Science and Mathematics Education Commons^™

Reducing Food Scarcity: The Benefits Of Urban Farming, S.A. Claudell, Emilio Mejia

Journal of Nonprofit Innovation

Urban farming can enhance the lives of communities and help reduce food scarcity. This paper presents a conceptual prototype of an efficient urban farming community that can be scaled for a single apartment building or an entire community across all global geoeconomics regions, including densely populated cities and rural, developing towns and communities. When deployed in coordination with smart crop choices, local farm support, and efficient transportation then the result isn’t just sustainability, but also increasing fresh produce accessibility, optimizing nutritional value, eliminating the use of ‘forever chemicals’, reducing transportation costs, and fostering global environmental benefits.

Imagine Doris, who is …

Snail Races: An Inquiry-Based Approach To Learn Invasive Species Ecology, Emma Grindle, Heather E. Bergan-Roller, Ashton Johnson, Grace Lunaburg, Jennifer A.H. Koop

Faculty Peer-Reviewed Publications

Inquiry-based lessons allow learning that is hands-on and student-driven, fostering engagement and retention of knowledge in any discipline. Here, we use this learning framework to engage students in exploring the effects of biotic and abiotic factors on animal dispersal as a means of connecting students to multiple ecological concepts. Instructors are provided with a guided lecture on key ecological concepts including the impacts of invasive species, dispersal mechanisms, and species interactions with the environment. Furthermore, the interactive lecture introduces students to the snail study system and explains the experimental process, which involves low-cost, readily available materials (e.g., kiddie pools). Students …

Concepts In Animal Parasitology: Master Bibliography, Sue Ann Gardner

Concepts in Animal Parasitology Textbook

Master bibliography for the open educational resource/open access textbook Concepts in Animal Parasitology, Scott L. Gardner and Sue Ann Gardner, editors, published by Zea Books, Lincoln, Nebraska, United States, 2024. This includes the references from literature cited and suggested supplemental reading.

An Inquiry-Based Approach For Teaching Type Iii Functional Responses In Ecology, Jeremy L. Hsu

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

Maize (also known as corn) has played an important role in human agriculture ever since its domestication by indigenous peoples of Mexico some 10,000 years ago. The crop is now planted across the world, including in China. However, several invasive pests, including the fall armyworm Spodoptera frugiperda, have threatened this crop and lowered yield. Eupeodes corollae, an endemic syrphid hoverfly, has been proposed as a biological control agent. Here, students will explore the antagonistic relationship between S. frugiperda and E. corollae, with both species feeding on larvae of the other species, and learn about type III functional …

Neutral Theory And Beyond: A Systematic Review Of Molecular Evolution Education, Desiree Forsythe, Jeremy L. Hsu

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

Molecular evolution—including the neutral theory of molecular evolution—is a major sub-discipline of evolution and is widely taught in undergraduate evolution courses. However, despite its ubiquity, there have not been any previous attempts to compile and review the molecular evolution education literature. Here, we draw upon the framework proposed in a past literature review examining the broader evolution education landscape to conduct a literature review of papers related to molecular evolution education, classifying the contributions of such papers to evolution pedagogy as well as evolution education research. We find that there remains very limited coverage of molecular evolution in the education …

Du Undergraduate Showcase: Research, Scholarship, And Creative Works, Caitlyn Aldersea, Justin Bravo, Sam Allen, Anna Block, Connor Block, Emma Buechler, Maria De Los Angeles Bustillos, Arianna Carlson, William Christensen, Olivia Kachulis, Noah Craver, Kate Dillon, Muskan Fatima, Angel Fernandes, Emma Finch, Colleen Cassidy, Amy Fishman, Andrea Francis, Stacia Fritz, Simran Gill, Emma Gries, Rylie Hansen, Shannon Powers, Jacqueline Martinez, Zachary Harker, Ashley Hasty, Mykaela Tanino-Springsteen, Kathleen Hopps, Adelaide Kerenick, Colin Kleckner, Ci Koehring, Elijah Kruger, Braden Krumholz, Maddie Leake, Lyneé Alves, Seraphina Loukas, Yatzari Lozano Vazquez, Haley Maki, Emily Martinez, Sierra Mckinney, Mykaela Tanino-Springsteen, Audrey Mitchell, Kipling Newman, Audrey Ng, Megan Lucyshyn, Andrew Nguyen, Stevie Ostman, Casandra Pearson, Alexandra Penney, Julia Gielczynski, Tyler Ball, Anna Rini, Christina Rorres, Simon Ruland, Helayna Schafer, Emma Sellers, Sarah Schuller, Claire Shaver, Kevin Summers, Isabella Shaw, Madison Sinar, Claudia Pena, Apshara Siwakoti, Carter Sorensen, Madi Sousa, Anna Sparling, Alexandra Revier, Brandon Thierry, Dylan Tyree, Maggie Williams, Lauren Wols

