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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
    Lesson
    2602

    views

    489

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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
    Lesson
    2715

    views

    283

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    1

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    The Leaky Neuron: Understanding synaptic integration using an analogy involving leaky cups
    Students have difficulty understanding synaptic integration in neural circuits, and how spatial and temporal summation combine in a target neuron to reach threshold.  This Lesson uses small cups of water to represent excitatory postsynaptic...

    Courses: NeurobiologyNeurobiology

    neuron physiologyspatial summationsynaptic integrationtemporal summationthreshold
    Lesson
    1503

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    529

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    0

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    Building a Model of Tumorigenesis: A small group activity for a cancer biology/cell biology course
    The multistep nature of tumorigenesis is a foundational concept in the context of Cancer Biology. Many students do not appreciate the complex nature of cancer development nor do they understand how scientists are able to unravel the molecular...

    Courses: Cell BiologyCell Biology GeneticsGenetics Science Process SkillsScience Process Skills

    pathwayscancerMolecular AlterationsRetrospective dataTumorigenesis
    Lesson
    4110

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    596

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    Splicing it Together: Using Primary Data to Explore RNA Splicing and Gene Expression in Large-Lecture Introductory Biology
    At the heart of scientific ways of knowing is the systematic collection and analysis of data, which is then used to propose an explanation of how the world works. In this two-day module, students in a large-lecture course are immersed in a...

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

    gene regulationtranscriptiongene expressioncentral dogmarepressoralternative splicingmRNA processingActivatorTranscription factors
    Lesson
    2690

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    496

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    0

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    Harnessing the Power of the Immune System: Influenza Vaccines
    Because most people have been infected by and/or immunized against influenza, students should know how the immune system responds to the infection and how vaccines protect against disease. Vaccines have played an instrumental role in disease...

    Courses: Biochemistry and Molecular BiologyBiochemistry and Molecular Biology ImmunologyImmunology Science Process SkillsScience Process Skills

    VaccinesInfluenzaImmunizationVaccine efficacy
    Lesson
    1261

    views

    93

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    0

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    Gender and Classroom Participation: A Case for Quantitative Analysis
    Teaching statistics to students using authentic research is one way to highlight the transferability and value of the material taught in the class. Below we describe an activity in Statistics for Biological and Health Sciences (STAT2510), an...

    Courses: Science Process SkillsScience Process Skills

    statisticsgenderpopulationProportionSampleEquality
    Lesson
    1216

    views

    407

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    0

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    Your Tax Dollars at Work: A mock grant writing experience centered on scientific process skills
    A successful scientist combines skill, creativity, and the art of persuasion to excel in his or her field of study. Critically important for the professional scientist is the ability to not only conduct research, but also to conceive a project and...

    Courses: Science Process SkillsScience Process Skills

    researchexperimental designprocess of sciencePeer reviewgrant writingPecha Kuchaproposal
    Lesson
    5655

    views

    1168

    downloads

    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...

    Courses: Cell BiologyCell Biology GeneticsGenetics Introductory BiologyIntroductory Biology

    recombinationmeiosisDNA sequenceCrossingoverchromosome structureHolliday junctionhomology
    Lesson
    3104

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    358

    downloads

    0

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    Discovering Cellular Respiration with Computational Modeling and Simulations
    Cellular respiration, a common topic among introductory and cellular biology curricula, is a complex biological process that exemplifies core biological concepts, including systems, pathways and transformation of energy, and structure and function...

    Courses: Introductory BiologyIntroductory Biology

    Cellular MechanismsCellular RespirationFermentation
    Lesson
    2125

    views

    405

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    0

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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...

    Courses: Biochemistry and Molecular BiologyBiochemistry and Molecular Biology GeneticsGenetics

    dna structureDNA damageDNA recombinationGene crossoverHolliday junction
    Lesson
    3027

    views

    405

    downloads

    0

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    It's a Substrate... It's a Protein...No - It's an Enzyme! Teaching Using 3D Serine Protease Physical Modeling Activities to Confront Misconceptions.
    Reported misconceptions of enzyme-substrate interactions highlight the necessity for better, targeted instructional tools and assessments. A series of active learning activities with corresponding three-dimensional (3D) physical models were...

