Center for Life Sciences Education Resource Portal for Scientific Teaching

This is a set of questions and slides to facilitate a discussion about the chemistry required for success in Bio 1113. Obviously this will vary with each instructor. The first question models a study strategy that I encourage my students to take: start with a blank page and, starting broadly and then filling in the details, write what you know about x subject. This fits nicely at the beginning of...

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A fun educational video clip showing chasing of a bacterium by a neutrophil and eventually consuming it by phagocytosis. Useful to entertain students during cellular diversity lab. Illustrates concepts like cell size deference between eukaryotic and prokaryotic cells, cellular diversity (i.e. white blood cell vs. red blood cells vs. bacterium) and bulk cellular transport by phagocytosis.

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This is a 2016 TED talk that provides a concise and basic description of how CRISPR works. In the talk, the details of the CRISPR procedure/mechanism are presented, and myths and misconceptions about the technique and its implications are discussed. This approximately 10 minute video (mini-lecture) might be useful for students to gain sufficient background knowledge in preparation for active...

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This resource comes from the NIH U.S. National Library of Medicine. The website includes resources for teaching Mendelian genetics and nonmendelian inheritance patterns all related to characters in the Harry Potter series. PowerPoint slides are included for instruction along with printable student handouts.

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This is a collection of video lectures posted by iBioEducation. These video lectures are typically around 20 to 30 minutes in length, and cover topics ranging from molecular biology to ecology and human impacts on the environment. These videos, as is pointed out by iBioEducation, may serve as excellent resources to be integrated into a flipped-classrooom approach to instruction, as they are...

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This resource is a video series produced by the University of Georgia Scientists Engaged in Education Research (SEER) Center on active learning lessons, evidence for its benefits, and how to implement this instructional approach (strategies set-by-step). These videos should be used by instructors to learn more about the active learning component of scientific teaching. The videos provide examples...

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This resource is a collection of videos that comprise the Active Learning Module of the iBiology Scientific Teaching series. These videos provide expert advice from individuals well-versed in both scientific teaching and active learning, and should be used by instructors to learn more about how to effectively implement more active approaches to instruction in their own courses. Among a variety of...

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The Wisc-Online "GameBuilder" is a free, online tool for instructors. Currently, the site provides 16 different gaming frameworks into which instructors can incorporate their own course content. Games range from "Baseball" to "Spin to Win" and "Rapid Fire," among others. Students, if provided the appropriate link, can access the game for free, or can search the site for other games of interest....

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This resource is a collection of lesson plans for activities that promote student engagement with the concept of gene regulation, particularly in prokaryotes. A total of 4 active learning activities are described in detail, including "Lactose Operon Role Play," "Cell Growth in the Presence of Two Sugar Sources," "Design a Repressor System," and Alterations of Operon Function through Mutation."...

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This activity is a case study that draws from the work of Yoshiura et al (2006), where a single base substitution in the ABCC11 gene can result in phenotypic change in earwax consistency. A New York Times article discussing this study is used as the main reading of this activity, as it discusses the case without using key terminology and without specifically explaining the genetics behind the...

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The Surface Area : Volume worksheet is a relatively short (7-question) worksheet that can be used to assess the degree to which students grasp the relationship between surface area and volume, as well as the significance of this relationship to cellular structure and function. Questions are posed in short-answer form, though multiple questions can be answered with a single word. This resource has...

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The PNAS Podcast program provides short, informative, recorded, "...conversations with cutting-edge researchers, Academy members, and policy makers as they discuss topics relevant to today's scientific community." Topics vary across a wide range concepts, from, "how mosquitoes survive raindrops" to, "How caffeine can help prevent cancer." These podcasts could serve a variety of purposes for...

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This is a worksheet (and key) that emphasizes the chemistry of water and the emergent properties of water that arise from water's chemistry. Its purpose is to reinforce the lecture material on these topics and to help students start to think about what makes a molecule polar/hydrophilic vs. nonpolar/hydrophobic. It was adapted from a worksheet posted at http...

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In this PNAS podcast, the concept of the relatively new "gene drive" biotechnology application is discussed, particularly as it applies to the potential to impact control of malarial vectors in wild populations. The mechanistic nature of the procedure is discussed, as are social considerations for future use of this technique.

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This is a writing assignment designed to help students learn how to read scientific literature and practice utilizing the scientific method using the data found in the paper. Students are asked to read a scientific publication (primary source) while following along with the accompanying handout. The handout provides prompts to help students understand more about what they are reading, what a...

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