CourseSource: Resources

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CRISPR/Cas9 in yeast: a multi-week laboratory exercise for undergraduate students

Providing undergraduate life-science students with a course-based research experience that utilizes cutting-edge technology, is tractable for students, and is manageable as an instructor is a challenge. Here, I describe a multi-week lesson plan...

Courses: Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Bioinformatics Genetics Microbiology Science Process Skills

bioinformaticsPCRphenotypingCRISPR/Cas9gene editingcloningGenotypingRestriction enzyme

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1167

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333

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Mice, Acorns, and Lyme Disease: a Case Study to Teach the Ecology of Emerging Infectious Diseases.

Ebola, Zika, the recall of contaminated lettuce - these are just a few recent outbreaks making headlines. Students should be able to connect what they learn in their biology courses to explain these events happening around them. Unfortunately,...

Courses: Microbiology

epidemiologyEcological changeInfectious disease ecologyReservoirsTransmission cycle

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1308

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399

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Using Structured Decision Making to Explore Complex Environmental Issues

Environmental issues are inherently complex, often requiring multiple interested parties to come together before agreeing on a solution. Structured decision making is a tool used by federal and state management agencies to find solutions that...

Courses: Ecology Ecology

interdisciplinarysocio-ecological systemsscience policystakeholderstructured decision making

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3049

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789

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Furry with a chance of evolution: Exploring genetic drift with tuco-tucos

Genetic drift is an important mechanism of evolution, yet undergraduates often fail to understand how it leads to evolutionary change due in part to its random nature. This lesson plan describes a simulation-based activity that allows students to...

Courses: Evolution

EvolutionGenetic DriftBottle neckFounder effectRandom evolutionary processes

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1223

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163

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Forensic Phylogenetics: Implementing Tree-thinking in a Court of Law

Here we describe an in-class activity developed for Evolutionary Biology and Biodiversity (BioEE1780) at Cornell University, an introductory course required of all biology majors. This activity offers instructors an engaging and real-life...

Courses: Microbiology

phylogeneticsTree thinkingparaphyly

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10825

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1657

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A virtual laboratory on cell division using a publicly-available image database

Cell division is a key concept in cell biology. While there are many popular activities to teach students the stages of mitosis, most make use of simple schematics, cartoons, or textbook diagrams. Others engage students in acting out the stages,...

Courses: Cell Biology Science Process Skills

image analysismicroscopymitosisCellular Processes

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1404

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206

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Make It Stick: Teaching Gene Targeting with Ribbons and Fasteners

Manipulating gene expression is a commonly used tool to study the effect of a single gene or the hierarchy of gene networks in many different biological disciplines. When working with mice, the most commonly used techniques to manipulate genes...

Courses: Developmental Biology Genetics

mathematical modelhomologous recombinationCre/loxgene targeting

Lesson

964

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128

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Exploring the March to Mars Using 3D Print Models

With the increased availability of 3D printers and open databases containing 3D print files, academic institutions are giving more thought into how such technology can be used in the classroom to further student learning. One way that 3D print...

Courses: Introductory Biology Microbiology Science Process Skills

waterMarsmicroorganismsproperties of life

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4529

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858

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Tackling "Big Data" with Biology Undergrads: A Simple RNA-seq Data Analysis Tutorial Using Galaxy

Analyzing high-throughput DNA sequence data is a fundamental skill in modern biology. However, real and perceived barriers such as massive file sizes, substantial computational requirements, and lack of instructor background knowledge can...

Courses: Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Bioinformatics

bioinformaticsDNA sequenceRNAseqgene expression

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5524

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3681

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CURE-all: Large Scale Implementation of Authentic DNA Barcoding Research into First-Year Biology Curriculum

Growing calls in science education reform have emphasized wide-scale engagement of first-year undergraduate students in authentic research experiences; however, large course enrollments, inadequate student experience, limited resources and...

Courses: Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Bioinformatics Ecology Ecology Evolution Genetics Introductory Biology Science Process Skills

phylogeneticsbioinformaticsBiodiversityprocess of sciencetaxonomyPCRDNADNA sequencegel electrophoresis

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873

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272

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Quantifying and Visualizing Campus Tree Phenology

Large enrollment courses present a challenge for instructors who want to engage students in authentic science practices that fit the recommendations of Vision & Change. Our lesson provides a meaningful science experience for undergraduates in...

Courses: Introductory Biology

ecologyBiodiversityphenologyplant biology

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1933

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226

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Discovering Prokaryotic Gene Regulation by Building and Investigating a Computational Model of the lac Operon

The ability to construct and reason through a biological system is an important skill to develop in science education. This level of understanding forces students to recognize the interrelatedness of components within a biological process and...

Courses: Introductory Biology

prokaryotesgene regulationLac Operoninducible operon

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1794

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621

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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...

Courses: Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Bioinformatics Introductory Biology

BLASTmultiple sequence alignmentsequence similarityphylogramZika virusAlgorithmScoring Matrix

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1526

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534

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A Close-Up Look at PCR

The Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) is a fundamental laboratory technique that allows for the amplification of many copies of a desired DNA target sequence. Despite its prevalence, undergraduate students often have poor comprehension about the...

Courses: Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Genetics Introductory Biology Science Process Skills

PCRDNA replication

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3564

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258

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Learning to Pipet Correctly by Pipetting Incorrectly?

Beginning undergraduate students in biology need basic laboratory, data analysis, and science process skills to pursue more complex questions in course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs). To this end, we designed an introductory...

Courses: Introductory Biology Science Process Skills

statisticslaboratorypipetting

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839

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BioMap Degree Plan: A project to guide students in exploring, defining, and building a plan to achieve career goals

Traditional college students begin their academic journey with a variety of ideas about the careers they might ultimately pursue. Some students have always known what they want to do, some have ideas about possible careers, while others have never...

Courses: Introductory Biology Professional Development and Career Planning

Career ExplorationCo-curricularsDegree Planning

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7477

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354

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Investigating Cell Signaling with Gene Expression Datasets

Modern molecular biology is a data- and computationally-intensive field with few instructional resources for introducing undergraduate students to the requisite skills and techniques for analyzing large data sets. This Lesson helps students: (i)...

Courses: Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Cell Biology

genomicstranscriptionsignaling

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Dynamic Daphnia: An inquiry-based research experience in ecology that teaches the scientific process to first-year biologists

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...

Courses: Ecology Ecology Introductory Biology Science Process Skills

statisticsecologyscientific methodexperimental designAbiotic and Biotic FactorsDependent and Independent Variables

Essay

676

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Implementing active learning approaches into an upper-division biology course

In this essay, we present our strategy for implementing active learning strategies into an upper division course on Human Genetics. Our principal goal was to shift from a traditional didactic course design, to one that more clearly placed the...

Courses: Genetics Introductory Biology

human biologyPedigree analysisRare genetic diseases

Teaching Tools and Strategies

926

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181

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Wikipedia in the Science Classroom

Despite research suggesting that writing-to-learn exercises (WTL) in the classroom are associated with increased student learning, WTL is still not widely implemented in science courses. To provide our students with a meaningful WTL exercise that...

Courses: Introductory Biology Science Process Skills

scientific writingcritical evaluationWikipediawriting for general public