Below are links to our partner groups on QUBES who have resources that are ready to implement in online settings. Note that many of these resources have adaptations that are also suitable for online courses. Check back often for updates!
Dendroclimatologists can reconstruct climate records further into the past than written records, by examining tree rings. Students "reverse-engineer" this process by considering growth rates of a tree species in response to various...
This module allows students to follow a researcher as she discovers new features of breast cancer tissue architecture, using 3D reconstructions of histological specimens.
Students predict changes to tadpole morphology and coloration after considering characteristics of the predator species and the prey themselves then test their own hypotheses (typically with t-tests or ANOVA) by collecting novel data via image...
This module introduces students to leaf-cutter ants in the rainforests of Panama. Students derive their own research hypotheses regarding ant foraging or allometric scaling relationships.
Avida-ED is an award-winning educational application developed at Michigan State University for undergraduate biology courses to help students learn about evolution and scientific method by allowing them to design and perform experiments to test hypotheses about evolutionary mechanisms using evolving digital organisms. Read more about using Avida-ED in a blog post by Jim Smith
The Biology Students Math Attitudes and Anxiety Program is a resource for educators who are looking to implement non-invasive techniques to change student attitudes and reduce anxiety towards math.
Biodiversity Literacy in Undergraduate Education - Data Initiative (BLUE Data) is a community of biodiversity, data, and education specialists who are working together to identify core biodiversity data competencies for undergraduates, develop strategies for integrating these competencies into the introductory biology curriculum, and build capacity for sustained development and implementation of biodiversity and data literacy education.
This module uses digitized natural history and biodiversity collections to explore if, how, and whether disability can be studied in nonhumans as a form of biodiversity.
Adapted for online learning: In this lab, you will explore the physics of flight, the adaptations that make powered flight possible, and the evolution of powered flight in vertebrates and invertebrates.
Working collaboratively in teams of 2-4 researchers, students engage in targeted projects to address critical information and research needs using digital biodiversity data.
Collections based research is a critical tool for organismal biology and biodiversity research. Yet natural history collections have a complicated past. This multi-class module examines the origins, problems, and current uses of collections.
natural history, collections, digital resources, OER, Biodiversity, natural history museums, digital collections, birds, Biodiversity Collections Network (BCoN), BLUE
In this module, students practice interpreting the relationship between variables before exploring changes in butterfly phenology through the use of natural history collections data.
Anna Monfils, Debra Linton, Libby Ellwood, Molly Phillips
Version: 1.0
In this module, students will be introduced to some emerging biodiversity data resources. They will be asked to think critically about the strengths and utility of these data resources and apply what they have learned to research question.
A module to explore aggregated observation and collection information, through BISON, or Biodiversity Information Serving Our Nation (https://bison.usgs.gov), a tool for visualizing GBIF data.
BSA is a nonprofit membership society. Their mission is to: promote botany, the field of basic science dealing with the study and inquiry into the form, function, development, diversity, reproduction, evolution, and uses of plants and their interactions within the biosphere.
Data Nuggets are free classroom activities, co-designed by scientists and teachers. They are an innovative approach to bring contemporary research and authentic data into the classroom. Data Nuggets include a connection to the scientist behind the data and the true story of their research process. Data Nuggets give students practice working with “messy data” and interpreting quantitative information. Students are guided through the entire process of science, including identifying hypotheses and predictions, visualizing and interpreting data, making evidence based claims, and asking their own questions for future research. Because of their simplicity and flexibility, Data Nuggets can be used throughout the school year, and across grades K-16, as students grow in their quantitative abilities and gain confidence. Data Nuggets have the potential to improve the understanding of science in society and help engage and motivate the next generation of scientists and engineers.
Minor modifications were made to this Data Nugget in order to use it in a fully online version of the introductory, non-majors botany course, Plants and People.
This publication contains the adaptations I made to the Data Nuggets module in order to use it with an online, introductory, non-majors botany class. I used this with a unit on natural and artificial selection in plants.
