Major Workshops are opportunities for attendees to experience hands-on laboratory activities that have been developed and implemented for the classroom. Each three-hour workshop is reviewed prior to approval by the Major Workshop Committee, then peer-reviewed by participants, and ultimately by the Advances in Biology Laboratory Education editor before publication.
Most workshops are offered twice daily, morning and afternoon, so participants will have the opportunity to attend two workshops on each of two days, Wednesday and Thursday of the conference. Attendee selection of workshop sessions happens during the conference registration process, as space is limited in each.
For general information about major workshop sessions, see https://www.ableweb.org/conferences/able-major-workshops/.
Abstracts
Collaboration Through Catalase
Erika L. Doctor & Cassandra S. Korte
To compensate for institutional changes in course schedules reducing opportunity for students to build a robust sense of community within our biology major, we developed a laboratory activity connecting first-year introductory biology students with second-year organic chemistry students. The laboratory activity teaches students how to use indicators as a signifier of enzyme activity in a colorimetric assay while also collaborating with other students in the biology major. In this workshop, participants will act as both introductory biology and organic chemistry students in performing the laboratory activities. At the beginning of the workshop, participants will be introduced to flavonoids as a source of inhibition to catalase catalysis. Groups will propose a source of dietary flavonoid from available plants. In the classroom setting, this proposal is produced by a mixed group of organic chemistry and introductory biology students. Acting as the organic chemistry students, participants will perform methods of extraction on their selected plant sources. In the classroom, these extracts are returned to the paired biology students, who perform the colorimetric analysis. During the workshop, participants will perform the colorimetric assay to determine if their potential source of flavonoid inhibits catalase activity. We will present real findings from our student population including an example fire talk of how students from both collaborate together to present.
Broccoli Seedling Respiration and Photosynthesis Rates
Kathleen Nolan & Kimberly Curry
The goal of this workshop is to determine the rate of cellular respiration and photosyntheis (using Vernier carbon dioxide and oxygen sensors) of broccoli seedings under various conditions. Workshop participants will prepare broccoli seed pots, and will also be provided with pre-grown potted plants to work with. All pre-prepared plants will have been grown in the dark and will initially contain freshly emerged yellow leaves. Participants will also receive pre-prepared plants that will have undergone an additional one-day light incubation that have made the leaves turn green. Seedlings will be removed from the pots and, using Vernier carbon dioxide and oxygen gas sensors, rates of respiration and photosynthesis will be calculated. Data will be collected, projected onto the board, and shared in a document. Brainstorming will ensue to generate hypotheses to test for further research, as in a course-based undergraduate research experience or CURE setting. Past experiments that have been suggested have included testing the effects of temperature, and/or various substances, such as melatonin, on the metabolic rates of the seedlings, or, looking for correlations of the seedlings’ metabolic rates with nutrients normally found in the seeds/plants through the USDA website. The final activity of the workshop/aboratory period will include testing additional types of sprouts that have been provided and that are available in health food stores (alfalfa and mung) to note any differences in respiratory/photosynthetic rates among additional plants. (Growing and sprouting methods will also be demonstrated.) A practical side of this workshop is to entice students and participants to think of sprouts and seedlings as providing nutrition.
Modeling Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) Behaviors in Fruit Flies
S. Catherine Silver Key
There are four main goals of the laboratory module. For students to: 1.) gain experience collecting behavioral data on a human condition modeled in fruit flies; 2.) apply Microsoft Excel formulas and graph functions to analyze their behavioral data; 3.) analyze data from a peer-reviewed publication; 4.) practice communicating their science to a group of peers. The relevance of the experiment and other activities is for students to gain an understanding of how Drosophila melanogaster can be used as a model for studying the human condition known as Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD). The students will perform 3 behavioral tests on Drosophila larvae that have been either exposed to control or ethanol-containing solutions during a key stage of embryonic development These experiments include 1.) the locomotor distance assessment, 2.) the peristaltic movement analysis, and 3.) the gustatory assay. Students record the assays using their cell phones and analyze the recordings to accurately record observations in their Microsoft Excel sheets. Additionally, students assess published data on fruit flies modeling FASD using a Construction of Knowledge Exercise (CoKE) activity. Finally, students communicate their science to their peers in a Lightning Talk format. During this Major Workshop, participants will have a hands-on experience with all three of the Drosophila behavioral assays using 2-3 genetically different strains. Additionally, participants will practice exposing Drosophila embryos to alcohol. Class data will be collected and analyzed using Microsoft Excel with voluntary ‘flash talks’ on results from each group. Participants will gain the ability to collect Drosophila embryos, expose them to ethanol, execute three behavioral assays, and be introduced to scientific literature on studying FASD in the model organism, Drosophila melanogaster.
