Evolution of antibiotic resistance in bacteria
Elena Bray Speth, Saint Louis University-Main Campus
This activity is intended to guide students to apply principles of evolution by natural selection to explain a real world biological phenomenon (the evolution of bacteria populations resistant to common ...

Evolution of Whales
Mitchell Colgan, College of Charleston
The students read two articles on the evolution of whales and search the web. The students' writing assignment requires them to outline the evolution of whales using major fossil finds. Students start with ...

Protein Evolution
Scott Cooper, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse
In this activity students explore the evolution of proteins by comparing 2D and 3D alignments of orthologs and paralogs.

Co-evolution of Life and Minerals
Penelope Boston, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology
Based on the 2010 Scientific American paper by Hazen, and the more technical 2008 paper of Hazen et al, both of which explore the effect of the biosphere on the tremendous number of mineral species that occur on ...

Analyzing datasets in ecology and evolution to teach the nature and process of science
Rebecca Price, University of Washington-Tacoma Campus
This quarter-long project forms the basis of a third-year course for majors and nonmajors at the University of Washington, Bothell called Science Methods and Practice. Students use databases to identify novel research questions, and extract data to test their hypotheses. They frame the question with primary literature, address the questions with inferential statistics, and discuss the results with more primary literature. The product is a scientific paper; each step of the process is scaffolded and evaluated. Given time limitations, we avoid devoting time to data collection; instead, we sharpen students' ability to make sense of a large body of quantitative data, a situation they may rarely have encountered. We treat statistics with a strictly conceptual, pragmatic, and abbreviated approach; i.e., we ask students to know which basic test to choose to assess a linear relationship vs. a difference between two means. We stress the need for a normal distribution in order to use these tests, and how to interpret the results; we leave the rest for stats courses, and we do not teach the mathematics. This approach proves beneficial even to those who have already had a statistics course, because it is often the first time they make decisions about applying statistics to their own research questions. We incorporate peer review and collaborative work throughout the quarter. We form collaborative groups around the research questions they ask, enabling them to share primary literature they find, and preparing them well to review each other's writing. We encourage them to cite each other's work. They write formal peer reviews of each other's papers, and they submit their final paper with a letter-to-the-editor highlighting how their research has addressed previous feedback. A major advantage of this course is that an instructor can easily modify it to suit any area of expertise. Students have worked with data about how a snail's morphology changes in response to its environment (Price, 2012), how students understand genetic drift (Price et al. 2014), maximum body size in the fossil record (Payne et al. 2008), range shifts (Ettinger et al. 2011), and urban crop pollination (Waters and Clifford 2014).

Teaching Molecular Evolution and Phylogenetics
Nathan Lents, CUNY John Jay College Criminal Justice
This activity uses DNA sequences, protein sequence, and chromosome-density maps to re-trace the ancestry of humans and some of their closest relatives.

Evolution, Natural Selection and Speciation
Scott Cooper, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse
In this out of class tutorial, students explore several examples of natural selection and speciation.

Molecular Techniques in Ecology and Evolution
steven kimble, Towson University
Microbiomes are the huge communities of microbes that live in and on host organisms, and are typically intimately involved with the host in myriad ways, including in immune, metabolic, and behavior functions. As ecosystems, these microbiomes are sensitive to changes in their environments, such as host aging, disease state, or contact with pollutants. They could therefore be used as bioindicators of host health, but the membership and functions of microbiomes are poorly understood in almost all creatures, especially reptiles and amphibians. In this CURE we use modern field, laboratory, and bioinformatic tools to describe and analyze the microbiomes of non-model organisms such as frogs, turtles, and reef fish.

Reconstructing the Evolution of Cauliflower and Broccoli
Sarah Deel, Carleton College; Susan Singer, Carleton College; Debby Walser-Kuntz, Carleton College
This laboratory exercise focuses on the connections between plant genetics and morphology.

Modeling Molecular Evolution
Jodi Schwarz, Vassar College
Biology and Computer Science majors collaborate to model the process of mutation at the DNA level, and examine the consequences at the protein level.