and scientifically valid data visualization to communicate science.

Working collaboratively in teams of 2-4 researchers, students engage in targeted projects to address critical information and research needs using digital biodiversity data.

This activity includes a leadership assessment and associated exercise to encourage the development of 21st Century STEM Skills.

A user guide and video instructions for GBIF

A user guide and video instructions for iDigBio

A user guide and video instructions for Arctos

Best practices for designing educational modules using biodiversity data

Data ethics and the use of digital data

Presentation at the 34th Annual meeting of the Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections

In this lab, you will explore the physics of flight, the adaptations that make powered flight possible, and the evolution of powered flight in vertebrates and invertebrates.

In this module, students will be introduced to some emerging biodiversity data resources. They will be asked to think critically about the strengths and utility of these data resources and apply what they have learned to research question.

This activity will explore how natural history specimen data can be used to investigate the relationship between precipitation levels in a region and species diversity of amphibians.

In this module, students use data from natural history collections to look at range shifts related to climate variables over different time periods.

The objectives of this exercise are to familiarize you with the information content of biodiversity specimens and their labels, the breadth of that information across geographic space and/or time.

This educational module utilizes the traditional plant collection experience to engage students with biodiversity data protocols and resources available in our information-rich digital age.

A module to explore aggregated observation and collection information, through BISON, or Biodiversity Information Serving Our Nation (https://bison.usgs.gov), a tool for visualizing GBIF data.

The Digital Encyclopedia of Ancient Life and Digital Atlas Apps -- identify fossils and explore diversity and history of life on earth.

Dr. Jaimi Gray gives a brief introduction into educational resources associated with the oVert project. ...

This webinar will explore how faculty can teach with a growth mindset and identify some potential areas of fixed mindset that might prove to be obstacles for many students.

Anne Basham (Founder ExplorMor Labs LLC/Co-Founder Bon-Earth, LeptNet and SCAN) Presenting on Natural history collections that connect marginalized elders with memory and the natural world. ...

Students will navigate through different stations experiencing simulations of adaptations, manipulations of 3D examples, and making connections to the standards to formulate hypotheses about certain adaptations and how they manifest in the morphology.

Students will compare and contrast the morphology of vertebrate forelimbs, and will use this knowledge to draw conclusions about their common ancestor and descent with modification.

In this case study, students will explore concepts of evolution, protein structure and function, taxonomy, and methods of scientific inquiry in a real-world way.

The Biocultural (BC) Labels initiative is focused on accurate provenance, transparency and integrity in research engagements with Indigenous communities. ...

In the first episode of the Collections Education Coffee Break Series we speak with Anne Basham from SCAN and the Biodiversity Outreach Network. ...

As part of the iDigTrio 2020 Biological Conference and Fair we created this document to supplement our workshop on "Applying for Graduate school". This is a compilation drawing from the four author's lived experiences.

Presents various mathematical modeling and data science activities created around analyzing and interpreting COVID-19 data. Much of the instructional guidance provided for the activities and projects is easily adaptable to a remote learning environment.

Using oVERT project models students examine examples of extant traditional lizards, snakes and limbless lizards and create phylogenies based on trait and genetic data.

Using various bone segments to create joints that will explain planar movement and then develop a mechanical model of different joint types that will allow certain movement in a robotic unit.

This activity simulates analysis and identification of bird specimens based on the relationship of the natural history of bird species with the morphographic measurements and ratios compared to graphs of the same types of measurements and ratios.

Video recordings (with captions), transcript, and chat for the STEM Inclusive Teaching Practices Webinar Series: Universal Design for Learning.

Episode One is a conversation with Bryan Dewsbury (University of Rhode Island) one of the authors of the CBE-LSE Inclusive Pedagogy guide.

Episode 3 builds from Kelisa Wing's recent blog post calling for educators to hold themselves accountable for dismantling racial oppression.

Beyond Techniques: A Phenomenological Approach to Inclusive Teaching with Dr. Mays Imad.

The Digital Atlas project include field guides to fossils (including a mobile app), an online paleontology textbook, and a collection of over 500 virtual 3D models of fossil specimens.

The girdled lizards (Cordylidae) are a family of distinctively armored lizards endemic to Sub-Saharan Africa. Students examine lizards in this family to classify the lizards based on morphological characteristics.

During the course of this lesson, students will analyze CT scan data and observe bycatch (or an unknown discovery) captured during the scanning process of vertebrates.

Using CT (Computed Tomography) scans of vertebrate forelimbs, both as 3D models and as shapefiles, to enhance and illustrate the concepts of homologous structures, and the evolution of anatomical structures as a function of their use.

A module that combines NOAA's Okeanos Explorer and the iDigBio Portal to explore the deep sea!

Step-by-step, hands-on instruction on ways to access and download these specimen data, how to process climate layer data, and how to apply Maxent software to construct ecological niche models.

How wide is the size range of living beings, from "big" to "too small to see"? Students will collect and compare measurements from 3D specimens within the metric system by multiplying or dividing numbers by powers of ten to solve word problems.

Create a gallery of fossil organisms and identify distinctive body parts (wings, suckers, modified appendages) from the collection. Analyze and interpret these features to predict what type of environment the insect inhabited (3-LS4-1 of NGSS).

5E lesson plan for middle/high school aligned to NGSS standards.

Use digitized natural history collection occurrence data from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) to map the distribution of the beaver in the state of Oregon from 1800-2020 using QGIS

Use digitized natural history specimen data from the Alexander Archipelago in Alaska to explore hypotheses about island biogeography. Reprinted from Proceedings of the Association for Biology Laboratory Education (2019).

Map specimen data points using QGIS, connect them to form a polygon using the Concave Hull plugin, and calculate the range of a species to examine how it changes over time.

In this workshop or lab exercise, participants will examine the effects of climate on the phenological events of a selected species using herbarium specimen data.

10-week course-based undergraduate research experience in which students conduct novel research on the effects of climate on phenological events (e.g., flowering) of a plant species using publicly available data from an online portal (CCH2.org).

This exercise introduces herbarium specimens and how they are used for research. Students contribute to specimen "digitization" using the citizen science platform Notes from Nature, and they work with the California specimen database, CCH2.

The iDigBio team has leveraged natural history collections in a 3-pronged approach designed to engage undergraduates from underrepresented groups in collections-based research.

In this module, students explain the importance of collections in scientific research, manipulate data in a spreadsheet program, create properly plotted and labeled graphs, analyze data to test hypotheses about climate effects of butterfly phenology

Collections based research is a critical tool for organismal biology and biodiversity research. Yet natural history collections have a complicated past. This multi-class module examines the origins, problems, and current uses of collections.

In this module, students explore changes in butterfly phenology through the use of natural history collections data. The resource I have modified is a pptx presentation to introduce the background and an updated student pre-lab assignment.