The Data Incubator Group focuses on promoting quantitative education through expanding the adoption of data-centric resources and facilitating large-scale collaboration on approaches to classroom implementation
This resource seeks to provide a quantitative platform by which students can be taught about interactive effects using the TIEE module created by Little (2018). Key to the adaptation is the use of a Shiny app to create figures and R output.
Students investigate the role of olfaction and infochemicals on bird foraging behavior through three different quantitative modules. In this module students create graphs, generate statistics, draw conclusions, and apply their knowledge.
Identifying, mapping and understanding the magnitude and the spatial prevalence of the Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs) such as chlamydia and gonorrhea diseases. Analyzing the spatial trends of the disease patterns at National, State and...
Resources @ ESA - TIEE, Disease ecology, fmn, DIG, human ecology and behavior, bacterial infections, spatial and temporal spread of disease, Geographic Information System (GIS)
This module explores the effects of host density on contact rates and transmission of pathogens or mutualist symbionts using a hands-on simulation, a computer agent-based model in NetLogo, and an authentic ecological dataset.
Earth Lab capitalizes on the data deluge from space and other platforms to accelerate science, reduce environmental risk, and train a new generation of earth data scientists. The Earth Lab Earth Analytics Education Initiative provides undergraduate, graduate, and professional students as well as online learners around the globe with core in-demand technical skills at the intersection of earth and environmental science and data science. All work is guided by a commitment to open and reproducible science, open education and expanding the reach of earth data science education to students across varying academic, professional, socio-economic and geographic dimensions.
Earth analytics is an intermediate, multidisciplinary course that addresses major questions in Earth science and teaches students to use the analytical tools necessary to undertake exploration of heterogeneous ‘big scientific data’.
data analysis, data, data types, data science, earth science, python, permafrost, remote sensing, floods, Geographic Information System (GIS), data science education, computer programming, wildfire, earth analytics
There are a suite of powerful open source python libraries that can be used to work with spatial data. Learn how to use geopandas, rasterio and matplotlib to plot and manipulate spatial data in Python.
data analysis, data, data types, data visualization, data science, earth science, python, remote sensing, Geographic Information System (GIS), data science education, computer programming, wildfire, earth anlaytics
data analysis, data, data types, data science, earth science, python, remote sensing, github, version control, data science education, computer programming, wildfire, earth analytics, v, geographic information systems
data analysis, data types, data visualization, data science, earth science, R programming language, remote sensing, Geographic Information System (GIS), data science education, computer programming, wildfire, earth analytics
Introduction to Earth Data Science is an online textbook for anyone new to open reproducible science and the Python programming language. There are no prerequisites for this material, and no prior programming knowledge is assumed.
data analysis, data, data types, data visualization, data science, earth science, python, remote sensing, Geographic Information System (GIS), data science education, computer programming, wildfire, earth analytics
Earth analytics is an advanced, multidisciplinary course that addresses major questions in Earth science and teaches students to use the analytical tools necessary to undertake exploration of heterogeneous ‘big scientific data.’
data analysis, data, data types, data visualization, data science, earth science, R programming language, remote sensing, Geographic Information System (GIS), data science education, computer programming, wildfire, earth analytics
The Earth Analytics Bootcamp is a three-week introductory-level course taught by instructors in Earth Lab and is a part of the Professional Certificate in Earth Data Analytics - Foundations at CU Boulder.
data analysis, data, data types, data visualization, data science, earth science, python, remote sensing, Geographic Information System (GIS), data science education, d, computer programming, wildfire, earth analytics
Growth in large ecological datasets and large environmental synthesis projects has resulted in the need for a diverse workforce with technical data science skills. A variety of organizations support underrepresented groups entering the data science field through training, mentoring, and networking opportunities. However, many of these initiatives have been developed in isolation, limiting opportunities for an exchange of ideas and lessons learned. The Environmental Data Science Inclusion Network (EDSIN) is intended to strengthen initiatives across existing alliances and organizations to recruit and retain individuals from underrepresented groups in data science careers.
The Ecological Society of America (ESA) is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization of scientists founded in 1915 to promote ecological science and improve the quality of ecology education at all levels.