Creating a lab plan with ChatGPT – Embryonic Development: Comparative Modeling of Germ layers
Laurel Rodgers
This workshop will be run as two parts. The first is an embryonic development lab that uses modeling to compare germ layers in Developmental Biology model organisms. The second part of the lab will be a discussion about how I used ChatGPT to create this lab during a week when I had limited time to develop a new lab for class. Using clay to create germ layer models of developing organisms is not a novel lab concept, however, I struggled to find a complete set of instructions for students to use as a lab exercise in my Developmental Biology course and did not have the bandwidth to start from scratch. I turned to ChatGPT to generate a student hand out and assignment for the comparative modeling lab. This lab asks students to use different colors of playdough or modeling clay to create 3D models of frog, chicken, and zebrafish embryos before and after gastrulation. In the first part of this workshop participants will complete the germ layer modeling lab that ChatGPT generated. During the second part of this workshop, I will show participants the prompts I used to generate and modify the lab to suit the needs of my course. I will also discuss some prompts I tried using for other labs that did not work as well. If time allows, participants will be able to practice writing ChatGPT prompts to generate labs that suit their own courses.
Ecologies: A Versatile (and Fun) Strategy Game for Teaching Ecological Concepts
Sanjiva Gunasekara
This workshop presents a series of ecology assignments centered around the Ecologies card game and used in our second semester introductory biology course at CSU Fresno. Ecologies is an inexpensive, educational and highly versatile game developed by biology instructor Matthew Montrose, with gameplay based on real examples of trophic niches. In Ecologies, players must use organism cards to build food webs within one or more diverse biomes, with the goal of obtaining enough points to win the game. A single card deck can be played by 1-6 players, with one game encompassing ~75 minutes. In this three-part workshop, participants will be introduced to the Ecologies game within the context of food webs and trophic cascades. The workshop will begin by describing trophic cascades, with examples of direct and indirect effects. In Part 1, participants will draw food webs connecting different species found in Yellowstone National Park while brainstorming the potential impacts of removing gray wolves from this ecosystem. The impact of trophic cascades created by the presence and absence of gray wolves will then be revealed in the brief video, “Wolves of Yellowstone”. Next, participants will rework their food web based on information in the video and enhance it with examples of direct/indirect effects. In Part 2, participants will play a round of Ecologies in groups of 3-4 to become familiar with the game’s biomes, organisms and biotic/abiotic factors. When the game has ended, participants will begin Part 3 and create their own Ecologies biome by selecting a real-world habitat and identifying organisms that act as producers, consumers and/or scavengers within it, as well as potential biotic/abiotic factors. The workshop will conclude with a discussion on modifying the game to fit specific lesson plans and future directions.
Monitoring and Understanding Stream Water Quality
Julia Schmitz & Deb Dooley
Have you ever wondered how clean your local streams are? Just like you need clean air to breathe, aquatic ecosystems need clean water to function. Throughout the country there are numerous watersheds, which is an area of land containing a set of streams and/or rivers that all drain through a specific location. Healthy watersheds are important because they improve water quality, allow for indigenous species to out-compete invasive species, are better adapted to extreme weather patterns, and reduce drinking water treatment costs. During this workshop you will learn how to monitor the health of stream aquatic systems using bacterial, chemical, and macroinvertebrate indicators. Participants will walk to a nearby creek to collect samples for bacterial and chemical monitoring. Due to the depth of the stream, macroinvertebrate sampling will be demonstrated in the laboratory. After learning how to interpret the data from the local stream, workshop participants will be lead through a case study that has been created using data from a stream in Athens, Georgia that was damaged by runoff from a chemical fire. They will evaluate data that was gathered by citizen scientists before and after the chemical fire and learn about the events impact on water quality. Participants will gain the knowledge needed to set-up a monitoring site close to their home campus that will allow their students to participate in water quality monitoring. Workshop participants will have the option to take a bacterial test to earn their Adopt-A-Stream certification (not required).
