In this laboratory exercise students use digital cameras to measure surface fluorescence of transgenic plants expressing green fluorescence protein (GFP). Inquiry pedagogy is used to teach processes used in scientific investigations and how GFP is used in reporter gene systems. Students start by making observations involving induction of expression of a GFP expressing reporter gene and then...

Publisher: EvoEd Digital Library
PlantEd Digital Library

• More Info

Transmission genetics labs are valuable for undergraduate development of analytical thinking skills. However, these labs typically present the scientific process as artificially linear, with a single "right answer." This resource describes an inquiry-based approach to teaching a transmission genetics lab focused on plant cotyledon color. Student groups are required to develop a hypothesis based...

Publisher: PlantEd Digital Library

• More Info

This is a multi-week laboratory exercise that involves sequencing a pair of mitochondrial genes in cows. Using data from several samples, students calculate diversity (variation within species) and divergence (variation between species). The exercise reinforces principles in molecular genetics (DNA purification, PCR, etc.) and introduces principles in molecular population genetics. We provide...

Publisher: EvoEd Digital Library

• More Info

Using tiles from a Scrabble game, we present methods to create simulations of sampling exercises and to develop diversity indices. The tiles represent species, and so a known sampling universe (100 tiles) allows comparing a sample with the known distribution of species. We then offer several variations to simulate different kinds of sampling (larger sample size, more samples), alter the rarity...

Publisher: EcoEd Digital Library

• More Info

Cooperative learning: Students can work through the exercises in groups, using either the painted turtle data or group-specific taxa (i.e., each group selects a taxon to model). This module addresses multiple, complex concepts online data availability & access, spatial query & analysis, global climate models, theoretical concepts of SDMs, model fitting any of which can be expanded depending...

Publisher: EcoEd Digital Library

• More Info