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.

This activity introduces basic tree reading skills for evolutionary phylogenies. It is designed as a short group activity. After completing this activity, students should be familiar with basic terminology and how to "read" a phylogenetic tree.

Phylogenetic analysis can be a challenging concept to grasp for undergraduate biology students. This cladistic analysis lesson utilizes the amazingly diverse Order Chiroptera as a model to introduce students to major biological concepts such as: phylogenies, morphological traits (shared and unique characters), and hierarchical classification. The lesson is intended for one, two-hour meeting with students majoring in Biological Sciences. Small groups are given a series of photographs and illustrations depicting representative bat families and their external anatomical features. Morphological characters are then scored as being either ancestral or derived for each taxon. Students then build two cladograms using this data and then perform character mapping onto a modified bat tree. The goal of this activity is for students to develop both a deeper understanding of bat classification and core knowledge of cladistic methods.

In this module, students will investigate the mutualistic relationship between Agave its bat pollinators and the effects of coevolution on the morphological adaptations of the species involved.

This module is made up of four concepts. The goal of the first concept is to elicit an understanding of primate relatedness, phylogeny, and how specific characteristics are beneficial for life in an arboreal environment. The next concept explains the overarching trends in hominin evolution and the selective pressures that encouraged their development. Concept three examines specific fossils and the characteristics that are associated with them. This concept serves to provide a timeline of hominin evolution. The final concept encourages students to understand characteristics in the hominin lineage and how they relate to social behaviors. This concept ends by driving home the point that evolution is a dynamic and continual process.

This adaptation of the Vertebrate Clade Race provides a tactile approach to introduce basic tree reading skills for evolutionary phylogenies. Using a Universal Design for Learning informed approach, the variation makes the activity accessible for students who are blind or low-vision and streamlines the activity for all students, while retaining the original learning goals. After completing this group activity, students should be familiar with basic terminology and how to "read" a phylogenetic tree.

Using a multimodal approach, the non-linear aspect of the surface area to volume relationship is explored. Students use their their senses of taste and sight to determine how smaller cells and larger cells differ. Quantitative examples are explored. Concepts of structure and function Examples along the biological hierarchy are provided.

New stop-motion ‘candymation’ videos of mitosis and meiosis, plus Instructor Guides and problem sets.

In this lesson students 1) become familiar with various graphs that are used to study diversity patterns within and across sites, 2) learn about some of the questions that can be addressed by metabarcoding studies, and 3) reflect on an interview with evolutionary ecologist Maria Rebolleda Gomez, who collected the data used in the lesson.

This lesson targets entry-level undergraduate students to enhance their proficiency in comprehending and interpreting scientific graphs. The lesson incorporates group discussions centered around several graphs about lizards, together with individual reflective essays and a social media assignment. Students will also gain insights from an interview video featuring Dr. Daniel Warner, the lizard scientist who was responsible for data collection and graph creation explored in the lesson.

Biodiversity databases, based on species occurrences, are now readily available for students to use a free of charge. These databases allow exploration of how species ranges shift through time. One of these tools, Map of Life, has integrated Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs) to project species occurrences and ranges (based on suitable habitat) through 2070. The different SSPs use variable greenhouse gas emissions scenarios with different climate policies, ranging from sustainable futures to fossil-fueled development. This activity first allows students to explore current ranges and suitable habitat of individual species, globally. Then, students use different SSPs to investigate future projections of species ranges and relate changes in range size to suitable habitat and life history traits.

This module explores the introduction of the American bullfrog on their ecosystem. Using species diversity calculations and data collection techniques, students explore how the bullfrog affected the species in its community. Students are introduced to calculations like species richness, species evenness, and species diversity indices. Also, this activity provides students an understanding of how this information is gathered in the field and provides them an opportunity to learn how to collect data themselves.