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    Teaching Tools and Strategies
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    "Boost your evolution IQ": An evolution misconceptions game
    Students often enter introductory biology courses with misconceptions about evolution. For example, many students believe that traits arise when a species needs them or that evolutionary processes are goal-oriented. To address these and other...

    Courses: EvolutionEvolution

    Evolutionactive learningNatural Selectiongroup workmisconceptions
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    A Quick and Simple Natural Selection Role Play
    Teaching evolution remains a challenging task in biology education. Students enter the classroom with stubborn misconceptions and many traditional examples of the process of evolution may not resonate with students. This short role play activity...

    Courses: EcologyEcology EvolutionEvolution GeneticsGenetics Plant BiologyPlant Biology

    EvolutionfitnessNatural Selectionheritability
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    853

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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: EvolutionEvolution

    EvolutionGenetic DriftBottle neckFounder effectRandom evolutionary processes
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    453

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    Moths and Frogs and E. coli, Oh My!: Agent-based Modeling of Evolutionary Systems
    In evolution classrooms, introducing and reinforcing the idea of genetic drift and random selection can be challenging, as can be reinforcing appropriate mental models of evolution. Agent-based models offer students the opportunity to conduct a...

    Courses: BioinformaticsBioinformatics EcologyEcology EvolutionEvolution Science Process SkillsScience Process Skills

    modelingEvolutionecologyagent-based modelingGenetic Driftenvironmental scienceNatural Selectioncompetitive coevolutionsimulation modelingevolutionary reasoning
    Essay
    755

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    128

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    Helping Students to Overcome STUMPS: Scientific terms undermined by meanings peripheral to science
    Many terms and phrases that are ubiquitous in everyday use have very different meanings in science. As a result, biology students often hold prior conceptions that are difficult to change. In this essay, I refer to such problematic terms as...

    Courses: Introductory BiologyIntroductory Biology

    Evolutionfitnessprocess of sciencetree of lifemetacognitionlanguagemisconceptionsTerminologyTheory
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    279

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    Escape Zoom!: Reviewing Introductory Evolution Content Using an Escape Room Format
    Reviewing and integrating key concepts and learning goals at the end of a biology course can be overwhelming to students and instructors alike. Often end-of-term review sessions in preparation for final exams are heavily based on memorization, and...

    Courses: EcologyEcology EvolutionEvolution GeneticsGenetics

    Evolutionartificial selectionSpeciationextinctionsexual selectionphylogenetic treesmechanisms of evolution
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    488

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    A Modeling Exercise in Sexual Selection using a Student-Created Bird Species
    Evolution-centered lessons at the undergraduate level can often be jargon-heavy, propagate misconceptions if taught ineffectively, and be uninteresting to students who may not see the relevancy of such concepts. This activity provides a fun and...

    Courses: EcologyEcology EvolutionEvolution Introductory BiologyIntroductory Biology

    Evolutionfitnesssexual selectionNatural Selectionintersexual selectionmate choice
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    3343

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    275

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    Application of a Bacterial Experimental Evolution System to Visualize and Teach Evolution in Action: A Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experience
    Concepts of evolution are typically taught through examples of extremely long timescales, which do not always resonate broadly. Here, we describe a course-based undergraduate research experience tailored for junior and senior undergraduate biology...

    Courses: Biochemistry and Molecular BiologyBiochemistry and Molecular Biology BioinformaticsBioinformatics Cell BiologyCell Biology EvolutionEvolution GeneticsGenetics MicrobiologyMicrobiology

    EvolutionmutationcompetitionNatural Selectionregulationstructure and functionreproductive fitnessgenotype to phenotypehomologs
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    1007

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    Building Trees: Introducing evolutionary concepts by exploring Crassulaceae phylogeny and biogeography
    Teaching evolutionary theory is foundational for all biological sciences and a key aspect of overall science literacy. The conceptual framework for understanding evolution relies on thinking clearly about evolutionary trees (phylogenetics) and how...

    Courses: EvolutionEvolution Introductory BiologyIntroductory Biology

    EvolutionphylogeneticsTree thinkingbiogeography
    Teaching Tools and Strategies
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    Graphical Organizers as Course Road Maps: Using a geologic timescale in a history of life course
    Both major and non-major biology students lack understanding of important evolutionary events, how they are spaced in time, and how they relate back to the earth system. Graphical organizers like concept maps and timescales are popular tools that...

    Courses: EvolutionEvolution

    Evolutionecologyextinctionadaptive radiationdiversification
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    Go Extinct! An Award-Winning Evolution Game That Teaches Tree-Thinking as Students Pursue the Winning Strategy
    Evolutionary trees communicate both the diversity and unity of life, a central and important scientific concept, as highlighted by the Vision and Change undergraduate biology education movement. Evolutionary trees and cladograms are diagrams...

