Education Commons^™

Using Critical-Thinking Skills To Substantiate Or Challenge Controversial Claims Endorsing A Myriad Of Weight-Loss Products, Teresa F. Degolier

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

This exercise engages students in critically evaluating weight-loss products and programs. Specific objectives are to investigate, analyze, and substantiate claims made by the weight-loss industry and interpret how these claims may be fraudulent, misleading, or perhaps even truthful.

Maple Syrup: A Sweet Springtime Lesson, Stephen G. Saupe, Sarah Gainey

Biology Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Unlv Magazine, Tony Allen, Shane Bevell, Donna Mcaleer, Ched Whitney, Cate Weeks

UNLV Magazine

No abstract provided.

Impact Of Interdisciplinary Undergraduate Research In Mathematics And Biology On The Development Of A New Course Integrating Five Stem Disciplines, Lester Caudill, April L. Hill, Kathy Hoke, Ovidiu Z. Lipan

Department of Math & Statistics Faculty Publications

Funded by innovative programs at the National Science Foundation and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of Richmond faculty in biology, chemistry, mathematics, physics, and computer science teamed up to offer first- and second-year students the opportunity to contribute to vibrant, interdisciplinary research projects. The result was not only good science but also good science that motivated and informed course development. Here, we describe four recent undergraduate research projects involving students and faculty in biology, physics, mathematics, and computer science and how each contributed in significant ways to the conception and implementation of our new Integrated Quantitative Science course, a …

Impact Of Interdisciplinary Undergraduate Research In Mathematics And Biology On The Development Of A New Course Integrating Five Stem Disciplines, Lester Caudill, April L. Hill, Kathy Hoke, Ovidiu Z. Lipan

Biology Faculty Publications

Funded by innovative programs at the National Science Foundation and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of Richmond faculty in biology, chemistry, mathematics, physics, and computer science teamed up to offer first- and second-year students the opportunity to contribute to vibrant, interdisciplinary research projects. The result was not only good science but also good science that motivated and informed course development. Here, we describe four recent undergraduate research projects involving students and faculty in biology, physics, mathematics, and computer science and how each contributed in significant ways to the conception and implementation of our new Integrated Quantitative Science course, a …

"Beyond Bio2010: Celebration And Opportunities" At The Intersection Of Mathematics And Biology, John R. Jungck, Holly D. Gaff, Adam P. Fagen, Jay B. Labov

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

With this special edition of CBE-LSE, which focuses on connections between and integration of the biological and mathematical sciences, it is especially fitting that we report on an important symposium, Beyond BIO2010: Celebration and Opportunities,1 which was held at the National Acad- emy of Sciences (NAS) in Washington, D.C. on May 21–22, 2010. This symposium was organized to assess what progress has been made in addressing the challenges and recommendations in the National Research Council’s (NRC) report: BIO2010: Transforming Undergraduate Education for Future Research Biologists (NRC, 2003a). Most of the presen- tations and posters at this event emphasized the increasing …

Mathematical Manipulative Models: In Defense Of "Beanbag Biology", John R. Jungck, Holly Gaff, Anton E. Weisstein

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Mathematical manipulative models have had a long history of influence in biological research and in secondary school education, but they are frequently neglected in undergraduate biology education. By linking mathematical manipulative models in a four-step process-1) use of physical manipulatives, 2) interactive exploration of computer simulations, 3) derivation of mathematical relationships from core principles, and 4) analysis of real data sets-we demonstrate a process that we have shared in biological faculty development workshops led by staff from the BioQUEST Curriculum Consortium over the past 24 yr. We built this approach based upon a broad survey of literature in mathematical educational …

How Our Health Depends On Biodiversity, Eric Chivian M.D., Aaron Bernstein M.D., M.P.H.

Ecosystem Disruption & Climate Change

The eminent Harvard biology Professor Edward O.Wilson once said about ants, “We need them to survive, but they don’t need us at all.” The same, in fact, could be said about countless other insects, bacteria, fungi, plankton, plants, and other organisms. This fundamental truth, however, is largely lost to many of us. Rather, we humans often act as if we are totally independent of Nature, as if our driving thousands of other species to extinction and disrupting the life-giving services they provide will have no effect on us whatsoever.

This summary, using concrete examples from our award-winning Oxford University Press …

Building Better Scientists Through Cross-Disciplinary Collaboration In Synthetic Biology: A Report From The Genome Consortium For Active Teaching Workshop 2010, Michael J. Wolyniak, Consuelo J. Alvarez, Vidya Chandrasekaran, Theresa M. Grana, Andrea Holgado, Christopher J. Jones, Robert W. Morris, Anil L. Pereira, Joyce Stamm, Talitha M. Washington, Yixin Yang

Biological Sciences Research

A common problem faced by primarily undergraduate institutions is the lack of funding and material support needed to adequately expose students to modern biology, including synthetic biology. To help alleviate this problem, the Genome Consortium for Active Teaching (GCAT) was founded in 2000 by Malcolm Campbell at Davidson College to bring genomics into the undergraduate curriculum. GCAT’s first tangible activity was to serve as a central clearinghouse both for the purchase and reading of DNA microarrays and for information on how to execute genomics experiments at undergraduate institutions. In response to the evolution of molecular biology in the last decade, …

Introduction: Protistan Biology, Horizontal Gene Transfer, And Common Descent Uncover Faulty Logic In Intelligent Design, Avelina Espinosa

Arts & Sciences Faculty Publications

THE International Society of Protistologists (ISOP) organized a pre-meeting workshop entitled ‘‘Horizontal Gene Transfer and Phylogenetic Evolution Debunk Intelligent Design,’’ as part of the 1st North American Section meeting held June 11–13, 2009, at Roger Williams University, Bristol, RI, USA. This workshop focused on the acceptance of Darwinian evolution in the United States and the role of intelligent design (ID) in the ongoing controversy between scientific knowledge and popular belief. Intelligent design, a doctrine born in the 1980s, proposes that a ‘‘Designer’’ is responsible for the complexity in biological systems and that Darwinism cannot explain holistically the origin and evolution …

Integrating Horizontal Gene Transfer And Common Descent To Depict Evolution And Contrast It With ‘‘Common Design, Guillermo Paz-Y-Mino C., Avelina Espinosa

Arts & Sciences Faculty Publications

Horizontal gene transfer (HGT) and common descent interact in space and time. Because events of HGT co-occur with phylogenetic evolution, it is difficult to depict evolutionary patterns graphically. Tree-like representations of life’s diversification are useful, but they ignore the significance of HGT in evolutionary history, particularly of unicellular organisms, ancestors of multicellular life. Here we integrate the reticulated-tree model, ring of life, symbiogenesis whole-organism model, and eliminative pattern pluralism to represent evolution. Using Entamoeba histolytica alcohol dehydrogenase 2 (EhADH2), a bifunctional enzyme in the glycolytic pathway of amoeba, we illustrate how EhADH2 could be the product of both horizontally acquired …