Activities from Teach the Earth for
Protein Powder Makes Ice Crystals Flower

Intro to Environmental Geology Writing Assignment part of Student Learning: Observing and Assessing:Activities with Rubrics
Students in an introductory environmental geology class research the Dust Bowl, analyze information and data and develop a written argument.

GLOBE and My NASA Data Collection, Visualization and Analysis through Concept Mapping part of Project EDDIE:Teaching Materials:Modules
Through the use of GLOBE Observer app, and My NASA data, students will explore the acquisition, visualization and analysis of data. Students will follow the scientific method to better understand the steps in the acquisition, analysis and interpretation of data. Students will be exposed to the value of citizen science and the role of science in our lives. Students will learn to identify basic cloud types and features with the My NASA cloud sorting cloud activity and sky watcher cloud chart (background knowledge), utilize the GLOBE Observer app to collect cloud and dust data across different locations and time frames (data acquisition), upload the data to the GLOBE NASA database, and then work with the Earth System Data Explorer to visualize, analyze, and interpret how these different kinds of data are used by scientists to understand the natural world and complex processes and interactions of Earth's spheres (data visualization and analysis). Finally, students will produce a series of cumulative concept maps as they evaluate the steps in the data acquisition, analysis and interpretation process through the GLOBE app, and My NASA site's Earth System Data Explorer.

Paleoclimate and Ocean Biogeochemistry part of Project EDDIE:Teaching Materials:Modules
This module guides students through an examination of how surface ocean productivity relates to global climate on glacial-interglacial timescales and how the availability of ocean nutrients can be correlated with ...

Lab 5: Droughts of the Past part of EarthLabs for Educators:Drought
The lab activity described here was created by Betsy Youngman of Phoenix Country Day School and LuAnn Dahlman and Sarah Hill of TERC for the EarthLabs project. Summary and Learning Objectives America's most ...

Unit 7.2 - Agricultural Impacts part of Critical Zone Science
Humans not only reside in the Critical Zone, they depend upon the land and water to provide sustenance. This unit will examine how humans affect soil resources and ecosystem services in the Critical Zone through ...

Exploring eukaryotic protein structure and post-translational modifications. part of CUREnet:Institutes:Bowie State University:Examples
This CURE will provide opportunity for students to think and act as researchers by using computational, biochemical, and bioanalytical techniques to examine tick antigen proteins. The CURE is designed as a lab for upper-level students who are taking or have taken a one-semester introductory biochemistry course, but two semesters would be even better. It could also be adapted for cell/molecular biology or (bio) analytical chemistry instrumentational analysis labs. It has been taught for classes ranging from 12-24 students. Ticks are notorious vectors of viral, protozoan, and bacterial diseases, including Lyme disease. While an anti-vector vaccine capable of protecting people from diseases transmitted by a particular tick species is an alluring goal, only one such anti-tick vaccine is currently available. This vaccine targets Bm86, a protein from the midgut of Rhipicephalus microplus, a cattle tick. Not only does the vaccine limit parasitism of the cattle by ticks, data suggests that it can also prevent transmission of tick-borne diseases including bovine anaplasmosis and babesiosis. However, similar vaccination approaches have not succeeded thus far against ticks that transmit diseases to humans, and little is known about the antibody response to the antigen, or about the protein itself. Since the protein's structure and function are unknown, the research goal of this CURE is to purify Bm86 using an insect cell/baculovirus expression system and characterize it, including domain structure and post-translational modifications (glycosylation sites). There are homologs to Bm86 in every sequenced tick species examined, and future CUREs will characterize some of the homologs including those in Ixodes scapularis, the tick that is mainly responsible for transmitting Lyme in the eastern US, and Haemaphysalis longicornis, the Asian longhorned tick, a newly-discovered invasive species in the area that also has significant disease-transmitting potential. By understanding the structure and post-translational modifications of this protein, we hope to gain a better understanding of how to make effective anti-tick vaccines, including those for humans, that may prevent transmission of Lyme disease. Importantly, the basic parameters of this CURE can be used to examine other proteins besides tick antigens. For example, during the pandemic, the CURE pivoted from the tick antigen to the SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid protein, which was also expressed in an insect cell system. Instead of characterizing glycosylation sites, we characterized phosphorylation sites. It's therefore possible to use this same framework for many different eukaryotic proteins that may be of research interest.