DU Undergraduate Research Journal Archive

DU Undergraduate Showcase: Research, Scholarship, and Creative Works

Lesson Plans In Astronomy, Ecology And Biology, Admin Stem For Success

STEM for Success Showcase

This document contains various lesson plan ideas for concepts within the fields of biology, ecology, astronomy, and geology.

Climate Change, Admin Stem For Success

STEM for Success Showcase

This lesson plan teaches students about climate change and its effect on animals and insects. Students can then participate in a climate change fact or myth game and a climate change Pictionary game.

Water Pollution And Ecology, Admin Stem For Success, Natalie Wilson

STEM for Success Showcase

Research activity to teach students about water pollution

Using Podcasts To Bring National Estuarine Research Reserves Into The Classroom For Grades 6-12, Kaitlyn M. Dirr

Senior Theses

In a typical classroom setting, there are significant challenges to exposing students to concepts related to earth sciences and the environment. These challenges are exacerbated when conveying lessons about geographic areas with limited access, such as oceans and coastlines (Louv, 2010). It is now more important than ever for environmental education to improve and adapt to our changing world. Educators may have the opportunity to bring these subjects to life by using media content such as podcasts to introduce students to new places and the scientists, managers and educators that work in those spaces. In the United States, there exists …

Still A Private Universe? Community College Students’ Understanding Of Evolution, Meredith A. Dorner, Philip Sadler, Brian Alters

Education Faculty Articles and Research

Background

Measuring what students know and retain about evolution is essential to improving our understanding of how students learn evolution. The literature shows that college students appear to have a poor understanding of evolution, answering questions on various instruments correctly only about half of the time. There is little research regarding evolution understanding among community college students and so this study examines if those students who are enrolled in life science classes, who are assessed using questions based on grade eight standards, show a better understanding of evolutionary principles than younger students and if there are differences in knowledge based …

A Short Introduction To Marine Parasitology: Marine Parasites Of Economic And Medical Importance, Klaus Rohde, Robin M. Overstreet

Concepts in Animal Parasitology Textbook

Introduction

Parasitism, in this chapter, is defined as “a close association of two organisms, in which one—the parasite—depends on the other—the host—deriving some benefit from it. The benefit is often food” (Rohde, 2005b). Many bacteria, viruses, and fungi are parasitic but usually not studied by parasitologists sensu stricto; they are the domain of microbiologists. Parasites as defined here do not always harm their host; the border between so-called genuine parasites and other symbionts such as commensals is often blurred, and investigators who work on disease aspects tend to emphasis the pathogenic aspects and may not consider non-pathogenic species as truly …

Middle Savannah River: An A/R/Tographic Ecopedagogical Ethnography Experimenting With Rhizomatic Perspectives, Lisa Augustine-Chizmar

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research is an experiment in perspective. Using the four commonplaces (Schwab, 1978), I practiced letting the Savannah River teach me what there is to know about the water, the land, the people, and the other entities that depend on ki through artistic, ethnographic, and ecopedagogical lenses. The ethnographic findings describe the social actors that depend on ki and give a voice to the River. The a/r/tographic findings display the River on a canvas map through two hundred years using paint, clay, photography, video, abstract acrylics, and fabric. Together, these methods contribute to a unique ecopedagogical journey. This word cloud …