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    Learning How to Make “Good Enough” Estimations
    The ability to estimate physical quantities is a useful skill that can help develop critical thinking and scientific literacy. This lesson provides an accessible way to teach students how to...

    Keywords: MeasurementestimationcommunicationProblem Solvinggroup workUnit conversion

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    Defining and Understanding Pathogenic Disease: An Engaging Activity that Connects Students' Lived Experiences with their Academic Studies
    Contagious diseases are unavoidable realities of life. Thus, understanding pathogens and their respective diseases is important in many biological subfields including evolution, ecology, health...

    Keywords: infectious diseasePathogenspathogenic disease

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    Analysis of Microbiomes Using Free Web-Based Tools in Online and In-Person Undergraduate Science Courses
    Our understanding of microbiomes, or the collection of microorganisms and their genes in a given environment, has been revolutionized by technological and computational advances. However, many...

    Keywords: microbiomeDNA SubwayCyVerseCourse based undergraduate researchQIIME2ranacapa

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    Using Open-Source Bioinformatics and Visualization Tools to Explore the Structure and Function of SARS-CoV-2 Spike Protein
    The relationship between protein structure and function is a foundational concept in undergraduate biochemistry. We find this theme is best presented with assignments that encourage exploration and...

    Keywords: bioinformaticsmolecular modelingCOVID19protein structure and functionUCSF ChimeraSARS-CoV-2 spike proteinACE2 receptor

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    "Got Algae?" A Sorting Game for Introducing the Weird and Wonderful Diversity of Algae
    Algae are a fascinating and diverse organismal group, with global ecological importance, a storied evolutionary history and deep connections to both contemporary and historical human societies. Yet...

    Keywords: phylogenyBiodiversityphotosynthesisalgaeseaweedmonophyly

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    Using Current Events to Teach Written, Visual, and Oral Science Communication
    Science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) professionals need the skills to communicate with both technical and public audiences, but formal training in these skills is often lacking....

    Keywords: communicationscientific writingstorytellingaudiencecurrent events

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    Harnessing the Power of the Immune System: Influenza Vaccines
    Because most people have been infected by and/or immunized against influenza, students should know how the immune system responds to the infection and how vaccines protect against disease. Vaccines...

    Keywords: VaccinesInfluenzaImmunizationVaccine efficacy

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    Using Images of Foraging Leaf-Cutter Ants to Teach Linear Regression
    This lesson offers students a realistic, open-inquiry research experience, even when lab or field research is not possible. We first introduce students to leaf-cutter ants and how they forage. Then...

    Keywords: linear regressionexperimental designPlant-insect interactionsSymbiosisForaging behavior

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    The impact of diet and antibiotics on the gut microbiome
    The goal of this article is to describe an active learning exercise that can be used in a variety of advanced microbiology courses, including bacterial physiology, ecology, or systems biology. The...

    Keywords: microbiomeenvironmental controlhost responsemetabolites

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    A Close-Up Look at PCR
    The Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) is a fundamental laboratory technique that allows for the amplification of many copies of a desired DNA target sequence. Despite its prevalence, undergraduate...

    Keywords: PCRDNA replication

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    Building Trees: Introducing evolutionary concepts by exploring Crassulaceae phylogeny and biogeography
    Teaching evolutionary theory is foundational for all biological sciences and a key aspect of overall science literacy. The conceptual framework for understanding evolution relies on thinking...

    Keywords: EvolutionphylogeneticsTree thinkingbiogeography

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    A clicker-based case study that untangles student thinking about the processes in the central dogma
    The central dogma of biology is a foundational concept that provides a scaffold to understand how genetic information flows in biological systems. Despite its importance, undergraduate students...

    Keywords: mutationtranscriptionphenotypecentral dogmatranslationDNA replication

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    Knowing your own: A classroom case study using the scientific method to investigate how birds learn to recognize their offspring
    Understanding the scientific method provides students with a necessary foundation for careers in science-related fields. Moreover, students can apply scientific inquiry skills in many aspects of...

    Keywords: scientific methodNatural Selectionbrood parasitism

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    The ACTN3 Polymorphism: Applications in Genetics and Physiology Teaching Laboratories
    Inquiry-based undergraduate laboratories provide the opportunity to engage students in a research experience that improves scientific thinking, but such activities can be difficult to develop and...

    Keywords: protein structure and functionhuman genetic variationmuscle physiology

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    Fly Exercise: A Simple Experiment to Test the Physiological Effects of Exercise on a Model Organism
    Model organisms are commonly used to study and experimentally explore biological processes in ways that are technically or ethically not possible in humans. For this reason, model organisms are an...

    Keywords: exerciseenzyme kineticsmetabolite concentrationmodel speciesphysical activity

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    Converting a Face-to-Face Lab to Online: An Example of Process and Outcomes for a CRISPR-Based Molecular Biology Lab
    The COVID-19 pandemic created a need to convert in-person laboratory courses into an online format in a short amount of time. For this reason, we converted our face-to-face molecular biology lab...

    Keywords: mutationtranscriptioncrisprtranslation

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    Predicting and classifying effects of insertion and deletion mutations on protein coding regions
    Mutations in genes can affect the encoded proteins in multiple ways, and some of these effects are counterintuitive. As for any other knowledge, students must create their own deep understanding of...

    Keywords: mutationcentral dogmatranslationframeshift

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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...

    Keywords: Evolutionecologymorphologysensory biologycave biologycomparative biologyenvironmental differencesregressive lossstructure and function

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    A Rapid Genetic Screen Using Wisconsin Fast Plants®: A Hands-On Approach to Inheritance of de novo Mutations
    Some concepts in genetics, such as genetic screens, are complex for students to visualize in a classroom and can be cumbersome to undertake in the laboratory. Typically, very large populations are...

    Keywords: mutationInheritancegermlinesomaplant lifecycle

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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...

    Keywords: statisticsecologyscientific methodexperimental designAbiotic and Biotic FactorsDependent and Independent Variables

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