This module is a modification of the Beckstead et al. module in TIEE Volume 7. It includes a meta-cognition based model and self reflection, no statistics, and is organized to be done in 1-2 lab/in-class periods (no advance reading, no homework).
This is a modification of the Linton et al. module in TIEE Volume 13. Students use data from digitized museum records of butterfly specimens in a modification with no homework (lab/workshop format) or statistics knowledge required.
Project EDDIE (Environmental Data-Driven Inquiry and Exploration) is a suite of education projects composed of STEM disciplinary and educational researchers. We develop flexible classroom teaching modules using large, publicly available datasets to engage students in STEM and improve their quantitative reasoning. Teaching modules span topics such as ecology, limnology, geology, hydrology, and environmental sciences. EDDIE also helps build the associated professional development needed to ensure effective use of the teaching modules.
This module introduces students who are already familiar with GIS to doing comparative analyses with large-scale community science (often called citizen science) data sets. Students will explore how we can use community science data to examine the spread and distribution of invasive species in different geographic locations. In the final step, students will identify different invasive species and determine if community science data accurately maps the threat these species pose.
Environmental health is a field of study within public health that is concerned with human-environment interactions, and specifically, how the environment influences public well-being. In this module, students will explore how environmental pollution impacts public health through comparing cancer rates of areas with known environmental pollutants to the national average through a t-test. Students can further their knowledge by comparing the concentrations of atmospheric pollutants in areas with known sources to control sites without such sources. Project EDDIE modules are designed with an A-B-C structure to make them flexible and adaptable to a range of student levels and course structures.
Runoff in urban areas is an increasingly important issue when it comes to water quality. It is a major hydrologic issue in New York City, as urban infrastructure creates excess runoff and impervious surfaces decrease the infiltration rate of land surfaces. This excess runoff, which often times carries with it pollutants and contaminants, has proven to create water quality issues. It has become ever more critical to try to mitigate the influx of runoff into our waterways. Urbanization increases runoff, and in NYC 64% of the area is impervious.
In this module students will explore green roofs as a potential solution to the environmental impacts of increased precipitation brought on by climate change. They will evaluate data collected from studies on 15 green roofs from different areas of the US and other countries, as well as historical precipitation data from Central Park in NY to illustrate how precipitation patterns are changing and if we need to use green infrastructure, such as green roofs, to combat the symptoms of climate change. Students will also use Model My Watershed , a watershed-modeling web app, to analyze real land use data, model storm-water runoff and water-quality i
As densely populated urban areas continue to expand, human activity is removing much-needed greenspaces from our communities; in turn, we are also removing critical buffers that are needed to combat air and water pollution, leaving cities vulnerable to a variety of health issues and potential infrastructure damage. In August of 2017, the Greater Houston area experienced a catastrophic flooding event, with Hurricane Harvey being designated as the wettest tropical cyclone ever recorded in US history. With many areas receiving 40" or more of rain, the rising flood waters had nowhere to go in a city covered in concrete, a barrier to natural infiltration. This caused over $125 billion in damage, with flood waters inundating hundreds of thousands of homes and displacing more than 30,000 people. In 2018, Katy High School responded by restoring an acre of public campus property to native Texas Gulf Coast prairie. The prairie will ultimately serve as an outdoor classroom for students, a greenspace for community outreach, and also as a natural retention area for future flooding events. Urban greenspaces, like the KHS Tiger Prairie, are mini-ecosystems that can potentially mitigate billions o
Aquatic ecosystems are home to a complex intersection of physical and biological factors and an intersection of natural and anthropogenic factors. In the Chesapeake Bay, low oxygen events have occurred periodically and may be connected with harmful algal blooms, fish kills, heavy flooding/runoff events, and warming temperatures. Careful monitoring of the system by the Chesapeake Bay Program since 1984 allows scientists and policymakers to evaluate the causes of the events and monitor improvements in the health of the ecosystem.
This module guides students in an examination of how surface ocean productivity relates to global climate on glacial-interglacial timescales and how the availability of ocean nutrients can be correlated with changes in productivity.
In this module, students will practice answering a specific question about how climate change has affected flowering date in American elm trees. Students can then practice on a species of their own interest.
