Journal clubs have been used to advance students' scientific skills beyond basic knowledge and comprehension, but students often view the traditional format of analyzing reported data and experimental design as laborious and intimidating. As such, the traditional approach can diminish student engagement and enthusiasm for the value of…

Textbooks are required in most introductory college science courses, but students may not be benefitting from the textbooks as much as their instructors might hope. Word use in the textbooks may influence textbook effectiveness. I tested whether either the amount of technical vocabulary or the readability had a significant effect on students'…

Proper hand hygiene accompanied with environmental surface disinfection provides a comprehensive approach to control and prevent respiratory and gastrointestinal illness in schools, hospitals, work environments, and the home. The persistent non-pathogenic Nora virus common in "Drosophila melanogaster" provides a horizontally transmitted…

Although evidence supporting anthropogenic global warming and evolution by natural selection is considerable, the public does not embrace these concepts. The current study explores the hypothesis that individuals will become more receptive to scientific viewpoints if evidence for evolution and implications of global warming are presented as issues…

It has been suggested that research experiences are an important element that should be included in all undergraduate Biology curricula. This is a difficult suggestion to accommodate due to issues with cost, space and time. We addressed this challenge through development of a capstone project in which Biology majors work in groups to develop novel…

Many aquatic organisms survive by filter feeding from the surrounding water and capturing food particles. We developed a laboratory exercise that allows students to measure the effects of filtering by fresh water mussels on water turbidity. Mussels were acquired from Wards Scientific and exposed to a solution of baker's yeast. Over a period of one…

Computer-aided learning (CAL) is used increasingly to teach anatomy in post-secondary programs. Studies show that augmentation of traditional cadaver dissection and model examination by CAL can be associated with positive student learning outcomes. In order to reduce costs associated with the purchase of skeletons and models and to encourage study…

Most undergraduate physiology texts describe veins simply as reservoirs for blood and conduits for return of blood to the heart. This article describes a laboratory exercise that can be performed by students to demonstrate that veins are much more than reservoirs and conduits for blood flow: they possess a dynamic rhythmic contraction. In this…

Higher education goals include helping students develop evidence based reasoning skills; therefore, scientific thinking skills such as those required to understand the design of a basic experiment are important. The Experimental Design Ability Test (EDAT) measures students' understanding of the criteria for good experimental design through their…

This laboratory exercise investigates the influence of population density on offspring number and size in burying beetles. Students test the theoretical predictions that brood size declines and offspring size increases when competition over resources becomes stronger with increasing population density. Students design the experiment, collect and…

The 14-base pair hypervariable region in mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) of Asian populations, specifically Japanese and Chinese students at Plattsburgh State University, was examined. Previous research on this 14-base pair region showed it to be susceptible to mutations and as a result indicated direct correlation with specific ethnic populations.…

Scientific literature was used to give a research oriented context to our immunology lab course. Immunology lab, a senior level course (60 students/year) was formerly taught in a traditional mode, with exercises aimed at learning lab protocols. To engage students in understanding we connected the protocols to their use as reported in research…

The increase in publications presenting molecular evolutionary analyses and the availability of comparative sequence data through resources such as NCBI's GenBank underscore the necessity of providing undergraduates with hands-on sequence analysis skills in an evolutionary context. This need is particularly acute given that students have been…

A clear understanding of basic gene structure is critical when teaching molecular genetics, the central dogma and the biological sciences. We sought to create a gene-based teaching project to improve students' understanding of gene structure and to integrate this into a research project that can be implemented by instructors at the secondary level…

Hairy root transformation has been widely adapted in plant laboratories to rapidly generate transgenic roots for biochemical and molecular analysis. We present hairy root transformations as a versatile and adaptable model system for a wide variety of undergraduate laboratory courses and research. This technique is easy, efficient, and fast making…