Community engagement in the classroom: using the natural history of arthropods for service-learning
Michael Berger
This workshop combines elements of an invertebrate biology lab, natural history exploration, peer-to-peer learning, and community engagement/service learning. Students will go out into the field, explore a local habitat, and collect an arthropod species of their choice. By collecting live invertebrates in the field, participants will have the opportunity to examine the habitat that their arthropod species resides in and make observations about the natural history of the area. Invertebrates collected will be brought back to the lab for identification, morphological description, and behavioral observations. Participants will describe the external morphology and draw detailed illustrations. Behavioral descriptions, such as locomotion, escape response, or other behavioral attributes will be observed and noted. Based on detailed observations of the arthropod species, participants will develop a detailed summary handout that can be used during community engagement to inform community partners about arthropod biology, as part of a service-learning assignment. Participants will have an opportunity to consider the integration of a community engagement/service-learning course in a biology lab-based course.
Using Dragonfly Larvae (Naiads) to Investigate Predator-Prey Interactions
William (Bill) Glider, Gage Kircher , Grace McManaman, & Ethan Ramsey
Predator–prey relationships are a central component of community dynamics. This lab uses dragonfly naiads to investigate their feeding efficiency on two prey species (daphnia and amphipods) under a variety of abiotic and biotic conditions. Dragonflies are hemimetabolous insects (Order: Odonata; suborder Epiprocta) which are commonly found in shallow freshwater habitats world-wide. The dragonfly larval stage (commonly referred to as nymphs or naiads) are voracious predators on other aquatic organisms including mosquito larvae, amphipods (scuds), daphnia, small fish and tadpoles. As a result, naiads can be used as model organisms for investigating predator-prey interactions. This exercise uses dragonfly naiads to investigate their feeding efficiency on two prey species (daphnia and amphipods). Workshop participants will investigate the effect of prey density, prey species, and light intensity on the feeding efficiency of dragonfly naiads. The predator and prey species used in this lab exercise are easily obtained, easily maintained and as invertebrates do not require any special handling authorizations. This is a wet lab designed for use in introductory biology labs as well as upper level ecology labs. In addition, this exercise has been used to introduce students to the steps required to carry out controlled experiments, teach principles of scientific writing, and the use of statistical analysis. It also introduces students to the world of invertebrates and their importance in scientific research. In addition, dragonfly naiads could be used as a model organism to investigate various aspects of behavior, physiology and parasitology.
My heart will go on: A Daphnia heart rate lab to teach experimental design
Suzanne Thuecks
In this lab, which is used at the beginning of the General Biology sequence, students measure and manipulate the heart rate of Daphnia magna. In the process, students are introduced to working with live organisms, microscope use, and experimental design. The first part of the lab activity introduces students to microscope use and teaches them how to measure the heart rate of Daphnia. Class data is gathered and graphed to show natural variability and teach students how to use Excel to make basic graphs. Then, students design and carry out a simple experiment to alter the heart rate with a physical or chemical treatment, again graphing their results. Students use their results to learn how to write a Materials and Methods and Results section of a scientific paper. Participants in this workshop will perform both parts of this experiment and discuss how similar experimental design activities can teach the scientific process and scientific writing.
