Category Archives: Just for fun

FOH: Finally, a cure for FMOOWMP

Posted on October 3, 2016 by nonmajorsbiology

If your students are like mine, no location on campus is scarier than your office. Did you know that their reluctance to come to your office hours actually has a medical cause? I didn’t until I saw this funny new … Continue reading →

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Survey Says: Biology Teachers Are “Tricky”

Posted on April 15, 2015 by nonmajorsbiology

A guest post by Matt Taylor After the end of every semester, some of us delight in reading student evaluations. Others might dread seeing them, and still others might pay as little attention to them as possible. Beyond the end-of-semester … Continue reading →

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Mythbusting Biology in Class

Posted on July 17, 2014 by nonmajorsbiology

An AsapScience video has inspired me to try a new activity in class. We’ve talked about AsapScience before. It’s a YouTube channel that creates weekly videos explaining the answers to frequently asked science questions. Last week’s video was titled “7 Myths … Continue reading →

Posted in Engaging students, Just for fun, Videos | 2 Comments

Giraffe Nerves and Clean Water: Two Videos I Like

Posted on March 26, 2014 by nonmajorsbiology

I came across two YouTube videos recently that have nothing to do with one another except that (1) they could be useful to biology teachers and (2) they caught my attention recently. Without further ado, I’ll share … First, a … Continue reading →

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Connecting Biology to the Olympics

Posted on February 16, 2014 by nonmajorsbiology

Thanks to my friend Michael Windelspecht at Ricochet Science for pointing out that ASAP Science has been posting YouTube videos relating biology to the Olympics. The ASAP Science videos are brief and fun-to-watch, and they present content supported by research. … Continue reading →

Posted in Active learning, Engaging students, Evolution, Instructional technology, Just for fun, Science news, Teaching | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Hot dog!

Posted on October 14, 2013 by nonmajorsbiology

Here’s a new reason to have your students study those animal tissue micrographs: They can see for themselves what’s really in a hot dog! Yes, scientists have used standard techniques in pathology to find out the truth. Take a look … Continue reading →

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Cute, Dorky Video on Inheritance

Posted on September 18, 2013 by nonmajorsbiology

I imagine this has been around for a while, but my class is just starting its inheritance unit and the Biologists’s Mother’s Day Song recently came to my attention. I know it’s not even close to Mother’s Day, but the … Continue reading →

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Why I Like Charles Darwin Now, More than Ever

Posted on May 14, 2013 by nonmajorsbiology

I recently visited Down House, the home of Charles Darwin, in the countryside southeast of London. Of course I expected to learn more about the man’s background and his writings on evolution, and I looked forward to seeing the study … Continue reading →

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Patterns in Structure and Function: An Active Learning Activity

Posted on March 8, 2013 by nonmajorsbiology

I recently saw a lovely video that has nothing to do with biology. It is a time-lapse video of an artist jolting a plywood board with 15,000 volts of electricity. The accompanying text on an EarthSky blog page concisely connects … Continue reading →

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Fungal Fun for the Holidays

Posted on December 14, 2012 by nonmajorsbiology

Too bad the semester just ended at the University of Oklahoma, because one of my students just sent me a link that I could have used in both of my classes (mycology and nonmajors biology). The link is to a blog … Continue reading →

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