This activity explores the question: which species will be most affected by temperature changes, and how will changes in the phenology of one species affect its interaction with others as the climate warms.
Christopher Berg, Julie Elliott, Beth Pratt-Sitaula
Version: 1.0
Students work with high precision GPS data to explore how motion near a plate boundary is distributed over a larger region and hypothesize the area over which boundary-related earthquake hazards might exist. Primary emphasis is strike-slip regions.
Students will explore different possible abiotic drivers of plant growth, defined as greenness and height. In the final step, students will analyze data from around the United States and consider macroscale patterns of vegetation controls.
In this module, students will use an analytical framework with publicly available data to formulate questions, analyze data, and report metrics of sustainability.
This module introduces students to the concepts of Ekman transport, eastern boundary currents, and upwelling, while learning how to find a location on a map using latitude and longitude, how to build and interpret a wind rose plot in Excel.
N E Bader, T. Meixner, C. A. Gibson, Catherine O'Reilly, D. N. Castendyk
Version: 1.0
Stream discharge is a fundamental measure of water supply in stream systems. Low discharge may cause problems with water supply and fish passage, while high discharge may mean flooding. In this module, students explore real-time stream discharge...
Students explore new modeling and computing tools while learning fundamental concepts about how lake phytoplankton blooms occur through cross-scale interactions.
Genome Solver began in 2012 with the goal to create a community of undergraduate educators interested in the Human Microbiome Project (HMP) as a means to teach the fundamentals of bioinformatics. Since then, Genome Solver instructors have provided training to more than 250 faculty members from approximately 125 institutions in a 1- or 2-day workshop. All Genome Solver curriculum materials are available on QUBES.
Genome Solver began as a way to teach undergraduate faculty some basic skills in bioinformatics; no coding or scripting is required. Lesson III introduces Annotation, or assigning meaning to all the A's, C's, T's, and G's.
Genome Solver began as a way to teach undergraduate faculty some basic skills in bioinformatics; no coding or scripting is required. Lesson II introduces the principal databases for microbial genomics.
Genome Solver's Community Science Project was developed as a way to use the skills taught in the previous lessons. We're asking members of the community to provide instances of potential phage genes embedded in bacterial genomes.
We reviewed the materials available on Genome Solver (other lessons here) and described our new python pipeline for examining horizontal gene transfer and a new synteny lesson in detail.
Genome Solver began as a way to teach undergraduate faculty some basic skills in bioinformatics; no coding or scripting is required. This pre-lesson introduces the BLAST tool.
The lesson teaches about synteny or the order of genes along a chromosome, which is useful for looking at orthologous genes between two species or strains.
The Genome Solver Project began as a way to teach faculty some basic skills in bioinformatics - no coding or scripting. These Lessons also work well in the undergraduate classroom, culminating with an authentic community research project.
Genome Solver began as a way to teach undergraduate faculty some basic skills in bioinformatics; no coding or scripting is required. Lesson III introduces Annotation, or assigning meaning to all the A's, C's, T's, and G's.
Genome Solver began as a way to teach undergraduate faculty some basic skills in bioinformatics; no coding or scripting is required. Lesson III introduces Annotation, or assigning meaning to all the A's, C's, T's, and G's.
Genome Solver began as a way to teach undergraduate faculty some basic skills in bioinformatics; no coding or scripting is required. Lesson V is an introduction to Phylogenetics.
Genome Solver began as a way to teach undergraduate faculty some basic skills in bioinformatics; no coding or scripting is required. Lesson IV, Comparative Genomics, discusses some of the tools available for looking at genes across different genomes.
Genome Solver began as a way to teach undergraduate faculty some basic skills in bioinformatics; no coding or scripting is required. Part I is the Introduction to the Genome Solver Project.
At BioInteractive, you can find award-winning multimedia resources, including apps, animations, videos, interactives, and virtual labs, to bring the excitement of scientific discovery into your classroom. Our rich video resources range from a series of short films on evolution, hosted by an award-winning author-scientist, to lectures on the brain given by a Nobel-prize winner—all supplemented by teacher guides and classroom activities.
