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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
    2712

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    964

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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: EcologyEcology Introductory BiologyIntroductory Biology Science Process SkillsScience Process Skills

    foragingbehaviorbehavioral ecologySciuridSquirrelSquirrel-NetTrade-offVigilance
    Lesson
    2873

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    859

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    1

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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: GeneticsGenetics

    Mendelian Geneticsfruit fly biologysex-linked inheritance
    Lesson
    1351

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    139

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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
    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 SkillsScience Process Skills

    gamificationscientific writingE-LearningInstant FeedbackInteractive LearningReading Scientific PapersVIdeo/computer game
    Lesson
    3331

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    736

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    Breaking Bricks: A Hands-On Model of Enzyme Kinetics and Inhibition
    Enzyme kinetics and the impacts of inhibitors on the enzyme's maximal velocity and ability to bind substrates are important topics in cell biology and biochemistry. However, these topics can be difficult for students to grasp when instructed...

    Courses: Biochemistry and Molecular BiologyBiochemistry and Molecular Biology Cell BiologyCell Biology

    kineticsEnzymecompetitive inhibition
    Teaching Tools and Strategies
    3204

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    102

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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 BiologyIntroductory Biology MicrobiologyMicrobiology

    Microscopy SkillsBlood SmearsBlood Disorders
    Lesson
    4197

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    1172

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    Dilution and Pipetting Lesson Using Food Dyes
    In this lesson students learn how to use micropipettors to accurately measure small volumes of liquids and perform dilutions using food dyes. Students dilute four food dyes at 10X concentration to 1X working stocks. Using the formula c1v1=c2v2...

    Courses: Science Process SkillsScience Process Skills

    dilutionCalculationLab SkillsMicropipetting
    Teaching Tools and Strategies
    714

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    133

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    0

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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: EvolutionEvolution

    Evolutionecologyextinctionadaptive radiationdiversification
    Lesson
    2706

    views

    505

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    2

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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: BioinformaticsBioinformatics

    bioinformaticsgenomicscodingJupyter notebookcommand lineCyVersescriptingnext generation sequencing analysis
    Lesson
    3302

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    886

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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
    6026

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    195

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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: MicrobiologyMicrobiology

    bacteriaBiofilmsquorum sensing
    Lesson
    1501

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    358

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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 BiologyBiochemistry and Molecular Biology Science Process SkillsScience Process Skills

    pHdrug uptakeHenderson-Hasslbalch equationmedical applicationspKa
    Lesson
    1418

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    726

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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 SkillsScience Process Skills

    bacteriophageDNA extractionGel analysisPhage purificationTiter calculationViral replicative growth
    Teaching Tools and Strategies
    925

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    98

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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 BiologyIntroductory Biology

    foundational knowledgegraphical interpretationtechnical terms
    Lesson
    2771

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    277

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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 BiologyDevelopmental Biology GeneticsGenetics

    mutationProtein Structureethicscentral dogmahuman disease
    Teaching Tools and Strategies
    2780

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    446

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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 SkillsScience Process Skills

    data analysisprimary literaturescientific writingcommunicating science
    Teaching Tools and Strategies
    2642

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    349

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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-BasedIntroductory Physics: Calculus-Based

    active learninggamificationmisconceptionsaerodynamicsfluid dynamicsResearch-based assessment instrumentConceptual SurveyPRE-/POST-test
    Lesson
    3383

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    935

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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: EcologyEcology EvolutionEvolution GeneticsGenetics Plant BiologyPlant Biology

    EvolutionfitnessNatural Selectionheritability
    Teaching Tools and Strategies
    4437

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    386

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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 BiologyBiochemistry and Molecular Biology GeneticsGenetics Introductory BiologyIntroductory Biology Science Process SkillsScience Process Skills

    laboratorymolecular biologyUndergraduateprotocolflowchart