CourseSource: Resources

Teaching Tools and Strategies

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A Strategy for Teaching Undergraduates to Write Effective Scientific Results Sections

Most undergraduate instructors would agree that learning to write about data in the style of a scientific research paper is a worthy goal for their students. However, many hesitate to tackle the challenge of teaching scientific writing in...

Courses: Science Process Skills

data analysisprimary literaturescientific writingcommunicating science

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Using Gamification to Teach Undergraduate Students about Scientific Writing

Despite its importance, scientific writing is often deprioritized in undergraduate biology classes. Reasons include assumed prior knowledge, lack of class time, tedious grading, and the complexity and challenges associated with quality writing. To...

Courses: Science Process Skills

gamificationscientific writingE-LearningInstant FeedbackInteractive LearningReading Scientific PapersVIdeo/computer game

Teaching Tools and Strategies

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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

Teaching Tools and Strategies

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In-class peer grading of daily quizzes increases feedback opportunities

Educators are familiar with evidence of the benefit that frequent and immediate feedback provides to our students, regardless of class size. We also often find ourselves in a situation where we do not have enough time planned or TA support...

Courses: Introductory Biology

foundational knowledgegraphical interpretationtechnical terms

Teaching Tools and Strategies

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A Pandemic Pivot: Podcast as an Active Engagement Tool in the Classroom and Beyond

Higher education in STEM undoubtedly integrates the use of technology as a primary mode for content delivery to undergraduate students. This became especially salient throughout the shift to online education during the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite...

Courses: Science Process Skills

VaccinesReplication of virusesCOVID-19 transmission

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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...

Courses: Genetics Science Process Skills

meiosismitosissex determinationAsexual reproductionParthenogenesis

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Make It Stick: Teaching Gene Targeting with Ribbons and Fasteners

Manipulating gene expression is a commonly used tool to study the effect of a single gene or the hierarchy of gene networks in many different biological disciplines. When working with mice, the most commonly used techniques to manipulate genes...

Courses: Developmental Biology Genetics

mathematical modelhomologous recombinationCre/loxgene targeting

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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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Sex and gender: What does it mean to be female or male?

This lesson provides three activities to engage non-science major students in a discussion about sex, gender, gender identity, and sex determination. Students prepare for the lesson by reading a short article titled Sex and gender: What is the...

Courses: Anatomy-Physiology Introductory Biology

gendersex determinationgender identitysex

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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...

Courses: Developmental Biology Genetics

mutationProtein Structureethicscentral dogmahuman disease

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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

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Taking the Hassle out of Hasselbalch

Mention pH in a classroom and you can almost see the inner yawn on the faces of your students. The definition may even roll easily from their lips. However, despite multiple exposures to the relationship of pH and pKa throughout a typical...

Courses: Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Science Process Skills

pHdrug uptakeHenderson-Hasslbalch equationmedical applicationspKa

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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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Fruit Fly Genetics in a Day: A Guided Exploration to Help Many Large Sections of Beginning Students Uncover the Secrets of Sex-linked Inheritance

Moving beyond the basic concepts of autosomal Mendelian inheritance to sex-linkage can be difficult for introductory biology students. Although crosses with Drosophila fruit flies have long been a mainstay of genetics units that teach these...

Courses: Genetics

Mendelian Geneticsfruit fly biologysex-linked inheritance

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Squirreling Around for Science: Observing Sciurid Rodents to Investigate Animal Behavior

Hands-on research experiences are important opportunities for students to learn about the nature of inquiry and gain confidence in solving problems. Here, we present an inquiry-based lesson plan that investigates the foraging behavior of sciurid...

Courses: Ecology Ecology Introductory Biology Science Process Skills

foragingbehaviorbehavioral ecologySciuridSquirrelSquirrel-NetTrade-offVigilance

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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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Responsible and Ethical Conduct of Research: Instruction on Plagiarism

Helping students understand where they should provide citations in research manuscripts is an essential aspect of training them in the responsible and ethical conduct of research. This Lesson comprises about 35 minutes of in-class work to help...

Courses: Science Process Skills

citationwritingethicsplagiarismparaphrasequote

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Data Analysis Recitation Activities Support Better Understanding in SEA-PHAGES CURE

Course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) are widely known to improve student learning outcomes in the sciences. Undergraduate students have a particularly difficult time interpreting the scientific data that they generate in these...

Courses: Science Process Skills

bacteriophageDNA extractionGel analysisPhage purificationTiter calculationViral replicative growth

Teaching Tools and Strategies

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Drawing flowcharts of lab protocols helps students prepare for biology labs

With the publishing of the Vision and Change report, we know it is best practice to include authentic research experiences in our undergraduate science lab classes. One big challenge in teaching so-called "wet lab" classes is figuring...

Courses: Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Genetics Introductory Biology Science Process Skills

laboratorymolecular biologyUndergraduateprotocolflowchart

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The Inside and Outside the Body

The Inside and Outside the Body activity helps students develop a conceptual understanding of anatomical barriers such as skin and mucus membranes that separate internal cells and fluids from the external environment. This short exercise prepares...

Courses: Anatomy-Physiology

structureAnatomybarriers