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.

Exercise in a Changing Climate part of Integrate:Program Design:InTeGrate Program Models:Gustavus Adolphus:Teaching Activities
James Dontje, Gustavus Adolphus College
Using the question of how exercise and sporting events might be affected by climate, students are led to the basic questions of what causes climate change, how our climate might change, and what affect that might have on athletes and anyone undertaking strenuous exercise.

Where do drugs go? part of BASICS:Teaching Materials:The Wicked Problem of Water Quality in the Mississippi River Watershed:Course-Specific Exercises
Zoë Wagner, Bentley University, Natural & Applied Sciences
This classroom discussion centered around the biological/chemical mechanisms by which drugs leave the body and where the drugs go from there. We discussed renal clearance via urine, then transitioned into a ...

Retinitis pigmentosa: Genetic Eye Disease part of Starting Point: Teaching and Learning Economics:Teaching Methods:Teaching with the Case Method:Examples
Eric Ribbens, Western Illinois University
By examining the progress of a genetic eye disease, students learn about eyes, genetic disorders, and neurons in this case designed for clickers and large lecture sections.

Investigating Local Plant Growth: Structures and Functions part of MnSTEP Teaching Activity Collection:MnSTEP Activity Mini-collection
Carole DuRand Melrose High School Melrose, Minnesota
This activity is a classroom investigation where students gather descriptive data on two different plants with a partner, and on other plants during a classroom discussion.They will then interpret their findings, and classify the plants, if applicable, into monocots or dicots.

Worm Watch part of MnSTEP Teaching Activity Collection:MnSTEP Activity Mini-collection
Lindsey Molstad
This activity is a field investigation where students learn about scientific sampling, earthworms as an invasive species, and collect data on earthworm populations using three sampling methods.