Do dogs share a dietary trait with us? A mock-up ELISA for testing amylase concentration in domestic and wild canids
Marylene Boulet, Genevieve Levasseur, & Estelle Chamoux
To instill curiosity and engage cohorts of life science students, we have designed a mock-up experiment about the parallel evolution of humans and dogs, that is presented at the beginning of the semester, in an introductory genetic laboratory course. We reasoned that an experiment that involves dogs would foster interpersonal exchanges, while providing a framework for reviewing basic laboratory skills, learning a quantification technique (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay or ELISA with standard curve calibration), and integrating core concepts in genetics and evolution. Our case study involves the quantification, by ELISA, of amylase in samples that simulate the variability observed in Gray Wolves (Canis lupus) and 8 dog breeds. Dogs have been living with humans for thousand years and may share evolutionary traits with us. Here, we focus on a dietary trait, the digestion of starch by amylase. In humans, production of salivary α-amylase is high and associated with the duplication of the gene AMY1 that encodes α-amylase. Humans possess variable numbers of AMY1 gene: populations that have adopted high-starch diet for a long time have high AMY1 copy numbers, whereas populations that have been living on low-starch diet (hunter-gatherers) have on average low AMY1 copy numbers. Since dogs have been exposed to human’s diets for a long time, would they also display the same evolutionary pattern if compared to wolves? To answer this question, students measure the concentration of amylase in pancreatic juices of unknown canids using ELISA and standard curve calibration. Once data are approved, students obtain sample information (canid identity, copy number) and pool their data to increase sample size. Using pool data, students test if the positive association between AMY copy number and amylase production is present in dogs. ABLE participants will perform the experiment described above. Data quality, tips, and possible case-study twists will be discussed.
My Gene Project: examining gene, mRNA, protein features and creating a phylogenetic gene tree to examine the evolutionary history of your gene of choice
Kimberley Curry
Have you ever wondered about the history of a gene, when it appeared, and whether it duplicated in a genome? For this project, students choose their own gene of interest to explore all the details known about that gene, how it transcribes into mRNA, and how those are translated into proteins. Many gene, mRNA, and protein sequence features have been identified and are common amongst other genes. Students will find and explain what these features are and what they might be known to do. Students will generate simple phylogenetic gene trees to examine when that gene speciated and/or duplicated in time. Every gene tree is unique and extremely interesting to examine! All of this information and the tools to conduct these exercises are easily accessible in online databases. Students complete this project throughout the term using my guided videos for assistance. Throughout the term, we ask students to design primers for their gene of interest, submit a midterm collection of research, and provide a written explanation of their phylogenetic tree. At the end of term, they present their research and phylogenetic trees in a five-minute presentation.
As a participant of this workshop, you will be guided through the selection of your own gene of interest, and how to use the NCBI database to obtain gene, mRNA and protein features. I will also show you how to produce a phylogenetic gene tree and how to analyze it. We will use all participant examples to ensure your complete understanding on how to create and interpret gene trees.
Racing tubes and can crushers: qualitative and quantitative analysis of forces influencing shell shape of freshwater turtles
Ehren Whigham & Gabriel Rivera
River cooters (Pseudemys concinna) are a novel and compelling system in which to study adaptations and trade-offs in biology teaching labs. This species of turtle lives in the southeastern United States in both fast-moving (lotic) waters lacking predators, and slow-flowing (lentic) waters inhabited by alligators. We used a high-resolution CT scan to create realistic 3D-printed models of P. concinna shells with a range of shell-arching ratios (height/length) published in the literature. Students (and workshop participants) begin by making qualitative observations of two sets (i.e., populations) of shells. They then make measurements and use Excel to calculate ratios, create box-plots, and run a t-test. After determining whether the observed difference between populations is significant, they read a short journal article that proposes mechanisms that might explain why such differences in shell ratio exist; namely, shell strength and hydrodynamic efficiency. Students then test these predictions. Shell strength is measured using a soda can crusher to determine how much force a shell can support prior to catastrophic failure. Hydrodynamic efficiency is measured by recording the time it takes shells to drop through a column of water (a proxy for hydrodynamic drag). This data is collected by student pairs and then combined for analysis as a class data set. At the end of the lab, students are asked to draw conclusions about the trade-off between taller (high-ratio) shells adapted to lentic waters with predators and shorter (low-ratio) shells found in lotic waters without predators. In this lab students collect data, create box-plots, run multiple t-tests, read literature, test predictions, and draw conclusions about a natural system. The use of CT scans to produce high quality 3D printed models makes this lab accessible to any institution with a 3D printer. Instructions for the strength and hydrodynamics experimental set up are provided.
