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    Teaching Tools and Strategies
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    Undergraduates Learn Evolution Through Teaching Kindergartners About Blind Mexican Cavefish
    The development and implementation of a scientific outreach activity comes with a number of challenges. A successful outreach event must match the sophistication of content to the audience, be engaging, expand the knowledge base for participants,...

    Courses: EcologyEcology EvolutionEvolution GeneticsGenetics Introductory BiologyIntroductory Biology

    Evolutionecologymorphologysensory biologycave biologycomparative biologyenvironmental differencesregressive lossstructure and function
    Lesson
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    Using a Sequential Interpretation of Data in Envelopes (SIDE) approach to identify a mystery TRP channel
    This lesson sought to engage students in data interpretation and to encourage critical thinking about neurophysiology in the context of temperature sensation. A family of receptors called Transient Receptor Potential (TRP) channels are activated...

    Courses: Anatomy-PhysiologyAnatomy-Physiology Cell BiologyCell Biology NeurobiologyNeurobiology

    Cell communicationChannel specificity and activationLimitations of tools of Cell BiologyNeuronal Signaling
    Teaching Tools and Strategies
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    SCIENCE/Fiction: Modular Template for Class Design
    We present a modular scaffold for designing an introductory seminar using speculative fiction and science papers to welcome university undergraduates to the biology major. A list of twelve possible topics is included, such as Memory, Parasites,...

    Courses: Anatomy-PhysiologyAnatomy-Physiology Biochemistry and Molecular BiologyBiochemistry and Molecular Biology Cell BiologyCell Biology EvolutionEvolution GeneticsGenetics Introductory BiologyIntroductory Biology NeurobiologyNeurobiology

    geneticscell biologyneurosciencesystems biologyScience Fiction
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    Exploring Miracle Fruit: An Undergraduate Laboratory Exercise on Experimental Design
    In recent years, undergraduate biology and biochemistry curricula have seen an increase in the use of course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs). CUREs maximize potential student gains when students take an active role in experimental...

    Courses: Biochemistry and Molecular BiologyBiochemistry and Molecular Biology Science Process SkillsScience Process Skills

    sensory systemspHProtein shapeTaste
    LessonPlus
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    Keep It Shrimple: An Adaptable Student-Driven Research Project for the Introductory Biology Laboratory
    A challenge in introductory biology laboratory courses is to provide students with authentic, engaging research opportunities that allow them to take ownership of their experiments. We present a nine-week introductory biology module that allows...

    Courses: Introductory BiologyIntroductory Biology Science Process SkillsScience Process Skills

    hypothesis testingexperimental designanimal behaviorbrine shrimp
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    Using a Primary Cell Culture Model to Study the Neural Extracellular Matrix
    The extracellular matrix (ECM) provides structural support to cells, but also has key roles in mediating cell adhesion, cell signaling, and differentiation. While this topic is discussed in the lecture setting, it is not heavily studied in...

    Courses: Cell BiologyCell Biology NeurobiologyNeurobiology

    Neural extracellular matrixPerineuronal netPrimary neuronal culture
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    Sequences and Properties of Gluten Proteins From Different Grains: A Virtual-Friendly Protein Laboratory
    The COVID-19 pandemic has forced much university instruction into virtual modes. As a result, many laboratory courses have either dropped content altogether or replaced hands-on activities with simulations and “dry” labs. Our goal was...

    Courses: Biochemistry and Molecular BiologyBiochemistry and Molecular Biology BioinformaticsBioinformatics

    protein structure and functionProtein sequenceintermolecular forcesBiomacromolecules
    Lesson
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    1131

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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: GeneticsGenetics Science Process SkillsScience Process Skills

    meiosismitosissex determinationAsexual reproductionParthenogenesis
    Lesson
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    Gotcha! Which fly trap is the best? An introduction to experimental data collection and analysis
    Collecting data from experimental observations is an important component of the scientific process; likewise, the analysis of the data is essential to understanding the observed trends and patterns from any experiment. Allowing students to...

