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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
    1755

    views

    353

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    0

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    Squirrels in Space: Using Radio Telemetry to Explore the Space Use and Movement of Sciurid Rodents
    Biotelemetry is used by researchers to track the interactions of animals with each other and the environment. While advancing technology has led to the development of numerous biotelemetry tools, radio telemetry remains the most common method for...

    Courses: EcologyEcology

    DispersalHabitat selectionHome rangeSquirrel-Net
    Lesson
    3241

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    634

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    Sorry to Eat and Run: A Lesson Plan for Testing Trade-off in Squirrel Behavior Using Giving Up Densities (GUDs)
    All animals need to find and compete for food, shelter, and mates in order to survive and reproduce. They also need to avoid being eaten by predators. Optimal foraging theory provides a framework to examine the trade-offs individuals make while...

    Courses: EcologyEcology EvolutionEvolution Science Process SkillsScience Process Skills

    ecologyanimal behaviorAnimal form and functionAnimal nutritionSquirrel-Net
    Lesson
    4300

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    1254

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    0

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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: EcologyEcology GeneticsGenetics Introductory BiologyIntroductory Biology Science Process SkillsScience Process Skills

    EvolutionconservationGenetic DriftSpeciationNatural SelectionBiological species conceptgene flowMorphological species conceptPhylogenetic species concept
    Lesson
    3880

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    436

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    0

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    Is Earth Currently Undergoing a Sixth Mass Extinction?
    The five Phanerozoic mass extinctions were central in shaping biodiversity on Earth today. Due to increasing biodiversity losses, there is debate about whether we are currently undergoing a sixth mass extinction. To help students better understand...

    Courses: EcologyEcology EvolutionEvolution Introductory BiologyIntroductory Biology

    conservationBiodiversityextinctionMass ExtinctionDeep Time
    Lesson
    3544

    views

    504

    downloads

    0

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    How Many Squirrels Are in the Shrubs? A Lesson Plan for Comparing Methods for Population Estimation
    Estimating the population sizes of animals is a key skill for any student interested in ecology, conservation, or management. However, counting animals in natural habitats is difficult, and the many techniques that exist each rely on assumptions...

    Courses: EcologyEcology Introductory BiologyIntroductory Biology Professional Development and Career PlanningProfessional Development and Career Planning Science Process SkillsScience Process Skills

    population ecologywildlife managementpopulation estimationsciuridaeSquirrel-Net
    Lesson
    3458

    views

    847

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    0

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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
    LessonPlus
    2066

    views

    169

    downloads

    0

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    The Power of Place: A Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experience Studying Urban Ecology, Local Apple Trees and Disease Susceptibility
    Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs) offered early in an undergraduate student’s career have the potential to include a greater number and diversity of students than one-on-one mentored research. CUREs that use a...

    Courses: EcologyEcology

    Disease ecologyurban ecologyUrban food forestsUrban heat islandsGenetic resistance
    Lesson
    3119

    views

    1080

    downloads

    0

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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
    847

    views

    78

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    0

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    Learning the Landscape: An Active and Applied Lesson on Landscape Ecology for General Ecology Courses
    Landscape ecology is an important subtopic of ecology. As a field, it is inherently interdisciplinary and provides opportunities to teach not only content, but transferable ecological and geographical skills. Given the broad spectrum of topics in...

    Courses: EcologyEcology

    landscape ecologyspatial scaleecosystem managementHabitat fragmentation
    Lesson
    2370

    views

    276

    downloads

    0

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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: EcologyEcology EvolutionEvolution GeneticsGenetics

    Evolutionartificial selectionSpeciationextinctionsexual selectionphylogenetic treesmechanisms of evolution
    Teaching Tools and Strategies
    5664

    views

    175

    downloads

    0

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    Walkabout: An Easy to Use, Experiential Learning Activity for Applying Abstract Concepts to the Real-World
    Students can have difficulty recognizing examples of course concepts in the real-world. They particularly struggle with phenomena that are ambiguously defined, have mimics, or are hard to distinguish from other phenomena. Students can better...

    Courses: EcologyEcology Science Process SkillsScience Process Skills

    data gatheringgreen technologyobservations
    Essay
    2824

    views

    264

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    0

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    An Introduction to the Squirrel-Net Teaching Modules
    Although course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) are gaining popularity in biology, most are designed for benchwork-based laboratory courses while few focus on field-based skills. Many barriers to implementing field CUREs exist,...

    Courses: EcologyEcology

    ecologybehaviortrade-offsScientific ProcessSquirrel-Net
    Lesson
    3757

    views

    553

    downloads

    0

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    Knowing your own: A classroom case study using the scientific method to investigate how birds learn to recognize their offspring
    Understanding the scientific method provides students with a necessary foundation for careers in science-related fields. Moreover, students can apply scientific inquiry skills in many aspects of their daily lives and decision making. Thus, the...

    Courses: EvolutionEvolution Introductory BiologyIntroductory Biology Science Process SkillsScience Process Skills

    scientific methodNatural Selectionbrood parasitism
    Lesson
    4044

    views

    72

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    0

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    The Great Petunia Carnage of 2017: A Clicker Case Study Using Petunias to Describe the Effect of Genetic Modification on the Biochemistry of Flower Color and Phenotype in Plants
    In this single class period case study, students examine the difference between genotype and phenotype by studying the mechanisms by which commercially available petunias have been bred to have different phenotypes (flower colors). Students review...

    Courses: GeneticsGenetics Introductory BiologyIntroductory Biology Plant BiologyPlant Biology

    case studyGenetic ModificationsBiochemistry of Flower ColorGMO regulationsGenotype-Phenotype Connections
    Lesson
    2074

    views

    303

    downloads

    0

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    Debating Conservation: Developing Critical Thinking Skills in Introductory Biology Classes
    Role-playing activities in the classroom promote students’ critical thinking, research, and communication skills. We present an activity where students debate a current controversy in conservation. In our case study, students debate the...

    Courses: EcologyEcology Introductory BiologyIntroductory Biology

    Restorationtrophic cascadeecosystem function
    Lesson
    1694

    views

    462

    downloads

    0

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    Ain't No Mountain Pine Enough: A Case Study of How Mountain Pine Beetles are Affecting Ecosystem Processes
    This case study engages students in generating hypotheses and predictions, analyzing and interpreting data, critically evaluating contrasting results in science, and thinking about feedbacks between biota and abiotic ecosystem dynamics. To address...

    Courses: EcologyEcology

    population biologycarbon cyclingSpecies-habitat interactions
    Lesson
    1625

    views

    241

    downloads

    0

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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 BiologyDevelopmental Biology GeneticsGenetics

    mathematical modelhomologous recombinationCre/loxgene targeting
    Lesson
    1222

    views

    64

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    0

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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 BiologyBiochemistry and Molecular Biology Cell BiologyCell Biology EvolutionEvolution GeneticsGenetics Introductory BiologyIntroductory Biology MicrobiologyMicrobiology Science Process SkillsScience Process Skills

    Evolutionbiologycellprocess of science
    Lesson
    417

    views

    35

    downloads

    0

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    Space Mission Ecology: Making Connections Among Science Disciplines Through the Lens of a Unique Plant
    With this case study, we aim to increase awareness of essential services plants provide to society, as well as the importance of fundamental aspects of ecology for other disciplines and the interconnectedness among different fields of science in...

    Courses: EcologyEcology Introductory BiologyIntroductory Biology Plant BiologyPlant Biology Science Process SkillsScience Process Skills

    ecologycollaborationplant biologyScience CommunicationBioregenerative Life SupportInterdisciplinary Connections