Category Archives: Assignments

When Projects Replace Exams: A True Story of Success and Failure

Posted on August 7, 2023 by nonmajorsbiology

Last fall, I changed many parts of my nonmajors biology class. Some changes were intended to give students a greater role in exploring topics that matter to them; others were aimed at improving information literacy; for still others, I hoped … Continue reading →

Posted in Assessment, Assignments, Course design, Evolution, Experimental design, Student writing, Teaching | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Inhabiting the Anthropocene: Art Meets Biology

Posted on June 16, 2022 by nonmajorsbiology

This week I had to opportunity to contribute to a great blog called Inhabiting the Anthropocene. My friend and colleague Zev Trachtenberg hosts the blog site, which is “dedicated to exploring the intellectual and ethical challenges raised by the Anthropocene” … Continue reading →

Posted in Assignments, Collaboration, Engaging students, Laboratory activities, Science in art | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

A New Way to Look at Red-Green Colorblindness

Posted on September 21, 2020 by nonmajorsbiology

When we cover genetics in our nonmajors biology classes, many of us use red-green colorblindness as a familiar example of X-linked inheritance. We may even ask our students to indicate whether they can see the numbers or symbols in Ishihara … Continue reading →

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“BiteScis”: Bite-sized research to promote scientific thinking

Posted on August 26, 2020 by nonmajorsbiology

Are you looking for biology lessons that promote scientific thinking, are classroom-tested, and are fully customizable to your own needs? On second thought, who isn’t? While reading The American Biology Teacher recently, I learned about a good source: BiteScis, a … Continue reading →

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Boost your evolution IQ: An evolution misconceptions game

Posted on April 6, 2016 by nonmajorsbiology

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 →

Posted in Active learning, Assignments, Engaging students, Evolution, Instructional technology, Laboratory activities | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Help for Students Struggling with Evolutionary Trees

Posted on January 19, 2015 by nonmajorsbiology

Introductory biology students have a lot of trouble reading evolutionary trees. On last fall’s final exam, I picked up an image that I found online (see right; it is figure 15 in this article), labeled the species in it, and asked … Continue reading →

Posted in Assignments, Evolution, Instructional technology, Learning at home, Teaching, Videos | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Teaching Experimental Design: The Ongoing Struggle

Posted on September 1, 2014 by nonmajorsbiology

About two years ago, I wrote a blog post about my continuing efforts to teach experimental design in my nonmajors biology class. That post (Little Changes, Big Difference) detailed my use of the “Marshmallow Test” film clip to generate questions … Continue reading →

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Brainstorming about Human Movements

Posted on August 8, 2014 by nonmajorsbiology

Regular readers know I’m a sucker for attractive, thought-provoking videos. I just found this one, called Thousands of Years of Human Migration in Five Minutes. When I saw the title I expected to see humanity spreading across a map of … Continue reading →

Posted in Active learning, Assignments, Engaging students, Evolution, Instructional technology, Laboratory activities, Videos | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

“Citizen Science” That Could Save Lives

Posted on March 11, 2014 by nonmajorsbiology

If a few minutes of your time could help researchers discover a new antibiotic or cancer treatment, wouldn’t you willingly devote that time? It really might turn out to be that easy! Recently, my class was fortunate enough to visit … Continue reading →

Posted in Active learning, Assignments, Citizen science, Collaboration, Engaging students, Laboratory activities, Teaching | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Making “Reptilobird” Babies: An Action Center Success Story

Posted on March 5, 2014 by nonmajorsbiology

I have frequently struggled to help students connect the events of meiosis with the adaptive value of sexual reproduction; it’s hard to get students to look away from the stages of meiosis to see the “big picture” of genetic variability. … Continue reading →

Posted in Active learning, Assignments, Collaboration, Engaging students, Evolution, Laboratory activities, Teaching | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 110 Comments