    Courses: Biochemistry and Molecular BiologyBiochemistry and Molecular Biology

    Protein StructureEnzymes-Substrate InteractionsNoncovalent InteractionsGeometric ComplementaryElectronicsStereochemistrySerine Proteases
    Lesson
    4911

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    495

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    Does Organelle Shape Matter?: Exploring Patterns in Cell Shape and Structure with High-Throughput (HT) Imaging
    Organelle structure has been studied and visualized for decades; however, publicly available databases that use improved high-throughput microscopy of gene-edited cell lines have recently revolutionized the amount and quality of information now...

    Courses: Biochemistry and Molecular BiologyBiochemistry and Molecular Biology BioinformaticsBioinformatics Cell BiologyCell Biology GeneticsGenetics Science Process SkillsScience Process Skills

    modelingcase studymicroscopystructureOrganellesHigh-throughput (HT)Endoplasmic Reticulum (ER)Fluorescent microscopyHuman Cell Biology
    Lesson
    1109

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    289

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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 BiologyIntroductory Biology

    ecologyBiodiversityphenologyplant biology
    Essay
    1093

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    121

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    0

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    An Active Textbook Converts "Vision and Tweak" to Vision and Change
    Multiple reports over more than a century have documented the problems with the way introductory biology has been taught in most colleges and universities. An influential recent report, Vision and Change in Undergraduate Biology Education, has...

    Courses: Introductory BiologyIntroductory Biology

    Vision and Changeactive learningintroductory biologyFlipped classroomUndergraduatecore competenciescore conceptsactive textbookcurriculum reform
    Teaching Tools and Strategies
    1341

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    50

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    Using Constructed Response Questions on High-Stakes Assessments in Large Classes With Limited Support
    Large lecture courses often rely heavily, and sometimes exclusively, on Multiple Choice (MC) exams to assess student learning. Constructed Response (CR) questions, in which students generate their own answers, can provide more insight into student...

    Courses: GeneticsGenetics

    assessmenttestexamLarge classconstructed responseshort answerscoring
    Lesson
    2999

    views

    549

    downloads

    2

    comments

    A Fun Introductory Command Line Lesson: Next Generation Sequencing Quality Analysis with Emoji!
    Radical innovations in DNA sequencing technology over the past decade have created an increased need for computational bioinformatics analyses in the 21st century STEM workforce. Recent evidence however demonstrates that there are significant...

    Courses: BioinformaticsBioinformatics

    bioinformaticsgenomicscodingJupyter notebookcommand lineCyVersescriptingnext generation sequencing analysis
    Lesson
    1482

    views

    159

    downloads

    0

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    Infectious Chocolate Joy with a Side of Poissonian Statistics: An activity connecting life science students with subtle physics concepts
    Introductory physics courses are required for many programs in the life sciences, yet traditional curricula fail to help students meaningfully connect physical concepts with biological systems.  In this lesson, we describe an activity taught...

    Courses: BioinformaticsBioinformatics MicrobiologyMicrobiology Science Process SkillsScience Process Skills

    quantitative biologyHIVmultiplicity of infectionPoisson DistributionPhysics for biologists
    Lesson
    3619

    views

    954

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    0

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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
    Lesson
    1957

    views

    280

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    0

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    A CURE-based approach to teaching genomics using mitochondrial genomes
    There is an abundance (currently over 1016 DNA bases) of publicly available genetic sequence data and a dearth of trained genomicists to process and interpret it, necessitating more trained bioinformaticians with biological expertise. For...

    Courses: BioinformaticsBioinformatics GeneticsGenetics

    proteinsMitochondrial GenomesNuclear GenomesrRNAtRNA