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    Interactive Video Vignettes (IVVs) to Help Students Learn Genetics Concepts
    Many video resources exist to teach Mendelian genetics, but most consist of passive delivery of information rather than active construction of knowledge by users. We have created two interactive...

    Keywords: genotypephenotypeallelespedigreedominanceHardy-Weinberg equilibriumInheritance

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    Green Design: How do Leaf Structures Optimize Photosynthesis and Promote Survival?
    One of the major learning objectives established by the American Society of Plant Biologists and the Botanical Society of America has students answer the question: How do plant structures enable...

    Keywords: photosynthesisepidermal layerleaf anatomymesophyllpalisade parenchymaplant anatomyplant structure functionspongy parenchymaStomata

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    Science Behind the Lesson: It's a Bird! It's a Plane! It's Biomechanics!
    Active flight is a specialized mode of movement found in insects, birds, and mammals. The anatomy, morphology, physiology, and ecology of flying taxa has changed over evolutionary time. Researchers...

    Keywords: EvolutionecologybatphysiologyAnatomybiomechanicsbirdFlightinsect

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    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

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    An Open Source, Collaborative Electronic Notebook for Undergraduate Laboratory Classes
    To overcome many of the limitations of the paper laboratory notebook (PLN), we developed an electronic laboratory notebook (e-LN) for the Dynamic Genome course at the University of California. The...

    Keywords: data collectionData annotationNotebook Skills

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    Infectious Chocolate Joy with a Side of Poissonian Statistics: An activity connecting life science students with subtle physics concepts
    Introductory physics courses are required for many programs in the life sciences, yet traditional curricula fail to help students meaningfully connect physical concepts with biological...

    Keywords: quantitative biologyHIVmultiplicity of infectionPoisson DistributionPhysics for biologists

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    Sex-specific differences in Meiosis: Real-world applications
    In traditional classrooms, students are typically presented with facts that they are asked to memorize and recall during an exam.  The rapid explosion of available scientific facts in recent...

    Keywords: meiosisReproductionAneuploidyGameteNon-disjunctionOocyteSpermTrisomy

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    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

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    What is Speciation, How Does It Occur, and Why Is It Important for Conservation?
    Speciation provides a framework for classifying biodiversity on Earth and is a central concept in evolutionary biology. To help undergraduate students learn about speciation, we designed a...

    Keywords: EvolutionconservationGenetic DriftSpeciationNatural SelectionBiological species conceptgene flowMorphological species conceptPhylogenetic species concept

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    Environmental Injustice: When the Grass is Greener on the Other Side
    Environmental pollution is a global threat that is especially prevalent in heavily industrialized and urbanized areas. Pollution can be found in many forms, such as natural and synthetic pollutants...

    Keywords: human healthenvironmental injusticeEnvironmental PollutionSystemic BiasesIdeological AwarenessUrban Ecology and Development

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    Breaking It Down: What Factors Control Microbial Decomposition Rates?
    Demonstrating and modeling changes in ecosystem processes in the laboratory classroom can be logistically difficult and expensive. This complexity often leaves little time for students to generate...

    Keywords: data analysishypothesis testingdata visualizationdata managementMicrobial RespirationDecompostionAbiotic ConditionsResults Communication

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    Cross-Course Public Health Project on Infectious Disease
    The need for collaborative, public health education has never been more important. Students increasingly require necessary skills in effectively communicating critical information to the general...

    Keywords: infectionpublic healthVaccinespathogenesisantibiotics

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    Outside the Norm: Using Public Ecology Database Information to Teach Biostatistics
    Biology students’ understanding of statistics is incomplete due to poor integration of these two disciplines. In some cases, students fail to learn statistics at the undergraduate level due...

    Keywords: biostatisticshypothesis testingexperimental design

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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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    Exploring Miracle Fruit: An Undergraduate Laboratory Exercise on Experimental Design
    In recent years, undergraduate biology and biochemistry curricula have seen an increase in the use of course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs). CUREs maximize potential student gains...

    Keywords: sensory systemspHProtein shapeTaste

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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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    Going Remote: An Online Adaptation to Using a Primary Cell Culture Model to Study the Neural Extracellular Matrix
    In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, instructors have modified materials to transition to a remote learning platform. The challenge for science instructors has been to design lab exercises that...

    Keywords: remote learningExtracellular matrixNeural extracellular matrixPerineuronal net

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    Integrating Manipulatives and Animations to Visualize Holliday Junctions
    The complex molecular architecture of Holliday junctions is often challenging for undergraduate biochemistry students to conceptualize. In particular, they have difficulty translating from...

    Keywords: dna structureDNA damageDNA recombinationGene crossoverHolliday junction

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    Exploring the Broader Impacts of Science and Society in an Active Learning Environment
    Science and society have always been intertwined. Today, scientists are increasingly encouraged to interact with the public by conducting transparent and participatory engaged scholarship, as...

    Keywords: active learningsocietyScience CommunicationscienceBroader impactsPublic engagement

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    Chilling in the Cold: Using Thermal Acclimation to Demonstrate Phenotypic Plasticity in Animals
    The lesson plan described here provides students hands-on, scientific experiences that relate to the globally important issue of climate change and its impacts on animals. Students use the...

    Keywords: scientific methodclimate changephenotypic plasticityfruit fliesaccclimationcold tolerancethink-pair-share

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