CourseSource: Resources

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: Evolution

Evolutionactive learningNatural Selectiongroup workmisconceptions

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1005

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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: Ecology Ecology Evolution Genetics Plant Biology

EvolutionfitnessNatural Selectionheritability

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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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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: Ecology Ecology Evolution Genetics

Evolutionartificial selectionSpeciationextinctionsexual selectionphylogenetic treesmechanisms of evolution

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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: Ecology Ecology Evolution Introductory Biology

Evolutionfitnesssexual selectionNatural Selectionintersexual selectionmate choice

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: Evolution

Evolutionecologyextinctionadaptive radiationdiversification

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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: Ecology Ecology Evolution

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-Physiology Ecology Ecology Evolution

EvolutionecologybatphysiologyAnatomybirdFlightforcesinsect

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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 Biology Cell Biology Evolution Genetics Introductory Biology Microbiology Science 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: Evolution Genetics Science Process Skills

population geneticsphylogeneticsSpeciationdivergencegene flow

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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: Ecology Ecology Evolution Plant 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: Ecology Ecology Evolution Introductory Biology Science 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 Biology Cell Biology Genetics Introductory Biology

critical thinkingcentral dogmaanalogical reasoning

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Linking Genotype to Phenotype: The Effect of a Mutation in Gibberellic Acid Production on Plant Germination

Basic concepts in genetics and plant development are often taught in lecture courses without a lab component. This approach provides students with the content knowledge, but fails to make connections to research opportunities and real-world...

Courses: Cell Biology Developmental Biology Genetics Introductory Biology Plant Biology

geneticsdevelopmentmutationgerminationplantmodel organismGenotype/PhenotypeHormoneSeed

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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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Animal Behaviour Case Study Lessons in Communication, Migration, and Parental Care Using the Jigsaw Approach

Animal behaviour courses integrate concepts across biological disciplines and are particularly well suited for collaborative, student-focused teaching strategies. Case Studies can positively impact students by...

Courses: Ecology Ecology Evolution Science Process Skills

case studycommunicationprimary literatureanimal behaviorjigsawParental CaremigrationAnimal BehaviourProximate mechanisms

Teaching Tools and Strategies

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A 360˚ 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...

Courses: Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Bioinformatics Cell Biology Evolution Genetics Immunology Introductory Biology Microbiology Science Process Skills

geneticsImmunologyBiochemistrybioinformaticsmolecular evolutionpublic healthvirusCOVID19

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What is Speciation, How Does It Occur, and Why Is It Important for Conservation?

Speciation provides a framework for classifying biodiversity on Earth and is a central concept in evolutionary biology. To help undergraduate students learn about speciation, we designed a student-centered lesson that uses active-learning...

Courses: Ecology Ecology Genetics Introductory Biology Science Process Skills

EvolutionconservationGenetic DriftSpeciationNatural SelectionBiological species conceptgene flowMorphological species conceptPhylogenetic species concept

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Teaching Biodiversity with Museum Specimens in an Inquiry-Based Lab

In response to the growth of biology datasets and broad efforts to digitize data, an increasingly important skill for science students is the management and analysis of large datasets. We designed an inquiry-based lab module to introduce students...

Courses: Ecology Ecology Evolution Introductory Biology Science Process Skills

data analysisnatural historyphylogenyBiodiversitymammalsAllen's RuleBergmann's Ruleecogeographymuseum research

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Role of Crop Genetic Diversity on Pathogen Impact: The Tale of Two Pathogens

Introductory genetics courses are part of the core curriculum in many different fields, including plant breeding, animal science, biology, microbiology, and natural resource management. Concepts involving genes, inheritance, evolution, and genome...

Courses: Introductory Biology Plant Biology Science Process Skills