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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...

    Keywords: active learningbackward designProblem based learningBloom's Taxonomy

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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...

    Keywords: PCR

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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...

    Keywords: Vision and Changeactive learningintroductory biologyFlipped classroomUndergraduatecore competenciescore conceptsactive textbookcurriculum reform

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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...

    Keywords: Evolutionecologyextinctionadaptive radiationdiversification

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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...

    Keywords: ATPcarrierschannelsco-transportelectrogenic pumpfacilitated diffusionmembrane transportpassive transportprimary active transportsimple diffusion

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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...

    Keywords: cancerInheritance patternsProbability calculationProto-oncogeneTumor Suppressor Gene

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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...

    Keywords: statisticsbioinformaticsRNAseqgene expressioncomputer programming

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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...

    Keywords: bacteriamicrobiomeBLASTmicrobesDNA replicationPolymerase chain reaction (PCR)

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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...

    Keywords: energyecosystemNutrientsPathway

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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...

    Keywords: metacognitiontechnologyGoogle Doc

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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...

    Keywords: process of scienceDNAforensicsgel electrophoresisMolecular genotypingRestriction endonucleaseRestriction enzymeRestriction fragment length polymorphismRFLP

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    Plotting Cranial and Spinal Nerve Pathways in a Human Anatomy Lab
    Hands-on experiences with cadavers, animal dissections, or plastic models are effective at improving student learning and attitudes in human anatomy courses. The hands-on experience allows students...

    Keywords: human anatomyNervous systemBrainCranial nerveNerveSpinal cordSpinal nerve

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    Homologous chromosomes? Exploring human sex chromosomes, sex determination and sex reversal using bioinformatics approaches
    Constructing a robust understanding of homologous chromosomes, sex chromosomes, and the particulate nature of genes is a notoriously difficult task for undergraduate biology students. In this...

    Keywords: bioinformaticsautosomehomologous chromosomeshomologous recombinationsex chromosomesex determinationsex reversal mutations

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    Helping Students to Overcome STUMPS: Scientific terms undermined by meanings peripheral to science
    Many terms and phrases that are ubiquitous in everyday use have very different meanings in science. As a result, biology students often hold prior conceptions that are difficult to change. In this...

    Keywords: Evolutionfitnessprocess of sciencetree of lifemetacognitionlanguagemisconceptionsTerminologyTheory

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    Does it pose a threat? Investigating the impact of Bt corn on monarch butterflies
    Aspiring scientists know that a hallmark of science is that experiments are repeatable and testable.  However, students do not often get opportunities to explore the replicability of...

    Keywords: ecologyCommunity EcologyBt cornGenetic modificationMonarch butterflies

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    Coevolution or not? Crossbills, squirrels and pinecones
    This case reinforces the concept of coevolution as a reciprocal change in genetic structure between or among two or more populations, by having students analyze and interpret data, build a...

    Keywords: fitnessCoevolutionCo-adaptation

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    Bad Cell Reception? Using a cell part activity to help students appreciate cell biology, with an improved data plan and no loss in coverage
    With a veritable myriad of cell parts to cover, it is easy for educators to become locked into marathon presentations that become taxing for both the instructor and the students. While we hope and...

    Keywords: primary literatureprokaryotesCell partsEukaryotesOrganelle functionOrganelles

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    Carbon Sequestration and the Urban heat Island Effect
    An urban heat island is an urban or metropolitan area that is on average far warmer than the surrounding rural areas. In this lesson we will study the impact these warmer temperatures have on...

    Keywords: RStudiodecision treesurban ecologyCarbon sequestration of forests vegetationUrban heat island

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    Paleoclimate and Ocean Biogeochemistry (Project EDDIE)
    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...
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    Investigating Evidence for Climate Change (Project EDDIE) with CO2 and 13CO2 data: adapted for R
    This is an adaptation to work in R of Investigating Evidence for Climate Change (Project) by Hage, M. 2020. Students will investigate geologic and modern evidence for global temperature and...

    Keywords: climate changeGlobal Temperature Changeco2ice core datastable isotopesR software

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