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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

    Lesson
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    Bacteria to Brains in Backyard Coyotes: An Interdisciplinary Pedagogical Case Study
    Our interdisciplinary pedagogical case study explores the differences between rural and urban coyotes at the levels of organismal and community ecology. The focus is on how coyotes’ gut microbiomes could affect their behavior via...
    Lesson
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    Small Organisms with Big Consequences: Understanding the Microbial World Around Us
    Creating a hands-on lab that conveys important information while simultaneously allowing for student autonomy can be difficult. This is particularly true for the field of microbiology, in which labs often rely on “recipe-style”...
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    Exploring Species Interactions with "Snapshot Serengeti"
    Authentic learning experiences are a valuable way for students to gain an in-depth understanding of the scientific process. However, implementing such experiences in large enrollment courses can be challenging. Here, we present a community ecology...

    Courses: EcologyEcology

    Lesson
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    Teaching epidemiology and principles of infectious disease using popular media and the case of Typhoid Mary
    Allied health students often struggle to understand how particular content, such as epidemiology, connects to their future careers. This activity uses the case of Typhoid Mary as a foundation for exploring epidemiology and infectious disease...
    Lesson
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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...
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    A CURE for Salmonella: A Laboratory Course in Pathogen Microbiology and Genomics
    Rapid advances in genomics and bioinformatics, the vast amount of data generated by next-generation sequencing, and the penetration of the ‘-omics’ into many areas of biology have created a need for students with hands-on experience with...
    Lesson
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    SEAS CURE: Exploring Coral Biology Across Scales
    Complex biological concepts (like symbiosis and coral biology) that span multiple scales and cross disciplinary boundaries are often difficult for students to understand. This complexity is compounded by the challenges inherent to teaching and...
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    A CRISPR/Cas Guide RNA Design In Silico Activity
    CRISPR biotechnologies inspired by the Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeat RNA-guided nuclease adaptive bacterial immune system have revolutionized biology research and become ubiquitous tools for hypothesis and...
    Lesson
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    Using Student Perceptions and Cooperative Learning to Unpack Primary Literature on Global Change
    This case describes a three-part assignment in which students discuss key processes that regulate the stability and resilience of the Earth system and our increased risk of generating large-scale abrupt or irreversible environmental changes. Here,...

    Courses: EcologyEcology

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    Problem-Based Learning for Physiology: Synthesizing the Cardiovascular System, Respiration, Macronutrient Metabolism, and Renal Function
    Problem Based Learning (PBL) is a valuable tool for helping students overcome reliance on memorization by scaffolding opportunities for them to practice the competency of “systems thinking,” which is the ability to understand...
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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

    Lesson
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    Moths and Frogs and E. coli, Oh My!: Agent-based Modeling of Evolutionary Systems
    In evolution classrooms, introducing and reinforcing the idea of genetic drift and random selection can be challenging, as can be reinforcing appropriate mental models of evolution. Agent-based models offer students the opportunity to conduct a...
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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...
    Essay
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    Designing an Asynchronous, Self-Led Aquatic Ecology Field Trip
    Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and increasing need to teach students online, aquatic scientists are looking for ways to give students field experiences virtually. Asynchronous, self-led field trips are emerging as a solution. However, due to the...

    Courses: EcologyEcology

    Science Behind the Lesson
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    The Science Behind the ACTN3 Polymorphism
    A common polymorphism in the alpha-actinin-3 (ACTN3) gene results in the lack of ACTN3 protein expression in fast twitch muscle fibers in ~16% of the human population (1). This genetic change has been linked with muscle performance in humans (2)...
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    CURE-all: Large Scale Implementation of Authentic DNA Barcoding Research into First-Year Biology Curriculum
    Growing calls in science education reform have emphasized wide-scale engagement of first-year undergraduate students in authentic research experiences; however, large course enrollments, inadequate student experience, limited resources and...
    Essay
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    Implementing active learning approaches into an upper-division biology course
    In this essay, we present our strategy for implementing active learning strategies into an upper division course on Human Genetics. Our principal goal was to shift from a traditional didactic course design, to one that more clearly placed the...
    Lesson
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    Marsh Madness: Using Video Games and a Case Study to Explore Food Webs and Ecosystem Services in Carpinteria Salt Marsh Reserve
    As the complexity and interconnectedness of our world increases, we are continually expected to be capable of complex, non-linear thinking in order to successfully tackle and solve the challenges we face in the 21st century. Tackling these...

    Courses: EcologyEcology

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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...