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    Lesson
    2648

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    650

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    Electron Location, Location, Location: Understanding Biological Interactions
    Introductory Biology courses typically introduce the structure and function of biomolecules such as proteins and nucleic acids. To understand biomolecules fully, students require knowledge of fundamental chemistry concepts such as covalent...
    Teaching Tools and Strategies
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    346

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    Converting a Face-to-Face Lab to Online: An Example of Process and Outcomes for a CRISPR-Based Molecular Biology Lab
    The COVID-19 pandemic created a need to convert in-person laboratory courses into an online format in a short amount of time. For this reason, we converted our face-to-face molecular biology lab course to an online version in Spring 2020. The lab...
    Lesson
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    203

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    Exploring the City of Biofilms: An Engaging Analogy-Based Activity for Students to Learn Biofilms
    Multicellular biofilms constructed by microbes are key aspects of microbiology with significant implications in various fields, including medicine, environmental science, and biotechnology. While bacteria spend nearly all their lives in biofilms,...

    Courses: MicrobiologyMicrobiology

    Essay
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    2941

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    The Lecture-Free Classroom: Teaching students backward design and Bloom's Taxonomy to create their own learning environment
    We describe Presentation Enhanced Learning (PEL), a flexible, lecture-free, field-tested teaching format to promote problem-based, active learning in upper-division or graduate biological sciences courses.  PEL may be implemented as a single,...
    Teaching Tools and Strategies
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    1672

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    A 360Ëš View of COVID-19
    In March 2020, institutions underwent a massive transition to distance learning as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. With so little time to devise new materials to maximize learning in the new virtual environment, instructors devised a variety of...
    Teaching Tools and Strategies
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    163

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    A Pandemic Pivot: Podcast as an Active Engagement Tool in the Classroom and Beyond
    Higher education in STEM undoubtedly integrates the use of technology as a primary mode for content delivery to undergraduate students. This became especially salient throughout the shift to online education during the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite...
    Lesson
    3283

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    2791

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    Using CRISPR-Cas9 to teach the fundamentals of molecular biology and experimental design
    One of the challenges of inquiry-based research experiences is balancing the instruction on skills and techniques with data generation and analysis. This is especially true in technique heavy disciplines such as molecular biology, where emphasis...
    Lesson
    2914

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    175

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    The Three Sisters of Agriculture: An Active Learning Activity on Symbiotic Nitrogen Fixation
    This active learning exercise introduces students to the plant microbiome and the contributions that bacteria make to plant growth and food production. The Three Sisters are an ancient indigenous practice in which three plant crops and the...

    Courses: MicrobiologyMicrobiology

    Teaching Tools and Strategies
    1926

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    191

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    An Interactive Protocol for In-Classroom DNA Extraction
    Using commonly available materials, this tool allows students to extract DNA, exploring DNA chemistry and the principles of experimental design and execution. We take a “Choose Your Own Adventure” approach encouraging students to...
    Lesson
    2130

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    285

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    Learning Quantitative Genetics: Investigation of Genetic Control for Cold Stress Response in Plants
    Course-embedded undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) for students have been shown to increase students’ understanding of the process of science, affirm their scientific identity, and improve retention in STEM fields. Despite many CUREs...

    Courses: GeneticsGenetics

    Lesson
    3211

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    650

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    A Hands-on Introduction to Hidden Markov Models
    In this Lesson, we describe a classroom activity that demonstrates how a Hidden Markov Model (HMM) is applied to predict a eukaryotic gene, focusing on predicting one exon-intron boundary. This HMM lesson is part of the BIOL/CS 370...
    Lesson
    5125

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    2549

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    Cell Signaling Pathways - a Case Study Approach
    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...
    Lesson
    1995

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    226

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    The impact of diet and antibiotics on the gut microbiome
    The goal of this article is to describe an active learning exercise that can be used in a variety of advanced microbiology courses, including bacterial physiology, ecology, or systems biology. The gut microbiome is a multi-species bacterial...

    Courses: MicrobiologyMicrobiology

    Lesson
    4071

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    272

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    Analysis of Microbiomes Using Free Web-Based Tools in Online and In-Person Undergraduate Science Courses
    Our understanding of microbiomes, or the collection of microorganisms and their genes in a given environment, has been revolutionized by technological and computational advances. However, many undergraduate students do not get hands-on experiences...
    Lesson
    3240

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    224

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    Garden Variety Mutations: Using Primary Data to Understand the Central Dogma in Large-Lecture Introductory Biology
    The ability to interpret and create an argument from data is a crucial skill for budding scientists, yet one that is seldom practiced in introductory courses. During this argumentation module, students in a large lecture class will work in groups...
    Science Behind the Lesson
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    The Science Behind the ACTN3 Polymorphism
    A common polymorphism in the alpha-actinin-3 (ACTN3) gene results in the lack of ACTN3 protein expression in fast twitch muscle fibers in ~16% of the human population (1). This genetic change has been linked with muscle performance in humans (2)...
    Lesson
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    Using Raw Sequence Data to Analyze Tumor Suppressor Mutations
    Learning to identify DNA sequence variants from raw sequencing data (electropherograms) is a basic molecular biology skill with applications to basic research and clinical practice. Yet learning to map DNA sequence variants to functional regions...
    Lesson
    1250

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    491

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    Using Pathway Maps to Link Concepts, Peer Review, Primary Literature Searches and Data Assessment in Large Enrollment Classes: An example from teaching ecosystem ecology
    As with many other complex topics, teaching ecosystem ecology can be particularly difficult in terms of helping students understand the relationships between the various component parts. We addressed this challenge in a general ecology course by...
    Lesson
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    Sequence Similarity: An inquiry based and "under the hood" approach for incorporating molecular sequence alignment in introductory undergraduate biology courses
    Introductory bioinformatics exercises often walk students through the use of computational tools, but often provide little understanding of what a computational tool does "under the hood." A solid understanding of how a bioinformatics...
    Lesson
    2669

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    Bacteria to Brains in Backyard Coyotes: An Interdisciplinary Pedagogical Case Study
    Our interdisciplinary pedagogical case study explores the differences between rural and urban coyotes at the levels of organismal and community ecology. The focus is on how coyotes’ gut microbiomes could affect their behavior via...