    Courses: EvolutionEvolution

    phylogeneticsnatural historyBiodiversitycladogramCommon ancestorEvolutionary treeLand vertebratesMonophyletic cladeTetrapods
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    Life Is Just a Game: An Active Learning Activity to Teach Life History Evolution
    A novel activity was designed to introduce students to the concepts of natural selection and life history using an active-learning, constructivist format. It consisted of two parts: 1) a brief introduction to the basic mechanism of natural...

    Courses: EcologyEcology EvolutionEvolution

    Evolutionlife historytrade-offsdiversityNatural Selection
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    It's a bird! It's a plane! It's biomechanics!
    Biomechanics is a discipline that draws from physics and engineering principles to understand the movement and structure of living organisms. It is highly interdisciplinary in nature and can be incorporated into general biology and ecology...

    Courses: Anatomy-PhysiologyAnatomy-Physiology EcologyEcology EvolutionEvolution

    EvolutionecologybatphysiologyAnatomybirdFlightforcesinsect
    Teaching Tools and Strategies
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    SCIENCE/Fiction: Modular Template for Class Design
    We present a modular scaffold for designing an introductory seminar using speculative fiction and science papers to welcome university undergraduates to the biology major. A list of twelve possible topics is included, such as Memory, Parasites,...

    Courses: Anatomy-PhysiologyAnatomy-Physiology Biochemistry and Molecular BiologyBiochemistry and Molecular Biology Cell BiologyCell Biology EvolutionEvolution GeneticsGenetics Introductory BiologyIntroductory Biology NeurobiologyNeurobiology

    geneticscell biologyneurosciencesystems biologyScience Fiction
    Science Behind the Lesson
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    The Science Behind Parthenogenesis: Interesting things happen when meiosis goes “wrong”
    Parthenogenetic reproduction is a fascinating, complex topic.  This article accompanies “Why Meiosis Matters: The case of the fatherless snake.” It summarizes the basic information an introductory biology or genetics instructor...

    Courses: Cell BiologyCell Biology GeneticsGenetics Introductory BiologyIntroductory Biology

    meiosismitosissex determinationAsexual reproductionParthenogenesis
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    Defining Life: Exploring Creativity, Scientific Discovery, and Biology Core Concepts in a Disciplinary First-Year Seminar
    This unit, Defining Life, engages students in thinking like scientists, applying creativity to science, and learning biology core concepts as they explore the defining characteristics of life. This unit provides an example of a curriculum designed...

    Courses: Biochemistry and Molecular BiologyBiochemistry and Molecular Biology Cell BiologyCell Biology EvolutionEvolution GeneticsGenetics Introductory BiologyIntroductory Biology MicrobiologyMicrobiology Science Process SkillsScience Process Skills

    Evolutionbiologycellprocess of science
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    Cutthroat trout in Colorado: A case study connecting evolution and conservation
    Evaluation of evidence is a key process skill for the core competencies of applying the process of science and using quantitative reasoning. This case study enables upper-division biology students to practice these skills by applying evolutionary...

    Courses: EvolutionEvolution GeneticsGenetics Science Process SkillsScience Process Skills

    population geneticsphylogeneticsSpeciationdivergencegene flow
    Lesson
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    767

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    "Got Algae?" A Sorting Game for Introducing the Weird and Wonderful Diversity of Algae
    Algae are a fascinating and diverse organismal group, with global ecological importance, a storied evolutionary history and deep connections to both contemporary and historical human societies. Yet non-experts who teach algal diversity face a lack...

    Courses: EcologyEcology EvolutionEvolution Plant BiologyPlant Biology

    phylogenyBiodiversityphotosynthesisalgaeseaweedmonophyly
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    Coevolution or not? Crossbills, squirrels and pinecones
    This case reinforces the concept of coevolution as a reciprocal change in genetic structure between or among two or more populations, by having students analyze and interpret data, build a descriptive model of the system, and use data to make...

    Courses: EcologyEcology EvolutionEvolution Introductory BiologyIntroductory Biology Science Process SkillsScience Process Skills

    fitnessCoevolutionCo-adaptation
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    Student-Generated Analogies for Learning about Information Flow
    Using analogies is a standard practice for both teaching and communicating ideas in science. Here we upend the traditional lesson, where the instructor provides a fully constructed analogy and explains it, by having the students develop a complex...

    Courses: Biochemistry and Molecular BiologyBiochemistry and Molecular Biology Cell BiologyCell Biology GeneticsGenetics Introductory BiologyIntroductory Biology

    critical thinkingcentral dogmaanalogical reasoning