A short film explores the evolutionary connection between an infectious disease, malaria, and a genetic condition, sickle cell anemia. The animation explores the genetic causes and biological effects of sickle cell disease.
This is a flipped classroom approach, students will learn the basic content about cell-signaling, p53, and transcription factors before class. During class students will focus on data analysis applying what they learned to their interpretation of the data
In this activity students explore and analyze real, authentic research data paired with HHMI’s “Selection for Tuskless Elephants” video in a hands-on investigation of human impacts on elephant evolution using the R-Shiny App, Serenity.
Jessica Ashley Allen, Christie Landry, Laura Pickell, Deborah Taylor
Version: 1.0
This activity accompanies the HHMI BioInteractive module Sex Verification of Athletes
(https://www.hhmi.org/biointeractive/testing-athletes). It provides students with exercises to explore the aspects of human anatomy and physiology.
Gary Laverty, Thomas John Peters, Juan Sebastián Ramírez-Lugo, Denise Levin Signorelli, Saumya Ramanathan
Version: 1.0
Students learn about transcriptional regulation of PPAR-γ, an important controller of adipose tissue stores and energy metabolism through a drawing/coloring activity of the different components involved in controlling PPAR-γ activation.
Kiersten Nicole Newtoff, Fernando Nieto, Emily Nodine, Brian Robert Shmaefsky, Kristine Grayson
Version: 1.0
Students explore four different issues related to trophic interactions that affect modern rice agriculture practices and consider relationships between these issues.
This activity explores a specific gene (egfr) and its role in cancer. EGFR was introduced with the Gene Card Activities, researched throughout the semester, and then authentic image data of EGFR-mutated cells were analyzed.
I recombined the HHMI resources to have the students perform the image analysis from Virtual Lab 1 in Image J and explore the evolutionary principles in the Lizard Phenology modules
The two key features of my implementation is the fact that the tutorial was implemented in an online setting, and I added an assessment (also implemented in an online setting).
The High-throughput Discovery Science & Inquiry-based Case Studies for Today's Students RCN works to create novel case studies that will demystify high-throughput approaches and promote discovery science to reinforce cornerstone STEM concepts and quantitative skills in the college classroom.
The morphology and localization of structures inside the cell are often assumed to fit the ideal images found in biology textbooks. This interrupted case study using high-throughput microscopy data from the Allen Institute addresses this...
The Integrated Digitized Biocollections project's overall mission is to highlight the importance of biodiversity collections and digitization efforts. iDigBio works with its partners in developing biodiversity and digitization-related educational resources for K-12, fostering public participation activities for life-long learners, and providing links to educational resources and activities.
Create a gallery of fossil organisms and identify distinctive body parts (wings, suckers, modified appendages) from the collection. Analyze and interpret these features to predict what type of environment the insect inhabited (3-LS4-1 of NGSS).
The Interdisciplinary Teaching about Earth for a Sustainable Future project is a community program, a collaboration between faculty in the sciences and other disciplines, educational specialists, and evaluation experts at a diverse group of institutions.
The Systems Thinking module (Units 1-3) was utilized in two separate introductory biology courses, General Biology II Lab and The Living Environment online course.
MathBench modules introduce students (and anyone else who's interested) to the mathematical underpinnings of what they learn in introductory biology courses. But unlike a textbook, the modules are not full of equations and proofs. Instead, we try to bring math to life using intuitive approaches, everyday situations, and even humor. The modules contain hundreds of interactive activities, games, and questions. They range from the relatively simple (what to do with division) to the relatively abstruse (discrete diffusion models).
The MathBench module, "The Case of the Missing Mountaintop" introduces students to the concept of biodiversity and measures used to quantify biodiversity and stream health. Students investigate the impacts of mountaintop removal mining processes on stream
The resource accompanies the Mystery of the Missing Housefly Population Dynamics MathBench module which explores exponential and logistic growth models. Students explore the assumptions of the population growth models both in Excel and MathBench.
