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    The Lecture-Free Classroom: Teaching students backward design and Bloom's Taxonomy to create their own learning environment
    We describe Presentation Enhanced Learning (PEL), a flexible, lecture-free, field-tested teaching format to promote problem-based, active learning in upper-division or graduate biological sciences courses.  PEL may be implemented as a single,...
    active learningbackward designProblem based learningBloom's Taxonomy
    Teaching Tools and Strategies
    1525

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    623

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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: EvolutionEvolution

    Evolutionactive learningNatural Selectiongroup workmisconceptions
    Lesson
    2589

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    450

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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...
    PCR
    Essay
    846

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    83

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    An Active Textbook Converts "Vision and Tweak" to Vision and Change
    Multiple reports over more than a century have documented the problems with the way introductory biology has been taught in most colleges and universities. An influential recent report, Vision and Change in Undergraduate Biology Education, has...
    Vision and Changeactive learningintroductory biologyFlipped classroomUndergraduatecore competenciescore conceptsactive textbookcurriculum reform
    Teaching Tools and Strategies
    975

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    118

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    An Open Source, Collaborative Electronic Notebook for Undergraduate Laboratory Classes
    To overcome many of the limitations of the paper laboratory notebook (PLN), we developed an electronic laboratory notebook (e-LN) for the Dynamic Genome course at the University of California. The Dynamic Genome course is an authentic research...
    data collectionData annotationNotebook Skills
    Lesson
    1272

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    485

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    Building a Model of Tumorigenesis: A small group activity for a cancer biology/cell biology course
    The multistep nature of tumorigenesis is a foundational concept in the context of Cancer Biology. Many students do not appreciate the complex nature of cancer development nor do they understand how scientists are able to unravel the molecular...
    pathwayscancerMolecular AlterationsRetrospective dataTumorigenesis
    Lesson
    1757

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    813

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    Exploration of the Human Genome by Investigation of Personalized SNPs
    Students often shy away from tedious bioinformatics approaches to exploring their genomes. However, in our expanding digital world these skills are some of the most relevant and valuable. To increase students' interest in their own genomes, I...
    UCSC genome browsersingle nucleotide polymorphismGenome wide association studiesGenomic organization
    Teaching Tools and Strategies
    666

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    120

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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
    1274

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    132

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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...
    quantitative biologyHIVmultiplicity of infectionPoisson DistributionPhysics for biologists
    Lesson
    7563

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    1033

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    0

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    Lights, Camera, Acting Transport! Using role-play to teach membrane transport
    Lights, Camera, Acting Transport! is an active and unique role-play exercise designed to teach introductory biology students basic concepts of passive and active membrane transport. The activity involves three acts in which students, representing...
    ATPcarrierschannelsco-transportelectrogenic pumpfacilitated diffusionmembrane transportpassive transportprimary active transportsimple diffusion
    Lesson
    1765

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    540

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    Using Undergraduate Molecular Biology Labs to Discover Targets of miRNAs in Humans
    Incorporating authentic research experiences into undergraduate labs, while shown to be particularly effective at engaging and retaining students in STEM majors, can be difficult to accomplish within the constraints of resource availability or...
    gene regulationmicroRNAsgene expression
    Lesson
    1633

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    423

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    Why do Some People Inherit a Predisposition to Cancer? A small group activity on cancer genetics
    Before undergraduate students take a genetics course they generally know cancer has a genetic basis and involves the proliferation of cells; however, many are uncertain about why only a subset of people have a predisposition to cancer and how that...
    cancerInheritance patternsProbability calculationProto-oncogeneTumor Suppressor Gene
    Lesson
    3191

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    534

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    Teaching RNAseq at Undergraduate Institutions: A tutorial and R package from the Genome Consortium for Active Teaching
    Next-generation sequencing is radically changing the study of biology, but there are currently few resources aimed at teaching the required laboratory and data-analysis skills to undergraduate students. This gap is especially true at primarily...
    statisticsbioinformaticsRNAseqgene expressioncomputer programming
    Lesson
    2077

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    262

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    You and Your Oral Microflora: Introducing non-biology majors to their “forgotten organ”
    With limited time available for laboratory activities, introductory science courses for non-science majors typically use the laboratory period to reinforce material that was previously presented during lecture. This practice was true of a human...
    bacteriamicrobiomeBLASTmicrobesDNA replicationPolymerase chain reaction (PCR)
    Lesson
    1158

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    486

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    Using Pathway Maps to Link Concepts, Peer Review, Primary Literature Searches and Data Assessment in Large Enrollment Classes: An example from teaching ecosystem ecology
    As with many other complex topics, teaching ecosystem ecology can be particularly difficult in terms of helping students understand the relationships between the various component parts. We addressed this challenge in a general ecology course by...
    energyecosystemNutrientsPathway
    Science Behind the Lesson
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    200

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    The Science Behind Parthenogenesis: Interesting things happen when meiosis goes “wrong”
    Parthenogenetic reproduction is a fascinating, complex topic.  This article accompanies “Why Meiosis Matters: The case of the fatherless snake.” It summarizes the basic information an introductory biology or genetics instructor...
    meiosismitosissex determinationAsexual reproductionParthenogenesis
    Review
    1350

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    124

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    The Magic of Doctopus: A quick and easy way to deliver pre-named, pre-shared Google documents directly to your students’ Google drive
    Cloud-based applications, such as Google Docs, enable authors to collaboratively write and edit documents, spreadsheets, and other products.  Such collaborations can provide powerful learning opportunities for students.  Typically,...
    metacognitiontechnologyGoogle Doc
    Lesson
    2398

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    599

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    The Case of the Missing Strawberries: RFLP analysis
    While solving the fictional mystery of the missing strawberries, students are engaged in a guided-inquiry lesson featuring small-group and class discussions, hands-on activities, and laboratory exercises related to molecular genotyping by...
    process of scienceDNAforensicsgel electrophoresisMolecular genotypingRestriction endonucleaseRestriction enzymeRestriction fragment length polymorphismRFLP
    Teaching Tools and Strategies
    2361

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    227

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    The 4-Minute Summary: Helping students recall, recap and explain the big picture... and much more!
    Actively engaging students during a lecture class can come through many formats.  The 4-Minute Summary is a versatile pedagogy that can be readily applied to any class format (e.g., traditional, flipped), any class size, and any...
    active learningDiscussionLarge classSummary
    Lesson
    1425

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    438

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    Sex-specific differences in Meiosis: Real-world applications
    In traditional classrooms, students are typically presented with facts that they are asked to memorize and recall during an exam.  The rapid explosion of available scientific facts in recent years has made this model of teaching...
    meiosisReproductionAneuploidyGameteNon-disjunctionOocyteSpermTrisomy