Yeast Complementation: A Study in Genotypes and Phenotypes
Amy Marion
In this two-week lab exercise students develop a more mechanistic understanding of the relationship between genotypes and phenotypes by working with the interactions between genes, enzymes, metabolic pathways, and organismal-level phenotypic traits. After exploring these relationships in yeast, students learn to explore the implications of their experiments, and to appreciate the value of model organisms by extending their conclusions from yeast to humans. During the workshop, participants will conduct the experiment to mate haploid yeast strains and will be provided with the results of such matings. We will discuss how this experiment relates to the central dogma of biology, biochemical genetics, mutations, genotypes and associated phenotypes, and the use of model organisms in biological research. Multiple student assignments associated with this experiment will be presented.
Using Tn5-R27 transposon to rescue-clone and identify transposon mutants in Escherichia coli
Sylvie Bardin & Zahra Mortaji
The experiments presented in this workshop are part of a semester-long laboratory course in molecular biology, which is offered to third year undergraduate students in Biological Sciences- Applied Bioscience specialization. This intensive lab course designed as a mini research project. This format provides students with laboratory research experience, allowing them to develop excellent lab skills and the ability to interpret results using critical thinking and originality. Other learning outcomes include maintaining a laboratory notebook, performing oral presentations and writing a scientific manuscript on their research.
Even though the lab course is taught over an entire semester, parts of the course can easily be adapted as stand along experiments. The first part of the course has already been presented as a major workshop at ABLE (Bardin and Mortaji, 2020). This included the creation of E. coli transposon mutants, the screening for auxotroph mutants and the phenotypic characterization of the mutants.
In this workshop will focus on the genetic characterization of selected auxotroph mutants using rescue-cloning. Rescue cloning is a technique that allows for the isolation of the mutant’s genomic DNA fragment that contain the transposon so that the gene disrupted by the transposon insertion can then be identified using sequencing. Rescuing the fragment of genomic DNA that contains the transposon is possible because the transposon used, Tn5-R27, possess an origin of replication, making them behave like plasmids when the fragments are re-ligated and transformed into cells.
Participants at the workshops will perform the various steps involved in the creation of the rescue clones, perform restriction analysis of the rescue clones to confirm they are the correct clones and decide on the primer to use for sequencing. The workshop will conclude with the analysis of student’s data and a discussion of possible next steps for the experiment.
Making Groupwork Work: A Holistic Approach
Hans Lemke & Michael Keller
A common element among college lab courses is having students organized into groups that work together in class to conduct exercises, and often must coordinate outside of class to complete assignments. Having groups that work together effectively is a critical component for success, yet often groups form through unguided self-selection with limited guidance from laboratory instructors. In this workshop participants will explore procedures for making more effective groups, promoting positive interactions among group members, and encouraging self-evaluation by groups throughout a course. Participants will work through a series of activities designed to achieve these goals in an introductory biology laboratory. The collaborative nature of science will be explored through a literature search and evaluation exercise aimed at getting “buy in” of the importance of effective group work among STEM professionals. Participants will engage with a process for organizing students in groups through evaluation of self-reported descriptive adjectives, and form their own groups within the workshop. These groups will then work through a team building activity, after which they will make a group contract incorporating lessons learned about how they work together to accomplish an unfamiliar task. Finally, there will be a discussion on the group peer evaluation process and how to assess points for effective (or not) group work towards the end of a semester. Participants can look forward to lively discussion on what is meant by effective, and the pros and cons of different approaches to forming groups.
