Biology Commons^™

Reduced Light Availability Diminishes Mycorrhizal Growth Response Of Invasive Forb, Regina O'Kelley

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) form mycorrhizae, a common, well-studied symbiotic relationship. Controls on the magnitude and direction of plant mycorrhizal growth response (MGR) remain obscured. Specifically, the influence of light availability in the MGR of an invasive forb, spotted knapweed Centaurea stoebe, has not been studied. Greenhouse studies exploring the growth response of knapweed to arbuscular mycorrhizae (AM) often fail to report light intensity levels, which could impact the quality of their data. I conducted a greenhouse experiment studying the MGR in spotted knapweed under shaded and unshaded conditions, designed to approximate light availability in ambient greenhouse and full-sun …

Top-Down And Bottom-Up Approaches To Understanding The Fate Of The Federally Endangered Schaus’ Swallowtail Butterfly (Heraclides Aristodemus Ponceanus), Jaeson T. Clayborn

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The federally endangered Schaus’ swallowtail butterfly (Heraclides aristodemus ponceanus) populations have declined precipitously over the years. Despite tremendous efforts to augment the numbers of this butterfly through captive-bred releases and habitat enhancements, it remains imperiled and federally endangered. The dissertation’s objectives were: 1) to restore dry forest habitat in Biscayne National Park (BNP) for Schaus’ swallowtails; 2) to assess host plant (torchwood and wild lime) survivorship and growth in the restoration sites (BNP) and project dry forest habitat loss because of imminent sea level rise (SLR); 3) to quantify ant activity and record predator-prey interactions against Heraclides caterpillars …

Modeling And Visualizing Bacterial Colony Purification Without The Use Of Bacteria Or Laboratory Equipment, Grace L. Axler-Diperte

Publications and Research

This paper describes an activity that simulates bacterial purification without the use of biohazardous materials and provides immediate feedback to students regarding the efficacy of their technique.

Designing An Authentic Behavioral Research Experience In The Classroom Using Siamese Fighting Fish, Betta Splendens, Gianne Souza, Ronald M. Coleman

STAR Program Research Presentations

Recently there have been major shifts in biology education towards emphasizing the teaching of the scientific process to more closely reflect actual scientific practices. Authentic research experiences require the development of many higher order cognitive skills. Creating an authentic research experience that appropriately scaffolds the development of these complex skills while engaging individual student motivation remains challenging in classroom settings. Some common challenges include limited time available for working with large numbers of students, cramped working areas, and limited funding and materials resources. Using the Siamese Fighting Fish, Betta splendens, we have created an economically viable authentic animal behavioral …

Each To Their Own Cure: Faculty Who Teach Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experiences Report Why You Too Should Teach A Cure, Erin E. Shortlidge, Gita Bangera, Sara Brownell

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) meet national recommendations for integrating research experiences into life science curricula. As such, CUREs have grown in popularity and many research studies have focused on student outcomes from CUREs. Institutional change literature highlights that understanding faculty is also key to new pedagogies succeeding. To begin to understand faculty perspectives on CUREs, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 61 faculty who teach CUREs regarding why they teach CUREs, what the outcomes are, and how they would discuss a CURE with a colleague. Using grounded theory, participant responses were coded and categorized as tangible or intangible, related to …

Rolling Circle Mutagenesis Of Gst-Mcherry To Understand Mutation, Gene Expression, And Regulation, Jessica Cole, Amanda Ferguson, Verónica A. Segarra, Susan Walsh

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Undergraduates are often familiar with textbook examples of human mutations that affect coding regions and the subsequent disorders, but they may struggle with understanding the implications of mutations in the regulatory regions of genes. We have designed a laboratory sequence that will allow students to explore the effect random mutagenesis can have on protein function, expression, and ultimately phenotype. Students design and perform a safe and time-efficient random mutagenesis experiment using error-prone rolling circular amplification of a plasmid expressing the inducible fusion protein glutathione S-transferase (GST)-mCherry. Mutagenized and wild-type control plasmid DNA, respectively, are then purified and transformed into bacteria …

Edgar Lehr, March 10, 2017, Charlie Schlenker

Interviews for WGLT

Charlie Schlenker from WGLT interviews IWU Professor of Biology Edgar Lehr. Lehr and his research partner Rudolf von May discovered a new species of frog, formally described as Pristimantis attenboroughi, during an expedition in the Peruvian Andes.

Photographs of Pristimantis attenboroughi can be found at the links below.

The Role Of Language In Anatomy And Physiology Instruction, Angela M. Chapman, Hsuying C. Ward, Ashwini Tiwari, Amy Weimer, Jaime B. Duran, Federico Guerra, Robert Paul Sale

Teaching and Learning Faculty Publications and Presentations

Research indicates that student learning of science, student attitudes toward science, and their motivation to learn science and pursue science-related careers is related to classroom instruction. This study examined anatomy and physiology (A&P) classes in a south Texas high school where 97 percent of students are Hispanic bilingual learners. Classes were assigned to control or treatment groups, with the treatment group receiving instruction designed to help students develop a deeper understanding of anatomy vocabulary related to brain structures by making connections to these words in everyday life as well as to their understanding of Spanish. Main effects between group and …

