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    The 4-Minute Summary: Helping students recall, recap and explain the big picture... and much more!
    Actively engaging students during a lecture class can come through many formats.  The 4-Minute Summary is a versatile pedagogy that can be readily applied to any class format (e.g.,...

    Keywords: active learningDiscussionLarge classSummary

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    Teaching Biodiversity with Museum Specimens in an Inquiry-Based Lab
    In response to the growth of biology datasets and broad efforts to digitize data, an increasingly important skill for science students is the management and analysis of large datasets. We designed...

    Keywords: data analysisnatural historyphylogenyBiodiversitymammalsAllen's RuleBergmann's Ruleecogeographymuseum research

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    Climate Change Connections
    This module is composed of three related activities that introduce students to climate change's complexity from a conceptual standpoint. In the first activity, students work in small groups to...

    Keywords: interdisciplinaryclimate changeconcept mapping

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    Implementing an online module about plant functional traits in the context of restoration ecology for an undergraduate class in Brazil.
    This resource describes my experience in implementing this OCELOTS module in a Functional Trait-based Restoration class for undergraduate majors in the Forest Sciences Department / Escola Superior...

    Keywords: tropical forestsbiodiversity structureAtlantic forestfunctional traitshybrid ecosystems

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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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    Snapshot Serengeti Online Lab
    Snapshot Serengeti is a fully online inquiry-based lab that uses real camera-trap data from Serengeti National Park in Tanzania to explore themes of tropical ecology and animal behavior.

    Keywords: ecologyspecies interactionscitizen scienceCommunity Ecologyanimal behaviormigration ecologyScience Communicationspecies distributionspredator-prey interactionsTropical ecologycamera trapsSerengetisavannah biome

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    When tests disagree, how do I know if I have COVID-19?
    Students will learn about infectious disease and the immune response to infection by investigating different types of tests (PCR, antigen, and antibody tests) to detect the SARS-CoV-2 viral genetic...

    Keywords: geneticsVision and Changeintroductory biologyinfectious diseasemolecular biologycore competenciesRT-PCRviruscore conceptsnon-majors biologySARS-CoV-2antibodyAntigenImmunoReachmolecular DiagnosticsCOVID-19 transmission

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    In-class peer grading of daily quizzes increases feedback opportunities
    Educators are familiar with evidence of the benefit that frequent and immediate feedback provides to our students, regardless of class size. We also often find ourselves in a situation where we do...

    Keywords: foundational knowledgegraphical interpretationtechnical terms

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    Science of Sorting
    Children possess an innate curiosity about the natural world. This Discovery Trunk explores the topic of sorting, or classification, in the study of life science.

    Keywords: species interactionsphylogenyscience educationPropertytaxonomyindividual traitsLife ScienceSortOrganizationReproductionclassifycharacteriesticlivingnonlivingobjectsadvantagedichotomous keyliving systemsoffspringphysical traitbehavioral traitcladecladogramtaxonomistnatural worldkingdomsbinomial nominclatureone class periodgradesK-8K-8

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    Introduction to Phylogenetic Trees for Comparative Genomic Analysis
    In this activity, students are introduced to phylogenetic trees and networks as tools for analyzing evolutionary relationships.
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    Exploring Functions for Common Phage Proteins
    This resource is designed to help students better understand the functions of common structural and enzymatic phage proteins, and to relate these functions to phage structure using electron...
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    A Tough Choice in Watershed Management
    In this Team-based activity, students work in teams, playing the role of natural resource managers who must decide in which region to invest limited funding for nutrient reduction in streams....

    Keywords: Stream ecologyBox PlotsSpreadsheetGroup cooperative learningTeam-based LearningBiogeochemical cycles

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    Sequence Similarity Resource Adaptation: Exploring Ebola Virus
    This adaptation of the sequence similarity resource provides biology students with a basic set of bioinformatics concepts and tools. These concepts and tools are used to explore relationships...

    Keywords: phylogeneticsbioinformaticsEbolasequencingFASTANCBINIBLSEalgorithmsincubatorsBLASTmultiple sequence alignmentsequence similarityBLOSUM scoring matrixneighbor-joining distance matrixCourseSourcephylogram

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    Transitioning Two-Stage Exams to an Online Class
    Students often find biology courses to be very difficult and isolating, particularly if they identify as part of a group that has been historically excluded from STEM. Some of this anxiety and...

    Keywords: lower division STEMupper division STEM

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    Integrating Community Ecology Into the Study of Parasites: Exploring the Effect of Host Behavior on Parasite Transmission Rates
    Organismal life cycles are often presented as a set of facts to memorize in undergraduate biology courses. This approach is cognitively demanding for students and fails to convey how central life...

    Keywords: statisticsspecies interactionsQuantitative reasoninggraphsCommunity EcologyParasitologyfood webs

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    An active-learning lesson that targets student understanding of population growth in ecology
    Effective teaching and learning of population ecology requires integration of quantitative literacy skills. To facilitate student learning in population ecology and provide students with the...

    Keywords: population growthexponential growthlogistic growthpopulation ecologygrowth rateDensityAbundancecarrying capacitylinear growth

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    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

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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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    Data, Distributions, and Hypotheses: Exploring Diversity and Disturbance in the Tallgrass Prairie
    Proper hypothesis generation, data handling, graphing, and communication are essential skills that undergraduate majors in biology are expected to master. However, students rarely get hands-on...

    Keywords: Quantitative reasoningRestoration EcologyScience process skillstall grass prairie ecosystem

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    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

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