CourseSource: Resources

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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: Bioinformatics Microbiology Science Process Skills

quantitative biologyHIVmultiplicity of infectionPoisson DistributionPhysics for biologists

Teaching Tools and Strategies

2816

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394

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The Flight Physics Concept Inventory: Reliably Evaluating Aerodynamic Lift, Drag and Associated (Naïve) Concepts of Flight in Class and In-Game

Students often struggle to transfer conceptual understanding from isolated instruction to a coherent mental model. This is especially true for the context of flight physics, fluid dynamics, or the concepts of aerodynamic lift, drag, stall, center...

Courses: Introductory Physics: Calculus-Based

active learninggamificationmisconceptionsaerodynamicsfluid dynamicsResearch-based assessment instrumentConceptual SurveyPRE-/POST-test

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754

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115

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A Momentum-First Approach to Newton’s Second Law

Students frequently struggle with seeing the connection between forces and motion in introductory physics. This lesson is part of a combined momentum and kinematics unit that first teaches Newton’s second law as a statement of conservation...

Courses: Introductory Physics: Calculus-Based

group workMomentumNewton's Laws

Lesson

1284

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352

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A first lesson in mathematical modeling for biologists: Rocs

Using a fictitious population of Rocs, a mythical species of giant raptor, students accomplish two broad objectives: 1) they undertake the process of building a first mathematical model of a population, and 2) they begin to develop their...

Courses: Ecology Ecology Introductory Biology Science Process Skills

population ecologypopulation modelingdiscrete generationpopulation management

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924

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275

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Population Ecology of the Northern Spotted Owl

The mathematical modeling of populations utilizing field-collected demographic data is an important component of lab curricula in a variety of undergraduate biology lab courses. During the global pandemic brought about by the SARS-CoV-2 virus in...

Courses: Ecology Ecology Introductory Biology

demographyCommunity Ecologypopulation ecologyconservation biologylife tables

Lesson

3406

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284

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Garden Variety Mutations: Using Primary Data to Understand the Central Dogma in Large-Lecture Introductory Biology

The ability to interpret and create an argument from data is a crucial skill for budding scientists, yet one that is seldom practiced in introductory courses. During this argumentation module, students in a large lecture class will work in groups...

Courses: Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Genetics Introductory Biology

mutationtranscriptiongene expressioncentral dogmatranslationgel electrophoresisGenotype/Phenotype

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1121

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192

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0

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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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3468

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722

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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...

Courses: Bioinformatics Genetics Introductory Biology Science Process Skills

bioinformaticsautosomehomologous chromosomeshomologous recombinationsex chromosomesex determinationsex reversal mutations

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12313

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1868

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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

Lesson

2984

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942

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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

Teaching Tools and Strategies

1190

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148

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Lateral Transfer Maps as a Metacognitive Tool in First Year STEM Courses

We introduce the Lateral Transfer Map (LTM), a tool for students to actively and visually explore the transfer of ideas, skills, and concepts across concurrent coursework. The LTM is an extension of a concept map, replacing interconnected concepts...

Courses: Professional Development and Career Planning Science Process Skills

concept mapmetacognitionfirst-year studenttransfer

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2549

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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

Lesson

3493

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852

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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

Lesson

988

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137

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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

Teaching Tools and Strategies

5656

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Science “Fails”: A Bank of Historical Examples for Learning From Failure in Science

Learning from failure is critically important to the processes of scientific inquiry, discovery, and invention. However, students are not routinely taught how to reflect on, learn from, and ultimately embrace failure, and relatively few curricular...

Courses: Introductory Physics: Calculus-Based Introductory Biology Professional Development and Career Planning Science Process Skills

metacognitionScience process skillsLearning from failurepower and privilegestudent wellbeing

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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

Essay

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Online Adaptation to "Gotcha! Which fly trap is the best? An introduction to experimental data collection and analysis"

We present here a simple and engaging experiment capitalizing on the universal need to rid our homes of fruit flies to teach experimental design and analysis. In an earlier paper, we described an experiment in which students learn the scientific...

Courses: Science Process Skills

data analysisexperimental designolfaction

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...

Courses: Evolution Genetics Science Process Skills

population geneticsphylogeneticsSpeciationdivergencegene flow

Lesson

2455

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159

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What's in this? Students Deliberate on Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals Found in Everyday Healthcare Items to Build Democratic Skills

In helping our students become informed and active members of society, it is necessary that they develop certain skills that will empower them to improve their community and governance. These skills include communication, collaboration, and...

Courses: Anatomy-Physiology Cell Biology Developmental Biology Introductory Biology Science Process Skills

cellEndocrinehormones

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2685

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Film as a Powerful Tool for Increasing Awareness of the Importance of Belonging in STEM

People of color in STEM fields can face a variety of challenges with belonging due to structural, cultural, psychological, and institutional barriers. The professional development sessions described in this lesson involved using film as well as...

Courses: Professional Development and Career Planning

steminclusionfilmbelonging