Category Archives: Teaching

“Practice Perfection”: It’s Not Just for Gymnasts

Posted on April 12, 2019 by

In case you are not focused on the world of college gymnastics, the University of Oklahoma’s men’s and women’s teams are second to none. I am not exaggerating: You can see the 2019 NCAA men’s rankings here and the women’s … Continue reading →

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The Laptop Ban: New Research

Posted on February 9, 2019 by

Faithful readers may remember that a couple of years ago I banned the use of laptops in my nonmajors biology classroom. You can read about the rationale in a previous blog post that summarizes the Mueller and Oppenheimer study, which … Continue reading →

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Raise Your Hand: How Do You Start the Semester on the Right Foot?

Posted on August 31, 2018 by

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 →

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Another Way to Connect Selection, Phenotype, and Genotype

Posted on May 31, 2018 by

Now that it’s summer, I’m catching up on my American Biology Teacher backlog. I found this interesting-looking activity by Janina Jördens and three coauthors in the February 2018 issue. The title of the article says it all: “Interrelating Concepts from … Continue reading →

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Antibiotic resistance in the lab … with actual bacteria!

Posted on April 1, 2018 by

Apparently my post on the antibiotic resistance activity using green, yellow, and red beads was a big hit with instructors, because lots of people want a copy of the worksheet. I have been happy to oblige, and now I want … Continue reading →

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Selling the laptop ban: An activity

Posted on September 9, 2017 by

In my last blog post, I reported introducing a new no-laptop policy in my nonmajors biology class. We just finished week 3, and things are going well — there has been no pushback, and I really enjoy looking out at … Continue reading →

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A laptop ban at last

Posted on August 29, 2017 by

More than three years ago, I wrote a blog post about the debate over allowing cell phones and laptops in class. In the blog post, I summarized a study by Mueller and Oppenheimer showing that students who took notes on … Continue reading →

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Radiometric Dating: Need to Practice?

Posted on May 18, 2017 by

Last year, we posted a video explaining how to do three types of radiometric dating problems; we wrote about it in this blog post. I am pleased to report that the prodigious Matt Taylor has now released an activity with … Continue reading →

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One Good Clicker Tip

Posted on April 26, 2017 by

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 →

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Cultivating a Growth Mindset in Your Students

Posted on April 7, 2017 by

This semester, I’ve been reading a lot about teaching with a growth mindset. I wrote about this topic at the end of last semester in a blog post called At the End, I’m Looking to the Start. Since that time, … Continue reading →

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