Reflections on who belongs in science: curricular innovations implemented in an intro bio lab class
Jessica Goldstein & Jordan Balaban
Introductory Biology Lab courses are often the first opportunity students have to learn practical science skills, including data collection and analysis, science communication, and critical thinking when analyzing data. However, students can often focus so much on learning these practical skills that they are unable to connect those research skills they learn in lab with broader social issues, including who decides which science gets funded, who belongs in science, and how research impacts society. To address this, we ask our intro bio lab students to reflect on what it means to be a scientist, who is included in scientific spaces, and why these matter. More specifically, we have developed short modular assignments addressing these questions which we have been implementing in a semester-long introductory biology lab course for several years. In this major workshop, we will describe four such assignments, allow participants to interact with the assignment resources, and discuss how these impact students’ feeling of belonging in STEM spaces. The assignments include: (1) Discussing “Science under the Scope” by Sophie Wang (https://freerads.org/2016/01/09/science-scope-1/), a comic series about science and social justice, (2) presentations based on the Scientist Spotlights Initiative Project https://scientistspotlights.org/about-us/, an initiative committed to making the sciences more inclusive by highlighting diverse voices, (3) values affirmation activities in which students reflect on what values are important to them, and how those values shape how they live their life, and (4) descriptions of undergraduate research opportunities at your home institution, in which students explore the research of the faculty, lowering the barrier for students who don’t realize they can participate in research. The workshop will end with a discussion about how these resources might be modified for use at participant’s institutions, and with the presenters sharing preliminary data about how these activities have affected feelings of belonging of their students.
Evaluating insect microbiomes with Oxford Nanopore sequencing
Lawrence Blumer, Christopher Beck, & Anna Zelaya
In this workshop, participants extract DNA from bean beetles, Callosobruchus maculatus, and sequence that DNA for the purpose of identifying gut microbiome bacteria. The DNA of individual bean beetles that were raised on two different host beans will be extracted. Then participants will set-up and start a PCR for the 16S rRNA gene (which is bacterial specific). We will demonstrate doing the DNA Library prep with previously prepared PCR samples, load an Oxford Nanopore sequencing flow cell and start the sequencing process. While the sequencing is running, we will take workshop participants through the processing and analysis of a 16S DNA sequence dataset to get a taxonomy table for each sample. Participants then conduct a community ecology analysis of the taxonomy table data to evaluate and compare the bacterial microbiome communities of two treatment groups of bean beetles.
What’s in your food? Investigation of nutritional properties in common household staples
Jenny Wollschlager & Micaela Haas
Awareness and practical understanding of nutrition and using nutrition facts labels is lacking in many undergraduate student populations and is an essential skill in order to make healthy, informed nutritional choices. We designed a laboratory activity that promotes hands-on quantification of macromolecule composition in selected food sources through evaluation of nutrition facts labels, followed by exploration of these differences using indicator tests to solve an “unknown” solutions puzzle. Workshop participants will quantify protein, fat, starch, and sugars from ingredient information and nutrition facts labels to identify six unknown beverages (whole milk, oat milk, almond milk, soy milk, nondairy creamer, and a protein powder “shake”). By using indicator tests (Biuret, Lugol’s, sudan red, and Benedict’s) and differences in macromolecule composition, the puzzle can be solved. Participants will be able to complete the entire lab during the major workshop time, engage in instructor tips and common problems, and discuss alternative methods while attending this workshop. While we perform this inexpensive laboratory activity in our anatomy and physiology course, it may also serve well in introductory biology or nutrition courses in any undergraduate institution.
Integration of pig heart dissection into college-level clinical anatomy labs
Ednaliz Rodriguez-Medina
The main goal of this proposal is to create a student learning opportunity with a pig heart dissection at the undergraduate level. Focus on equip undergraduate pre-health students with a foundation for lifelong learning and a platform for safe practice as graduate students. Students will be able to learn/review an organ dissection technique and apply clinical anatomy to that organ. In biology, “”structure-function”” refers to the fundamental concept that the shape and arrangement of a biological component, such as an organ, directly determines its function, meaning how it operates or what job it performs. In this lab exercise, students will use organ dissection to understand how body function is determined by its structural anatomy. They will explore the external heart anatomy (shape, texture, sulci, etc.) and the structure’s textures. Then, using basic dissection techniques, they will explore internal anatomical structures. The end goal is to have students explore the concept of “structure determines function” and to apply what they learned to a clinical case. Workshop participants will go over the whole lab experience as the students; they will explore external anatomy, dissect a heart in groups, explore internal anatomy and use dissected heart to answer/understand clinical cases. Additionally, I will present data on how student knowledge and attitudes differed when taking classes with and without the pig heart dissection.