The mission of the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) is to enable understanding and forecasting of the impacts of climate change, land use change and invasive species on continental-scale ecology – by providing infrastructure and consistent methodologies to support research and education in these areas. NEON is a continental-scale ecological observation facility, sponsored by the National Science Foundation and operated by Battelle, that gathers and synthesizes data then provides that data free of charge to the community to use to address pressing societal and ecological questions. Access NEON data on the website
This lesson focuses on understanding metadata, the data about the data, using aquatic macroinvertebrate abundance and species information from a variety of NEON sampling locations.
Students use small mammal data from the National Ecological Observatory Network to understand necessary steps of data management from data collection to data analysis by estimating small mammal population sizes using the Lincoln-Peterson model.
Megan A. Jones, Lee F. Stanish, Natalie Robinson, Katherine D. Jones, Cody Flagg
Version: 1.0
This module series covers how to import, manipulate, format and plot time series data stored in .csv format in R. Originally designed to teach researchers to use NEON plant phenology and air temperature data; has been used in undergraduate classrooms.
This lesson focuses on ways that scientists identify and use data to understand ecological disturbance events using data from five public datasets. The main lesson focused on interpretation of figures, while optional coding extensions teach R skills.
data in the classroom, data interpretation, precipitation, stream discharge, Palmer Drought Severity Index, lidar, Ecological Disturbance, disturbance ecology, High School
The goal of the Network for Integrating Bioinformatics into Life Sciences Education (NIBLSE) is to establish bioinformatics as an essential component of undergraduate life sciences education by creating a permanent network of investigators to articulate a shared vision of the extent to which, and how best to, integrate bioinformatics into life sciences curricula.
Mark Phillip Peterson, Jacob T Malloy, Vincent P Buonaccorsi, James H Marden
Version: 1.0
This lesson plan was created to teach RNAseq analysis as a part of GCAT-SEEK network. It is provided here, both in finished form and with the modifiable source code, to allow flexible adaptation to various classroom settings, published in...
In this four- part guided activity, students will learn about the structure and function of human autosomal and sex chromosomes, view and interpret gene maps, and gain familiarity with basic bioinformatics resources and data through use of the...
bioinformatics, NIBLSE, CourseSource, autosome, homologous chromosomes, homologous recombination, sex chromosome, sex determination, sex reversal mutations
Passion-Driven Statistics is an NSF-funded, multidisciplinary, project-based curriculum that supports students in conducting data-driven research, asking original questions, and communicating methods and results using the language of statistics. The curriculum supports students to work with existing data covering psychology, health, earth science, government, business, education, ecology and more. From existing data, students are able to pose questions of personal interest and then use statistical software (e.g. SAS, R, Python, Stata, SPSS) to answer them. The e-book is presented in pdf format for ease of use across platforms. It can also be customized by downloading and editing the .iba file using the free “iBook Author” software.
The National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center (SESYNC) brings together the science of the natural world with the science of human behavior and decision-making to find solutions to complex environmental problems. We convene science teams to work on broad issues of national and international relevance, such as water resources management, land management, agriculture, species protection, among other areas of study. By supporting interdisciplinary science teams and researchers with diverse skills, data, and perspectives, SESYNC seeks to lead in-depth research and scholarship that will inform decisions and accelerate scientific discovery. SESYNC is funded by an award to the University of Maryland from the National Science Foundation.
The SPARCnet educational vision seeks to enhance understanding and appreciation for hidden biological diversity, increase scientific process literacy, and promote quantitative skills through biological sciences. Toward these goals, we are producing open access educational materials ready for the classroom developed by scientists in the network.
This lab introduces students to species concepts and basic computer-based tree-building methods using published nuclear and mitochondrial sequence data for Plethodon salamanders.
Louise Mead, Kristine Grayson, Alexa Warwick, David Miller, Chris Sutherland, Evan Grant
Version: 1.0
Collecting data on how populations respond to environmental change requires accurate estimates of population sizes. This activity explores one method for estimating population sizes across three different localities.
The goal of this lesson is to learn how to import datasets into R, understand variable types, make adjustments to variables, perform basic calculations, and begin data visualization. The exercise uses an over 100 year time series of climate data.
