CourseSource: Resources

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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

Teaching Tools and Strategies

714

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133

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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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2975

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502

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A Student-Led Hearing on the Use of HeLa Cells in Research

In this role-playing case study, students will learn about the HeLa cell line and its origins while examining multiple perspectives surrounding the cell line and its uses. The goal of this case study is for students to use guided questions to...

Courses: Cell Biology Science Process Skills

bioethicsscience policycell culturedebateHeLa cellsinformed consentrole playsocial justice issues

Teaching Tools and Strategies

4492

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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

2121

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161

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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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925

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What do Bone and Silly Putty® have in Common?: A Lesson on Bone Viscoelasticity

Without the use of real-life examples and models, actively instructing and engaging students in complex physiology topics related to bone biomechanics can be challenging. In our large-enrollment Human Physiology & Anatomy courses at the...

Courses: Anatomy-Physiology

structure-functioninjuryAnisotropyHysteresisSkeletal SystemViscoelasticity

Teaching Tools and Strategies

853

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173

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Making toast: Using analogies to explore concepts in bioinformatics

Contemporary biology is moving towards heavy reliance on computational methods to manage, find patterns, and derive meaning from large-scale data, such as genomic sequences. Biology teachers are increasingly compelled to prepare students with...

Courses: Bioinformatics

bioinformaticsworkflowgenome

Teaching Tools and Strategies

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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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6026

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Exploring the City of Biofilms: An Engaging Analogy-Based Activity for Students to Learn Biofilms

Multicellular biofilms constructed by microbes are key aspects of microbiology with significant implications in various fields, including medicine, environmental science, and biotechnology. While bacteria spend nearly all their lives in biofilms,...

Courses: Microbiology

bacteriaBiofilmsquorum sensing

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1557

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275

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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

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2706

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505

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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: Bioinformatics

bioinformaticsgenomicscodingJupyter notebookcommand lineCyVersescriptingnext generation sequencing analysis

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1726

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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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1351

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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

1634

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638

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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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2771

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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

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

Teaching Tools and Strategies

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Enhancing the Microscopy Skills of Non-Science Majors and Nursing Microbiology Students: Promoting the Practice of Observing Multiple Fields of View Using Blood Smear Slides

One of the challenges in teaching microscopy is having students scan multiple fields of view at high power magnification. Many times, students will feel this unnecessary, especially when presented with slides that show only one structure or a...

Courses: Introductory Biology Microbiology

Microscopy SkillsBlood SmearsBlood Disorders

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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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1501

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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

Teaching Tools and Strategies

1885

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An Interactive Protocol for In-Classroom DNA Extraction

Using commonly available materials, this tool allows students to extract DNA, exploring DNA chemistry and the principles of experimental design and execution. We take a “Choose Your Own Adventure” approach encouraging students to...

Courses: Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Genetics Introductory Biology

geneticsDNAbiochemical structure and function