Organismal Form and Function Lab part of CUREnet:CURE Collection
Christopher Oufiero, Towson University
Invertebrates use movement of their bodies and structures in diverse ways to interact with their environment. This includes general locomotion (e.g., walking, jumping, flying) to specific forms of locomotion (e.g., gliding on water), using limbs to acquire food (e.g., raptorial forelegs in the praying mantis) and using structures to communicate (e.g., cricket calls). These movements have been the focus of bioinspiration studies to understand how these small organisms, with compact nervous systems, are able to achieve their movements. Given the diversity of invertebrates and the lack of information on the variation in their movements, the goals of this course are to understand the variation in invertebrate movement and explore the factors that may affect that variation. In this course, students have the opportunity to develop and test their own research hypotheses associated with variation in the movement of invertebrates. Using high-speed cameras, students are instructed on filming techniques to quantify animal movement, the use of the R programming language to obtain basic kinematics of movement and analyze their data, and the process of science from hypothesis formation to presentation of results. Research questions change each iteration based upon the hypotheses students develop, but the same instructional material and skillsets (e.g., quantifying animal movement) are consistently used. Results from each student group are presented during a departmental wide poster symposium and can be written up for publication, where applicable.

From an Inquiry-Guided Project to a CURE in General Biology: Testing Repellent Effects of Essential Oils and a Parasitoid Wasp Against Callosobruchus maculatus. part of CUREnet:Institutes:Hampton University:Hampton CURE Examples
Joseph Felts, Davidson-Davie Community College

Lab 3: Building a Reef part of EarthLabs for Educators:Corals
The lab activity described here was created by Erin Bardar of TERC for the EarthLabs project. Summary and Learning Objectives During this lab, students learn about the life cycle of corals, including how they grow ...

Lab 2: Anatomy of Coral part of EarthLabs for Educators:Corals
The lab activity described here was created by Erin Bardar and LuAnn Dahlman of TERC for the EarthLabs project. Summary and Learning Objectives In this activity, students examine hydra, a fresh-water relative of ...

Traditional NADS Scum Run part of Starting Point-Teaching Entry Level Geoscience:Games:Examples
Rebecca Teed, Wright State University-Main Campus
This exercise consists of a relay race in which students must identify specimens or answer questions at various stations. -