No More Early Morning Virgin Hunts: Eliminating Male Offspring in Classroom Teaching Stocks of Drosophila Melanogaster, Using a Readily Available Male-Lethal Strain
No More Early Morning Virgin Hunts: Eliminating Male Offspring in Classroom Teaching Stocks of Drosophila Melanogaster, Using a Readily Available Male-Lethal Strain
One of the most aggravating, if not the most challenging, aspect of using Drosophila in undergraduate laboratories is the time that must be invested in harvesting virgin females for genetic crosses. Traditional methods are extremely labor and resource intensive, requiring large numbers of cultures and multiple fly clearings daily in order to acquire the requisite number of virgin females. Several genetic methods exist for producing strains in which only females emerge from pupation. Once highly effective method involves the use of males carrying, as a Y chromosome insertion, a heat shock triggered lethal gene. Heat treatments of these cultures cause the spontaneous death of all male larvae, thus eliminating the need to clear vials prior to harvesting females. Limited mutant stocks containing this male lethal are commercially available, but invariably come with the males eliminated. The generation of useful classroom strains of these flies using stocks readily obtainable from the Drosophila Stock Center will be discussed so that any mutations used in a teaching setting can be put into this male lethal background.
Dept of Biology, Wingate University, Wingate, NC
53 • Jennifer T. Thomas
Student Engagement in Upper-Level Biology Courses: The Role of the Professor
Creating an environment for student engagement in the classroom is a challenging goal for most professors. Studies indicate improved motivation and retention of information when students participate in activities that encourage analytical thinking, problem solving, and synthesis of information. Sometimes it is a struggle to choose teaching methods that are most effective, especially if our own experiences as biology students focused on a lecture only approach. By using a decade of experience teaching two upper-level courses, Cancer Biology and Immunology, I hope to illustrate ways to engage students, focusing primarily on student independence and the professor as a facilitator of learning in the classroom, not an expert lecturer. Activities include textbook figure discussions, book discussions, and journal clubs.
Dept of Biology; 2 Belmont University; 3 Nashville, TN
54 • Gary D. Grossman
The Use of Music Videos as Teaching Aids for a Course in Natural History
I developed and teach Natural History of Georgia, a large (140-200 student) lower division course that satisfies both environmental literacy and life science general education requirements at University of Georgia. The class is designed for non-science majors and deals with conceptual topics in ecology, evolution and behavior as well as field identification and basic biology of species. Examples of concepts include: speciation, natural selection, inter- and intraspecific competition, population regulation, mimicry, schooling and flocking, etc. In an attempt to provide innovative teaching aids for the students, many of whom do not have a strong science interest or background, I have developed several music videos on both conceptual topics and common species. Over the last two times that I have taught the class, students have responded that the videos in a strongly positive manner. The link to the videos is http://www.youtube.com/user/AssortedPieces . It is likely that these videos will be useful instructional aids for courses with similar topical material.
Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources, UGA
55 • Jennell M. Talley1, Jennifer Hurst-Kennedy, Rebekah Ward
Using Caenorhabditis elegans to Teach Principles of Mendelian Inheritance in an Undergraduate Genetics Course
Georgia Gwinnett College (GGC) is a rapidly growing, open access school in the University System of Georgia (USG). The School of Science and Technology (SST) was awarded a grant by the USG to implement a four-year undergraduate research experience for all SST students. Previously, the lab component of genetics was online. To reach all biology students (sophomore/junior level) and increase the research experience, a genetics lab was designed and implemented using C. elegans as the genetic model system in the 2013-2014 academic year. Students were required to perform routine maintenance on worm stocks and determine modes of inheritance for different mutant alleles. Attitudinal surveys were given prior to and at the end of the lab experience. Results from attitudinal surveys will be discussed as well as the benefits and challenges of introducing C. elegans as the model organism of study in a genetics course.
1 GA Gwinnett College
56 • C. Brian Odom
Two are Better Than One: Realigning an Undergraduate Biology Curriculum to Create a Two Semester General Genetics Sequence
By virtually any measure taken, genetics has been the most rapidly expanding biological discipline of the last 40 years. Why then, do introductory genetics courses still routinely occupy the same one semester slots they have held for the last 100 years? In 2013, the Biology Dept of Wingate University underwent a minor curriculum realignment in order to offer a two semester undergraduate genetics sequence. The specifics and advantages of this realignment will be discussed.
Dept of Biology, Wingate University, Wingate, NC
57 • Pearl R. Fernandes
Teaching an Online Lecture and Laboratory Course in Biology: Strategies That Work
As the demand for online courses increases, there is a need for faculty to develop new pedagogies and strategies for engaging students online, and create effective learning in the virtual classroom. Having had to switch from face-face t to online teaching, the presenter will discuss what strategies work and what do not work for an online format in a Biology lecture and laboratory course. Student feedback on their experience in the online course was obtained via a pre and post assessment survey. Besides the presenter sharing her best practice strategies, the session will also engage the audience in an active.
