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    Homologous chromosomes? Exploring human sex chromosomes, sex determination and sex reversal using bioinformatics approaches
    Constructing a robust understanding of homologous chromosomes, sex chromosomes, and the particulate nature of genes is a notoriously difficult task for undergraduate biology students. In this lesson, students expand their knowledge of human...
    Lesson
    6255

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    554

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    2

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    Meiosis Remodeled: Inclusion of New Parts to Poppit Bead Models Enhances Understanding of Meiosis
    A long-standing tradition uses strings of poppit beads of different colors to model meiosis, especially to show how segments of paired homologous chromosomes are recombined. Our use of orthodontic latex bands to model cohesion of sister...
    Lesson
    5650

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    1168

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    3

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    Meiosis: A Play in Three Acts, Starring DNA Sequence
    Meiosis is well known for being a sticky topic that appears repeatedly in biology curricula. We observe that a typical undergraduate biology major cannot correctly identify haploid and diploid cells or explain how and why chromosomes pair before...
    Lesson
    996

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    137

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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...
    Lesson
    4870

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    1859

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    Teaching Genetic Linkage and Recombination through Mapping with Molecular Markers
    Most introductory genetics courses cover genetic linkage, a core concept in the CourseSource genetics learning outcome framework. Although it is a classical genetics topic, genetic linkage remains an important concept to understand in order to...
    Lesson
    432

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    66

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    The Science and Ethics of Gene Drives: An Active Learning Lesson in Genetics
    Coursework connecting biology to socially relevant issues and ethical questions can help students think about biology in interdisciplinary terms. Gene drives represent one topic involving both advanced biology concepts and societally relevant...

    Courses: GeneticsGenetics

    Lesson
    2115

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    397

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    Integrating Manipulatives and Animations to Visualize Holliday Junctions
    The complex molecular architecture of Holliday junctions is often challenging for undergraduate biochemistry students to conceptualize. In particular, they have difficulty translating from two-dimensional, linear representations shown in textbooks...
    Lesson
    2993

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    346

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    A Muscular Dystrophy Case Study Illustrating the Phenotypic Effects of Mutation
    Mutations in genes can lead to a variety of phenotypes, including various human diseases. Students often understand that a particular mutation in a single gene causes a disease phenotype, but it is more challenging to illustrate complex genetic...
    Lesson
    2278

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    305

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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
    2816

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    682

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    The Case of the Missing Strawberries: RFLP analysis
    While solving the fictional mystery of the missing strawberries, students are engaged in a guided-inquiry lesson featuring small-group and class discussions, hands-on activities, and laboratory exercises related to molecular genotyping by...
    Lesson
    2274

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    351

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    Learning R for Biologists: A Mini Course Grab-Bag for Instructors
    As biology becomes more data driven, teaching students data literacy skills has become central to biology curriculum. Despite a wealth of online resources that teach researchers how to use R, there are few that offer practical laboratory-based...
    Lesson
    5476

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    2552

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    Exploring the Lytic and Lysogenic Life Cycles of Bacteriophages
    The goal of this lesson is to introduce students to the lytic and lysogenic cycles of T4 and lambda bacteriophages, respectively, using student-centered pedagogies. Bacteriophages are viruses that infect bacteria and are either virulent or...

    Courses: MicrobiologyMicrobiology

    Lesson
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    1205

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    Why Meiosis Matters: The case of the fatherless snake
    A compelling reason to learn something can make all the difference in students’ motivation to learn it.  Motivation, in turn, is one of the key attitudes that drives learning.  This story presents students with a compelling puzzle of a...
    Lesson
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    890

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    Exploration of the Human Genome by Investigation of Personalized SNPs
    Students often shy away from tedious bioinformatics approaches to exploring their genomes. However, in our expanding digital world these skills are some of the most relevant and valuable. To increase students' interest in their own genomes, I...
    Lesson
    1793

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    342

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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...
    Lesson
    1906

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    474

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    Why do Some People Inherit a Predisposition to Cancer? A small group activity on cancer genetics
    Before undergraduate students take a genetics course they generally know cancer has a genetic basis and involves the proliferation of cells; however, many are uncertain about why only a subset of people have a predisposition to cancer and how that...
    Lesson
    3043

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    516

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    A Kinesthetic Modeling Activity to Teach PCR Fundamentals
    Most molecular biology and biological sciences students understand that the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is used to amplify DNA. However, we have found that some students experience conceptual misunderstandings, a lack of detailed comprehension...
    PCR
    Lesson
    3762

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    285

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    Fragile States: A Case Study Exploring Genetics, Molecular Biology, and Biochemistry Through the Lens of Fragile X Syndrome
    This case aims to strengthen students’ understanding of molecular biology concepts through study of Fragile X Syndrome (FXS). Students begin by learning the cause and phenotypes of FXS and related conditions. Students then apply genetics...
    Lesson
    3505

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    1299

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    A CRISPR/Cas Guide RNA Design In Silico Activity
    CRISPR biotechnologies inspired by the Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeat RNA-guided nuclease adaptive bacterial immune system have revolutionized biology research and become ubiquitous tools for hypothesis and...
    Lesson
    5361

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    1394

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    Teaching Cell Structures through Games
    As the basic unit of life, cells are a foundational concept for all of biology. Before students can appreciate how eukaryotic cells function either in isolation or in higher order and multicellular organisms, they must first have a basic...