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- “Practice Perfection”: It’s Not Just for Gymnasts
- The Laptop Ban: New Research
- Moldy bread, experimental design, and you
- Raise Your Hand: How Do You Start the Semester on the Right Foot?
- Another Way to Connect Selection, Phenotype, and Genotype
- So many learning resources … so little time
- Antibiotic resistance in the lab … with actual bacteria!
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- Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria: A Simple, Realistic Lab Activity
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Category Archives: Active learning
Raise Your Hand: How Do You Start the Semester on the Right Foot?
Years ago, I published my best idea for semester prep, a checklist that has proved to be an audience favorite. Over the past 5 years, many readers have asked for my checklist, which I have freely shared. I was knee-deep … Continue reading
Trail cam images and data for your lab
Earlier this month, I went to my favorite conference of the year: the one for the Association for Biology Laboratory Education. If you don’t know about it, check it out. Each conference follows a workshop format, so you don’t sit … Continue reading
One Good Clicker Tip
The end of the semester is not a great time to introduce a tip for using clickers; I am sure this post would have been more useful in January! But I can’t control when ideas for blog posts drop into … Continue reading
Posted in Active learning, Engaging students, Teaching
Tagged clicker questions, clickers, iClicker2, Technology, Tomorrow's Professor
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Teaching cell chemistry with Legos
Behold, my trusty bag of Legos … well they’re not actually Legos because I couldn’t find a bag of plain old Legos. All of the Legos nowadays are sold in kits with wheels and roofs and other things I don’t … Continue reading
Posted in Active learning, Chemistry, Teaching
Tagged Action Center, dehydration synthesis, digestion, hydrolysis, Legos, Organic molecules, respiration, students, toys
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Flashcards, but with a Twist
I have had a fondness for index cards for quite a few years, if my 2012 series on the subject is any indication (for a flashback, visit part 1, part 2, and part 3). Flashcards are of course a tried … Continue reading
Posted in Active learning, Learning at home, Study skills
Tagged active learning, flashcards, introductory biology
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Boost your evolution IQ: An evolution misconceptions game
A guest post by Matt Taylor Last Spring, Mariëlle and I spent some time reading education articles about student struggles learning evolution. In particular, we were interested in which misconceptions about evolution students might bring to introductory biology classes. We … Continue reading
Return of the “Clever Cockroaches”
Longtime followers of my blog may remember that nearly two years ago I wrote a post about the misrepresentation of natural selection and evolution in headlines and news stories. In the study that prompted the post, researchers found that coating … Continue reading
Protein Synthesis with Candy: I Won’t Take Credit, but It Worked
We have been studying protein synthesis over the past couple of weeks. In my experience, students find the details of the process difficult to remember; the role of tRNA (and its mysterious anticodon) seems especially hard for them to grasp. … Continue reading
Posted in Active learning
Tagged Action Center, amino acid, biological processes, biology textbooks, candy, concept map, DNA, genetic code, protein, RNA
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CourseSource.org: Great teaching resources!
I recently learned about a fantastic site called CourseSource, and I’d like to share a bit about what I found. According to the site, CourseSource is “an open-access journal of peer-reviewed teaching resources for undergraduate biological sciences.” Perhaps you are thinking, … Continue reading
Teaching the Biomes: A Different Approach
I feel like I can do a pretty good job lecturing on most topics at a level that will hold the attention of nonmajors, but two exceptions are cell organelles and biomes. Don’t get me wrong — I love teaching … Continue reading
