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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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    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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    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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    A CURE in traits and species distributions: Reproductive modes, range sizes, and natural history collections
    This course-based undergraduate research experience (CURE) focuses on developing hypotheses about how traits influence the range sizes of species. Topics with substantive content include symbioses,...

    Keywords: Evolutionbiostatisticsecologynatural history collectionsSymbiosisspecies distributionsherbariumplant functional traitsLichenReproductive biologyAppalachian mountains

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    The Stomata Lab. What the past can tell us about our future - using fossil and modern plants to model atmospheric carbon dioxide
    Students will develop a mathematical model of the relationship between atmospheric CO2 and the number of stomata on a leaf (Stomata Index). They will evaluate the model graphically, statistically,...

    Keywords: introductory biologyQuantitative reasoninginterdisciplinaryclimate changeregressionEcology and EvolutionStomataNIQBC2. Data and GraphsC4. mathematical modelsC3. Statistical AnalysisSmithsonian

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    Exploring the City of Biofilms: An Engaging Analogy-Based Activity for Students to Learn Biofilms
    Multicellular biofilms constructed by microbes are key aspects of microbiology with significant implications in various fields, including medicine, environmental science, and biotechnology. While...

    Keywords: bacteriaBiofilmsquorum sensing

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    An Interactive Protocol for In-Classroom DNA Extraction
    Using commonly available materials, this tool allows students to extract DNA, exploring DNA chemistry and the principles of experimental design and execution. We take a “Choose Your Own...

    Keywords: geneticsDNAbiochemical structure and function

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    My Fish Tank: An Active Learning Activity for Bacterial Nitrogen Metabolism
    This active learning activity introduces students to the second part of the nitrogen cycle, nitrification. In terrestrial and aquatic environments, bacteria from the Nitrosomonas and Nitrobacter...

    Keywords: nitrogen cyclenitrificationnitrifying bacteria

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    A rainforest with a gold chain? The impacts of gold mining on the trophic web of an Amazonian rainforest of SE Peru
    The use of mercury in artisanal gold mining affects aquatic and terrestrial food webs in the Peruvian Amazon. Learn about bioaccumulation, explore data on mercury deposition in vegetation and how...

    Keywords: conservation biologydeforestationhuman healthpollutionbiodiversity losstropical land use

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    Building Biodiversity Datasets for Invasive Species
    A module guiding students through the process of mapping biodiversity data and building a biodiversity dataset to study the spread and impacts of the invasive aquatic plant species, European...

    Keywords: Management Of Datanatural historyField researchconservation ecologyAquatic invasive speciesbiodiversity informatics

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    Invasion, Restoration, and Response: Assessing changes in arthropod community assemblage using both parametric and non-parametric approaches
    This lesson, which is based around a recently published paper in the Journal of Ecological Applications, introduces students to both parametric and non-parametric approaches to statistical analysis...

    Keywords: ecologyANOVAInvasive Speciesspecies diversityquantitative analysisupper level wetland ecologysalt marshesarthropodsShannon diversity indexleast significant differences

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    Plant-microbial mutualisms in canopy gap recovery: How do soil microbial symbionts help tropical forests recover from treefall gaps?
    This module uses tropical plant-soil microbial interactions in canopy gaps as a lens to better understand species interactions and disturbance ecology, while showing how scientists study these...

    Keywords: forest ecologyPlant Ecologynutrient cyclingmicrobestropical forestsDisturbances

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    SNAPSHOT SERENGETI: Analyzing Wildlife Ecological Relationships in an upper-level Ecology course
    Two assignments were created to develop skills in ecological hypothesis testing, data analysis and interpretation using the Snapshot Serengeti and Gorongosa camera trap data and graphical...

    Keywords: hypothesis testinggraphical analysis and interpretationsavannah biomeecological relationshipscompare and contrast to primary literature

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    Building an Inclusive Botany - Structuring in Class Discussions
    Driven by the national conversation on systemic racism, ongoing inequities, appeals to decolonize science, and the many recent calls for diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion, we use...

    Keywords: botanyplant sciencediversityAccessibilityHistory of Sciencetraditional knowledgeCommunityScienceColonialismSpecimen Digitization

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    Polyploidapalooza: Exploring the diversity and evolution of polyploid plants and animals
    This series of modules explores the complex world of polyploidy, including species formation, cell division, evolution, conservation, and economic importance. We focus on polyploidy across the...

    Keywords: Evolutionconservationnatural historyCell DivisionhybridizationPolyploidygenome duplicationallopolyploidyautopolyploidy

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    Count me in: Increasing early detection of invasive species with community science
    In this lesson, students interpret a map of species occurrences. Then, students view and reflect on an interview with biologist Dr. Jennifer Dean, whose research includes the map that they...

    Keywords: graph interpretationInvasive SpeciesAquatic invasive speciesspatial datawomen in steminvasive plantsCitizen and Community ScienceBioGraphIrepresentation in STEMmap interpretationiMapInvasives

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    Central Dogma, Dictionaries, and Functions: Using Programming Concepts to Simulate Biological Processes
    Technologies like next-generation sequencing, proteomics, and high-throughput phenotyping have transformed the way we do biology. There is a continued need for scientists with computational skills...

    Keywords: computationpythonJupyter notebookFunctionscentral dogmaDictionaries

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    Facilitating Scientific Literacy Through Writing: A Write-to-Learn Assignment for Large Introductory Undergraduate Biology Courses
    Write-to-learn (WTL) assignments have been used in a variety of disciplines to encourage conceptual learning and critical thinking in undergraduate education. These assignments focus on...

    Keywords: geneticsEvolutionecologyCellsPlants form and functionAnimals form and function

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    How We Help: Human elements of restoration ecology
    In this lesson, students recall the basics of restoration ecology, interpret and predict several graphs that explain restoration manager characteristics, and reflect on an interview with...

    Keywords: graph interpretationEcosystem Ecologyfmnconservation biologydata literacyinvasive plantsLGBTQRestoration Ecologyriparian ecologyNatural Resource ManagementBioGraphIrepresentation in STEM

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    Simulating Cortical Rotation, Axis Induction, and Experimental Embryology in Amphibian Embryos Using Clay Models
    The study of development requires learners to understand spatially complex concepts like embryo anatomy. Embryo anatomy is dynamic over time, and it is often manipulated by researchers in...

    Keywords: developmentXenopusfertilizationEmbryologyinductionSymmetry breakingOrganizerCortical rotationPatterning

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