    Courses: Biochemistry and Molecular BiologyBiochemistry and Molecular Biology Introductory BiologyIntroductory Biology Science Process SkillsScience Process Skills

    data analysisexperimental designdata collectionfruit fliesfly traps
    Lesson
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    A Kinesthetic Modeling Activity to Teach PCR Fundamentals
    Most molecular biology and biological sciences students understand that the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is used to amplify DNA. However, we have found that some students experience conceptual misunderstandings, a lack of detailed comprehension...

    Courses: GeneticsGenetics Science Process SkillsScience Process Skills

    PCR
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    The Leaky Neuron: Understanding synaptic integration using an analogy involving leaky cups
    Students have difficulty understanding synaptic integration in neural circuits, and how spatial and temporal summation combine in a target neuron to reach threshold.  This Lesson uses small cups of water to represent excitatory postsynaptic...

    Courses: NeurobiologyNeurobiology

    neuron physiologyspatial summationsynaptic integrationtemporal summationthreshold
    LessonPlus
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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
    2019

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    390

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    Dynamic Daphnia: An inquiry-based research experience in ecology that teaches the scientific process to first-year biologists
    This authentic research experience lesson teaches the core concept of systems and the competencies of quantitative reasoning, communication, and the ability to apply science. The research is student driven, the results are unknown, and the...

    Courses: EcologyEcology Introductory BiologyIntroductory Biology Science Process SkillsScience Process Skills

    statisticsecologyscientific methodexperimental designAbiotic and Biotic FactorsDependent and Independent Variables
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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-PhysiologyAnatomy-Physiology

    structure-functioninjuryAnisotropyHysteresisSkeletal SystemViscoelasticity
    Essay
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    Teaching about fatherless snakes in a prison classroom
    Developing a course for the first time as a graduate student is challenging. When I first taught introductory biology with the Cornell Prison Education Program, I struggled to design and adapt lessons that felt relevant to my students....

    Courses: GeneticsGenetics Introductory BiologyIntroductory Biology

    meiosismitosisReproduction
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    The Developmental Origins of Mythology: A Pandemic-Inspired Innovative Developmental Biology Laboratory Exercise
    From an experiential, hands-on perspective, the Developmental Biology Laboratory is easily amenable to a wide range of undergraduate-friendly experiments. Thus, pivoting to a virtual laboratory during the COVID-19 pandemic required significant...

    Courses: Developmental BiologyDevelopmental Biology

    gastrulationaxis formationlimb developmentchimeramidline
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    Evaluating Representation in Science Through a Peer-Reviewed Research Study
    The demographic representation of scientists featured in biology curricular materials do not match that of the undergraduate biology student population or of the U.S. population. In this lesson, we promote awareness of inequity in science through...

    Courses: Introductory BiologyIntroductory Biology

    societyRepresentationSTEM equity
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    677

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    Teaching Cancer Biology Through a Lens of Social Justice
    The biology classroom is not separate from the greater context of society; social issues can and should be presented in connection with the content. Here we present an example of antiracist teaching using the molecular/cellular biology of cancer...

    Courses: Cell BiologyCell Biology

    assessmentcancersocial justicePOGILAlignmentPublic ExamPublic
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    From Cre/LoxP to Fate Maps: Inclusive and Equitable Approaches for Engaging Developmental Biology Students in Experimental Design
    Engaging first generation underrepresented minority students in the process of inquiry in developmental biology is important to increase diversity in future graduate STEM education. One important challenge is how we design curricula to foster...

    Courses: Developmental BiologyDevelopmental Biology

    experimental designC. elegansCre/LoxPFate mapheart developmentheart regenerationmousereporter constructzebrafish
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    Three Research-Based Quantitative Reasoning Modules for Introductory Organismal Biology Laboratories
    We have designed three laboratory modules for an introductory organismal biology course with an emphasis on quantitative reasoning and data analysis skills. Module 1 tests for dimorphism in crayfish chelae using a paired statistical design. Module...

    Courses: Introductory BiologyIntroductory Biology Science Process SkillsScience Process Skills

    allometryplantsAnatomytranspirationdimorphisminvertebrate biologyarthropodsplatyhelminths