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    Module 3: What on Earth is a Herbarium?
    The goal of this activity is to introduce students to herbarium specimens and why they are an important source of information. The emphasis of this activity is on examining the types of data that...

    Keywords: natural history collectionsherbariumHerbarium digitizationYnez Mexia

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    A Customizable Inquiry-Based Statistics Teaching Application for Introductory Biology Students
    Building strong quantitative skills prepares undergraduate biology students for successful careers in science and medicine. While math and statistics anxiety can negatively impact student learning...

    Keywords: introductory biologyQuantitative reasoningInclusive teachingauthentic inquiryInferential statisticsInstructional scaffolding

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    Module 1: Discovering Your Family's “Botanical History.”
    We all know that understanding family history is important to understanding our place in the world. To help students learn to appreciate plants, this activity will connect family memories to...

    Keywords: botanyherbariumPlant awareness disparityfamily history

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    Module 2: Opening Your Eyes to the Diversity of Plants
    This activity picks up from Module 1 where students chose the plant they wanted to represent their botanical history. In that module, they each identified their plant’s family and were given its...

    Keywords: botanyPlant diversityLand plantsembryophytes

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    Marsh Madness: Using Video Games and a Case Study to Explore Food Webs and Ecosystem Services in Carpinteria Salt Marsh Reserve
    As the complexity and interconnectedness of our world increases, we are continually expected to be capable of complex, non-linear thinking in order to successfully tackle and solve the challenges...

    Keywords: food webssystems thinkingGame Based LearningEcosystem Servicessocio-ecological networks

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    Between a rock and a hard place. What can turning rocks tell us about land-use change impacts on animals living in a rock outcrop?
    Unique rock outcrops in the Western Ghats biodiversity hotspot in India provide a setting that challenges students to develop a study to assess the impact of land-use change on threatened animals...

    Keywords: conservationagricultureland useamphibianstropicalbiodiversity losslateritic outcropopen natural ecosystemsreptilesrocks

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    Exploring Coyote Morphology: Introduction to Research and Study Design
    This module is designed as a first foray for freshman-level (novice undergraduate) students into science literacy, research design, and use of museum resources in research activities. The module...

    Keywords: statisticsnatural history museumsdistance learningscience literacyStudy Designintraspecific variation

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    Is everything bigger in Texas? Introduction to Statistics with the Rock Pocket Mouse (Chaetodipus intermedius)
    Natural history museums often contain large collections of the same species and therefore, are a resource for studying intraspecific variation. This module uses 172 images of rock pocket mouse...

    Keywords: statisticsnatural history museumsdistance learningStudy Designintraspecific variation

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    Observing the Birds of El Paso: Revisiting historical localities online and in the field
    In this set of activities, students are introduced to several features and use cases of museum databases to understand the importance of historical natural history specimens and their data. Using...

    Keywords: databaseBiodiversityOrnithologynatural history museumsspecies distributionsdistance learningField Experiences

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    Introduction to Assessing Biodiversity: Bivalves of the Rio Grande Area
    Learning to identify taxa is a key skill gained in many systematics classes. This module aims to introduce students to concepts and resources for identifying organisms and assessing species...

    Keywords: Biodiversityspecies distributionsdistance learninginvertebrate zoologyMuseum databases data literacyidentification

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    Introduction to Plant Phenology with Museum Specimens of Desert Prickly Pear (Opuntia phaeacantha)
    Students engage in hands-on exploration of phenology by working with digitized herbarium specimens, particularly focusing on prickly pear specimens from the UTEP herbarium. They learn to identify...

    Keywords: botanyclimate changephenologyherbariumcactus

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    Case Study: Genetic Variation and Speciation in the Black Tailed Rattlesnake complex (Crotalus molossus)
    It is important for biology students to understand how genetic variation is related to the formation of species in nature. This module is intended for students to obtain first hand experience with...

    Keywords: phylogeneticscase studySpeciationtree readingsystematicsTree thinkingPhylogeographydistance learninggenetic variation

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    A Momentum-First Approach to Newton’s Second Law
    Students frequently struggle with seeing the connection between forces and motion in introductory physics. This lesson is part of a combined momentum and kinematics unit that first teaches...

    Keywords: group workMomentumNewton's Laws

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    Genome Solver - A bioinformatics pipeline for community science
    The Genome Solver was an NSF-funded project developed as a way to train undergraduate life science faculty in basic web-based tools for bioinformatics. As part of the project we developed a one-day...

    Keywords: phylogeneticsbacteriophagebacteriaHorizontal Gene transferGenome Analysis

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    Bacteria to Brains in Backyard Coyotes: An Interdisciplinary Pedagogical Case Study
    Our interdisciplinary pedagogical case study explores the differences between rural and urban coyotes at the levels of organismal and community ecology. The focus is on how coyotes’ gut...

    Keywords: dietanimal behaviorimmune systemmicrobiomeNervous systemgut-brain axisImmunoReachdysbiosisCoyoteCytokines

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    Bacteria to Brains in Backyard Coyotes: An Interdisciplinary Pedagogical Case Study
    Our interdisciplinary pedagogical case study explores the differences between rural and urban coyotes at the levels of organismal and community ecology. The focus is on how coyotes’ gut microbiomes...

    Keywords: Vision and Changeecologyintroductory biologyImmunologymicrobiologydietanimal behaviormicrobiomecore conceptscoyotesBraingut-brain axisImmunoReachcytokinedysbiosis

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    BioTA Podcast Episode #34 Biofilms Podcast Overview
    BioTA Episode #34: Biofilms Authors: Seth Higbee1, Pankaj Mehrotra2, J. Phil Gibson1 Prokaryotes are often taught to us as being free living single-celled organisms that lack membrane bound...

    Keywords: microbiologybacteriaprokaryotesBiofilmsExtracellular Polymeric Substances (EPS)16s Ribosomal RNA

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    Sorting through the Data
    Meet Thomas McElrath, a insect collection manager at the Illinois Natural History Survey and beetle researcher. Tommy explains the value of data standards while discussing beetles and variations...

    Keywords: data standardssexdata skillsBiodiversity data usage

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    The Power of Place: A Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experience Studying Urban Ecology, Local Apple Trees and Disease Susceptibility
    Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs) offered early in an undergraduate student’s career have the potential to include a greater number and diversity of students than...

    Keywords: Disease ecologyurban ecologyUrban food forestsUrban heat islandsGenetic resistance

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    Using Aquatic Macroinvertebrates in Stream Bioassessment
    Bioassessment is an evaluation of the biological condition of a waterbody using biological surveys and other direct measurements of resident living organisms. Aquatic macroinvertebrates are...

    Keywords: toleranceMacroinvertebratesRiver Field Studies Networkbioindicatorbioassessmentstream health

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