How Do Undergraduate Stem Mentors Reflect Upon Their Mentoring Experiences In An Outreach Program Engaging K-8 Youth?, Kari L. Nelson, Jamie Sabel, Cory Forbes, Neal Grandgenett, William E. Tapprich, Christine E. Cutucache

Biology Faculty Publications

Background: Many university students are becoming involved in mentoring programs, yet few studies describe the impact of mentoring on the mentor. Additionally, many studies report that students graduating from college are not prepared to enter the workforce in terms of key career skills and/or content knowledge. Herein, we examine the impact of our program, NE STEM 4U (Nebraska Science, Technology, Engineering and Math for You), in which undergraduate (UG) mentors engage K-8 youth in after-school STEM experiments. The UGs reflected upon their experiences using post-mentoring evaluations, 12- and 24-week interviews, and exit surveys. Many of the questions asked of …

A Model Of The Use Of Evolutionary Trees (Muet) To Inform K-14 Biology Education, Yi Kong, Ankita Thawani, Trevor R. Anderson, Nancy Pelaez

PIBERG Publications

Evolutionary trees are powerful tools used in modern biological research, and also commonly used in textbooks and classroom instruction. Studies have shown that K-14 students have difficulties interpreting evolutionary trees. To improve student learning about this topic, it is essential to teach them how to understand and use trees like professional biologists. Unfortunately, few currently used teaching frameworks for evolution instruction are designed for this purpose. In this study we developed the Model of the Use of Evolutionary Trees (MUET), a conceptual model that characterizes how evolutionary trees were used by professional biologists as represented in their research publications. The …

Gamifying A First Year Biology Lab Library Session, Lisa Rose-Wiles, Veronica Amour

Praxis Presentations

Three years of work with a Biology lab course suggests that an embedded librarian has a positive impact on some student research skills. However, student feedback indicated that students want more interactive library sessions. The science librarian worked with an instructional designer to introduce elements of “gamification” into a library presentation and other library materials. In fall 2016 the science librarian integrated Top Hat, a teaching platform designed to help professors engage students, into library sessions for 16 biology labs. She also introduced Bernard Lonergan's Generalized Empirical Method (GEM) as a research framework. In this session we report on the …

Investigating Patterns Using Analyzing Digital Images (Adi) Software, Jennifer Welborn, Wayne Kermenski

Patterns Around Us

The mean and variation of a population are easily seen by graphing the number of individuals that have a trait of a given value. In this experiment, we will investigate color variation found in a mealworm population using ADI.

In this investigation, we will use digital images and ADI to measure the increased surface area created by villi located in the small intestines.

Wrinkling Of A Floating Sheet, Narayanan Menon

Patterns Around Us

The objective of today’s work will be to generate wrinkle patterns on very thin polymer films using the forces generated by the surface tension of a water drop. You’ll do a few sizes of water drop and we’ll give you a couple of thicknesses of film. Digital images of the pattern will allow us to make observations of the number and size of the wrinkles generated. We will try to develop an understanding of the dependence of the pattern on the materials used and the forces applied

Branching In Nature, Jennifer Welborn, Wayne Kermenski

Patterns Around Us

No abstract provided.

Wrinkling In Nature, Jennifer Welborn, Wayne Kermenski

Patterns Around Us

This lab experience is separated into four investigative segments:

1. Human saliva and enzymes

2. Osmosis and Dialysis Tubing

3. Analyzing dry and imbibed weights of wrinkled and smooth pea seeds

4. Putting it All Together, What makes Wrinkled Peas?

Marine Parasites And Fish: How To Sample And Analyze. Subjects: Life Science / Biology, Environmental Science, Marine / Ocean Science Grades: 6-8, Zoemma Warshafsky

Reports

This lesson plan provides a hands-on way for students to investigate the impacts of an invasive parasitic nematode which has been targeting the American eel. Students will first “infect” pipe cleaner eels with parasitic nematodes (beads), which will then be used to simulate real-life research efforts through collecting multiple random samples of “eels” and counting the amount of parasites. They will then use this data to calculate prevalence, mean intensity, and mean abundance.

Digesting Data - Subjects: Life Science / Biology Grade Level: 6-8, Amanda Bromilow

Reports

This lesson plan encourages students to become scientific investigators to determine which fish species are important predators of juvenile blue crabs in Chesapeake Bay. Students will have the opportunity to practice using triple-beam balances and draw conclusions based on their data.

Counting Blue Crabs In The Bay! Subjects: Life Science / Biology, Environmental Science, Marine / Ocean Science Grade Level: 6-8, Bruce W. Pfirrmann

Reports

This lesson plan invites students and teachers to ponder the question: How many blue crabs are in the Chesapeake Bay, and where do we find them? Through hands-on activities and the use of real data, students will discover the excitement and grapple with the challenges faced by marine scientists as they try to quantify the use of different habitats by marine animals and estimate the size of marine animal populations.

Microscopic Hitchhiking: Taking A Trip With Microbes And Plankton. Subjects: Life Science / Biology, Environmental Science, Marine / Ocean Science Grades: 6-8, Lucia Safi

Reports

This lesson plan develops concepts on food webs and ecological relationships, giving special attention to microorganisms and Chesapeake Bay species and dynamics. Students will conduct investigations, generate their own data and find out more about species they constantly see!