A Curriculum for Enhancing Farmer Microbial Literacy

Short Description:
The primary purpose of this course is to render the invisible world of microbes visible to farmers. This course provides scientific-based instruction exploring how microbes can assist agriculture. Although the course is designed for farmers, this material can also help extension agents, curious citizen scientists, and other non-experts interested in enhancing their microbial literacy.

Long Description:
The invisibility, complexity, and general opaqueness of soil microbial life makes learning about the “black box of soil” difficult. To address this challenge, my project-based biology senior thesis endeavors to develop a biology-based curriculum for farmers to increase microbial literacy. A transition to a microbially centric agriculture necessitates the development of a new knowledge infrastructure. My senior thesis project aspires to contribute to this new, necessary, and expanding infrastructure. It is critical that farmers recognize their unique role as stewards of not only plants and animals but also as shepherds of an unfathomably complex, necessary, and wondrous herd of microbes.

Word Count: 10617

(Note: This resource's metadata has been created automatically by reformatting and/or combining the information that the author initially provided as part of a bulk import process.)

This is a lesson about extremophiles and using DNA sequences to classify them. Learners will describe the characteristics of a newly discoverd thermophyllic organism and use the DNA sequence to place that organism in the phylogenetic tree of life. Includes teacher notes, learning objectives, and assessment of prior knowledge and preconceptions. This is Lesson 3 in Exploring Deep-Subsurface Life. Earth Analogues for Possible Life on Mars: Lessons and Activities

This online exhibit is a visual illusion in which a fuzzy blue dot disappears into a green background. The illusion is created by the tiny jittering movements that your eyes are continually making. Take your investigation further by making your own hands-on fading dot illusion - instructions are at the Exploratorium Snack website (see related link).

In this hands-on botany activity, learners sprout vegetables in film canisters. Learners grow nine seeds each of cabbage, radish, and parsley, experimenting with changing one variable (light, water, or temperature) to explore differences in the germination preferences of the plants. If film canisters aren't available, other small, opaque containers with lids can be substituted.

Students will learn about the ways garden organisms depend on each other for survival and create "human" food chains to show how energy is transferred from the sun to living things.

Students will observe organisms in their ecosystem and describe the flow of energy in food webs

Short Description:
Foundations of Biomedical Science: Quantitative Literacy Theory and Problems is designed to help students develop the fundamental mathematical and quantitative literacy required to navigate and interpret evidence-based Biomedical data. This will provide students with the skills and confidence to habitually question any quantitative data they come across and to use these skills to make informed judgements regarding their veracity.

Long Description:
Modern Biomedicine is evidence-based, which means it is underpinned by quantitative data. Recent technological advances have led to Biomedicine (and Biology in general) becoming more “data driven” and hence more quantitative and predictive. Hence, now more than ever, an understanding of quantitative data is crucial for students of Biomedical disciplines.

Foundations of Biomedical Science: Quantitative Literacy Theory and Problems is designed to help students develop the fundamental mathematical and quantitative literacy required to navigate and interpret evidence-based Biomedical data. This ebook is divided into short chapters, each containing a concise summary of: theory provided through a Biomedical context authentic worked examples, problem sets and solutions further extension and application of the theory.

These chapters build to provide students with the skills and confidence to habitually question any quantitative data they come across and to use these skills to make informed judgements regarding their veracity.

Word Count: 69830

ISBN: 978-0-6484681-8-9

(Note: This resource's metadata has been created automatically by reformatting and/or combining the information that the author initially provided as part of a bulk import process.)

Dean Kim Barrett hosts eminent respiratory physiologist John West in a discussion of his storied career and research experiences. (58 minutes)

For more than two decades J. Craig Venter and his research teams have been pioneers in genomic research. Regarded as one of the leading scientist of the 21st century, Venter discusses how he is applying tools and techniques developed to sequence the human genomes to discover new genes of microbes from around the world. (57 minutes)

This activity was designed for blind learners, but all types of learners can use it to understand how villi function in the small intestine. The purpose of this activity is to examine a model of the inside of the small intestine to support understanding of the function of villi in digestion.

Word Count: 222624

(Note: This resource's metadata has been created automatically by reformatting and/or combining the information that the author initially provided as part of a bulk import process.)

Long Description:
An introduction to biology intended for non-science majors. Focus areas include chemical foundations, cell structure and division, genetics, and evolution.

Word Count: 120840

(Note: This resource's metadata has been created automatically by reformatting and/or combining the information that the author initially provided as part of a bulk import process.)

Word Count: 16100

Included H5P activities: 9

(Note: This resource's metadata has been created automatically by reformatting and/or combining the information that the author initially provided as part of a bulk import process.)

In this lesson students will use information from articles about microorganisms and their prior knowledge to identify both the positive and negative aspects of microorganisms.

Research has changed our concepts of brain organization and provided dramatic evidence showing far greater similarities between brains of birds and brains of all mammals. Harvey Karten explores what goes on inside a birdŐs brain. Learn how brains of birds compare to those of humans and other mammals and find out what the study of birdŐs brains can teach us about the nature and origins of human brains. (57 minutes)

UCSD Cognitive scientist Joan Stiles reveals the latest understandings about the intricate relationship between biology and external influences in the development of the brain. (58 minutes)

Join UCSD's Larry Squire in a fascinating presentation of recent research about memory systems in humans and other mammals. (58 minutes)

We make thousands of decisions every day: where to go, what to do, when to do it. Join UCSD's William Kristan and discover how neurons, synapses, and chemical input play out in decision making. (57 minutes)

Neuroscientist Patricia Churchland explores how the human mind functions in guiding one's decisions. (55 minutes)

In this edition of "Grey Matters," Aniruddh Patel, of the Neurosciences Institute, discusses what music can teach us about the brain, and what brain science, in turn, can reveal about music. (51 minutes)