You are here: Home / Resources / Browse Resources

Open. Adaptable. Free.

Resources created by our members and partners.

The QUBES platform hosts hundreds of teaching materials, reference materials, and cloud-based software free to use and adapt using open Creative Commons licenses.

Text Search:
Applied Filters
    Defining Life: Exploring Creativity, Scientific Discovery, and Biology Core Concepts in a Disciplinary First-Year Seminar
    This unit, Defining Life, engages students in thinking like scientists, applying creativity to science, and learning biology core concepts as they explore the defining characteristics of life. This...

    Keywords: Evolutionbiologycellprocess of science

    988

    views

    52

    downloads

    0

    comments

    0

    adaptations

    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

    2837

    views

    498

    downloads

    0

    comments

    0

    adaptations

    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

    1607

    views

    302

    downloads

    0

    comments

    0

    adaptations

    Science and Society: Integrating Historical Science Materials Into an Undergraduate Biology Course
    Vision and Change in Undergraduate Biology Education (American Association for the Advancement of Science, 2011) stresses the importance of fostering an understanding of the relationship between...

    Keywords: infectious diseasevaccinationbacteriavirusesantibiotics

    1786

    views

    305

    downloads

    0

    comments

    0

    adaptations

    Building student literacy and metacognition through reading science in the news
    Ensuring students' science literacy is essential for preparation for study in science disciplines and is of critical importance given contemporary challenges in determining the legitimacy and...

    Keywords: metacognitionStem cellsscience literacycloninggenetically modified organismshuman genetic diseasescience news

    1532

    views

    206

    downloads

    0

    comments

    0

    adaptations

    Using Seafood Traceability to Teach the Complexities of Natural Resource Management and Sustainability
    This lesson plan addresses the challenge of conveying to students the globalized nature and complexity of natural resource management. Specifically, it uses seafood traceability, or the ability to...

    Keywords: sustainabilityfisheriesaquacultureAnthropogenic ImpactsNatural Resource Management

    1301

    views

    304

    downloads

    0

    comments

    0

    adaptations

    The Avocado Lab: An Inquiry-Driven Exploration of an Enzymatic Browning Reaction
    Typical biochemistry labs exploring basic enzyme activity rely on costly, time-consuming protein purification and rarely explore enzyme function in situ. Further, complex purification procedures...

    Keywords: enzymescontrolsenzyme inhibition

    4627

    views

    438

    downloads

    0

    comments

    0

    adaptations

    Meiosis: A Play in Three Acts, Starring DNA Sequence
    Meiosis is well known for being a sticky topic that appears repeatedly in biology curricula. We observe that a typical undergraduate biology major cannot correctly identify haploid and diploid...

    Keywords: recombinationmeiosisDNA sequenceCrossingoverchromosome structureHolliday junctionhomology

    5439

    views

    1111

    downloads

    2

    comments

    0

    adaptations

    A Multi-Institutional Alternative Assessment Faculty Learning Community: Supporting Teaching in Higher Education
    Faculty learning communities (FLCs) provide opportunities for professional development for faculty, teaching staff, and educational developers in a collaborative and open environment. In this...

    Keywords: professional developmentAlternative AssessmentFaculty Learning Community

    3270

    views

    97

    downloads

    0

    comments

    0

    adaptations

    An Active Learning Workshop to Teach Active Learning Strategies
    College instructors who learn how to teach actively at the beginning of their careers do not have to modify deeply set habits that rely on lectures. Instead, they develop their teaching while they...

    Keywords: professional developmentActive-learning strategiesjigsawthink-pair-sharePedagogical approachesGallery WalkSmall group discussionInclusive practices

    5976

    views

    642

    downloads

    0

    comments

    0

    adaptations

    Teaching students to read, interpret, and write about scientific research: A press release assignment in a large, lower-division class
    A central skill in any science discipline is the ability to read, understand, and discuss the primary literature of the discipline. However, teaching this skill presents unique challenges within...

    Keywords: cell biologyScience Communicationscientific literacyGraduate Teaching Assistant Professional DevelopmentBiological LiteracyPrimary ResearchWriting Skills

    2077

    views

    461

    downloads

    0

    comments

    0

    adaptations

    Discovering Prokaryotic Gene Regulation with Simulations of the trp Operon
    The trp operon exemplifies important biological concepts, including the central dogma of molecular biology, feedback inhibition, and gene regulation. For this reason, regulation of the trp operon...

    Keywords: prokaryotesgene regulationattenuationfeedback inhibitionrepressible operontrp operon

    3917

    views

    395

    downloads

    0

    comments

    0

    adaptations

    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

    1156

    views

    125

    downloads

    0

    comments

    0

    adaptations

    The Developmental Origins of Mythology: A Pandemic-Inspired Innovative Developmental Biology Laboratory Exercise
    From an experiential, hands-on perspective, the Developmental Biology Laboratory is easily amenable to a wide range of undergraduate-friendly experiments. Thus, pivoting to a virtual laboratory...

    Keywords: gastrulationaxis formationlimb developmentchimeramidline

    1390

    views

    142

    downloads

    0

    comments

    0

    adaptations

    Exploring the Complexities of Photosynthesis Through a Comic Strip
    Photosynthesis is a conceptually challenging topic. The small scale at which photosynthesis takes place makes it difficult for students to visualize what is occurring, and students are often...

    Keywords: photosynthesislight-dependent reactionsCalvin cyclechloroplast

    3922

    views

    810

    downloads

    0

    comments

    0

    adaptations

    A Case Study for Teaching Toxicology: Using Whales as an Indicator for Environmental Health
    One of the challenges of teaching scientific courses is helping students understand research methods, biological models, and data analysis, which can be especially difficult in classes without a...

    Keywords: absorptionone environmental health hypothesismetals

    2759

    views

    216

    downloads

    0

    comments

    0

    adaptations

    Metastatic Mastery: A Case and Game-Based Approach to Learning About Cancer Mechanisms
    Mechanisms that contribute to the development of cancer are numerous and complicated, though most can be traced to a set of mutations in cell cycle regulatory genes that throw the process of cell...

    Keywords: mutationcancertranscriptioncell cycletranslationOncogenesTumor-suppressorp53Transcription factor

    2006

    views

    381

    downloads

    0

    comments

    0

    adaptations

    Designing an Asynchronous, Self-Led Aquatic Ecology Field Trip
    Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and increasing need to teach students online, aquatic scientists are looking for ways to give students field experiences virtually. Asynchronous, self-led field trips...

    Keywords: observationecosystem structureexploration

    1335

    views

    231

    downloads

    2

    comments

    0

    adaptations

    Teaching Cell Structures through Games
    As the basic unit of life, cells are a foundational concept for all of biology. Before students can appreciate how eukaryotic cells function either in isolation or in higher order and multicellular...

    Keywords: Cell Structurecell organellesTransmembrane Transport

    4960

    views

    1294

    downloads

    0

    comments

    0

    adaptations

    Grow the Gradient: An interactive countercurrent multiplier game
    The countercurrent multiplier of the loop of Henle in a mammalian kidney is a challenging concept for instructors to teach and for students to learn. We developed an interactive game to support...

    Keywords: countercurrent multiplierexcretory systemkidneyloop of Henlemembrane transport

    1435

    views

    501

    downloads

    1

    comments

    0

    adaptations

    Close

    Home

    Search