Gallery Walk Questions about Climate part of Starting Point-Teaching Entry Level Geoscience:Gallery Walks:Examples
created by Mark Francek, Central Michigan University The following are potential questions that could be used in a gallery walk activity about climate. The questions are organized according to the cognitive level ...

Using Satellite Images to Understand Earth's Atmosphere part of Earth Exploration Toolbook:Using Satellite Images to Understand Earths Atmosphere
DATA: NASA Satellite Images. TOOLS: ImageJ and Image Composite Explorer (ICE) of NASA Earth Observations (NEO). SUMMARY: Use ImageJ to create an animation showing the change in monthly concentration of aerosols over the course of a year and compare it to a similar animation showing change in carbon monoxide concentration. Then use NEO ICE to create histograms and scatter plots, investigating the relationship between aerosol concentration and carbon monoxide concentration.

The HICA project part of CUREnet:CURE Collection
In this CURE, inspired by the work of Hoffmann, et al., students prepare mutant Haemophilus influenzae carbonic anhydrase (HICA) proteins. Using PyMOL to visualize the three-dimensional structure of the HICA protein, students choose one or more surface amino acid residues to mutate to histidine residues in order to create a surface histidine cluster that will allow the mutant protein to bind to a nickel affinity column. Using site-directed mutagenesis, recombinant plasmids are constructed and are then used to transform an E. coli expression vector. The mutant HICA protein is overexpressed, cells are lysed, and students load the cell lysate onto Ni-NTA columns and determine the imidazole concentration required to elute the mutant protein. The construction of a library of mutant proteins will allow the development of a general method in which specific surface histidine residues of any protein can be mutated in order to facilitate affinity purification. The Haemophilus influenzae bacterium described herein is a respiratory pathogen that causes meningitis (in its encapsulated form) and mucosal infections such as otitis media, sinusitis and conjunctivitis (in its unencapsulated form). A recent study showed that the carbonic anhydrase enzyme is absolutely required for pathogenesis. Furthermore, expression of the HICA enzyme allows the pathogen to survive in host immune cells (Langereis, et al.). These observations make the study of HICA itself particularly attractive, in addition to the overall goal of contributing to a body of work that will allow the minimal histidine character required for nickel affinity to be ascertained.

Introduction to strings and DNA/protein sequence alignments part of Teaching Computation with MATLAB:MATLAB Workshop 2018:Activities
This is problem set that helps solidify concepts of computational processing (accessing data, parsing data, visualizing data, using preconstructed tools) and sequence matching, specifically in the context of ...

Characterising the prokaryotic ATPase-ome part of CUREnet:CURE Collection
Students work in teams of 3-4 trying to identify and characterise putative ATPase enzymes from prokaryotic organisms. Each student identifies a putative uncharacterised ATPase gene from a range of prokaryotes (archaea and bacteria), and uses bioinformatic methods to characterise the gene. They then work in teams in the lab to clone, express and purify their chosen proteins; finally they characterise the protein using spectrophotometric ATPase assays. The team presents a poster on their work, then each student individually writes a report in the style of a short paper. The student grade is based on three assessed pieces: the lab book (20%), poster presentation (10%, graded as a team), and the report (70%). This course is compulsory for year 3 of our MSci Biochemistry programme, and counts for 20 credit points (out of 120 for the year). The course has been running since 2017 with an intake of 20-30 students per year, all of whom have passed the course.

A Bioinformatic Look at Iron Uptake in Insects part of CUREnet:Institutes:CU Denver:Examples
Students will perform BLAST searches, make phylogenetic trees, identify putative orthologs, and investigate secondary structure elements of 5' untranslated regions (UTRs). The sequences used will be related to iron uptake in insects.