This post is by MSU postdocs Liz Schultheis and Melissa Kjelvik. See the original article on the BEACON webpage (reproduced below): Back when we were biology graduate students, the GK-12 program at the Kellogg Biological Station (KBS) exposed us to science education for the first time. When we signed up to work with K-12 teachers and go into schools as the
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Collaborations with K-12 teachers first inspired Data Nuggets, and continue to today
How do brain chemicals influence who wins a fight?
The activities are as follows: Teacher Guide Student activity, Graph Type A, Level 2 Student activity, Graph Type B, Level 2 Student activity, Graph Type C, Level 2 Grading Rubric In nature, animals compete for resources. These resources include space, food, and mates. Animals use aggression as a way to capture or defend these resources, which
Beetle battles
The activities are as follows: Male animals spend a lot of time and energy trying to attract females. In some species, males directly fight with other males to become socially dominant. They also fight to take over and control important territories. This process is known as male-male competition. The large antlers of male elk are an
Professional Development Workshop @ KBS Summer Institute 8/18/16
Advice on how to use the Claims-Evidence-Reasoning framework in your classroom intentionally. Session presented with two Michigan science teachers, Marcia Angle and Cheryl Hach. Session Description: In our session we will talk about the transition of science education away from memorization of facts and more towards the application of applying critical thinking and quantitative reasoning. We
Feral chickens fly the coop
The activities are as follows: Teacher Guide Student activity, Graph Type A, Level 3 Student activity, Graph Type B, Level 3 Student activity, Graph Type C, Level 3 Grading Rubric When domesticated animals that humans keep in captivity escape into the wild, we call them feral. You may have seen feral animals, such as pigeons, cats,
Professional Development Workshop with NY Master Teachers 8/8/16
Workshop Description: In this workshop we demonstrated how to use our current Data Nugget resources in the classroom. We took an in depth look at the big themes present in these activities, including distinguishing hypotheses from predictions, using claim-evidence-reasoning structure to help students construct explanations, and modeling the process of science followed in real research. Finally, we shared our
The Arctic is Melting – So What?
The activities are as follows: Teacher Guide Student activity, Level 4 Grading Rubric An adapted version of the original scientific paper Think of the North Pole as one big ice cube – a vast sheet of ice, only a few meters thick, floating over the Arctic Ocean. Historically, the amount of Arctic sea ice would be at
Data Nuggets at the National Academies Special Topics Summer Institute on Quantitative Biology
Data Nuggets will be presented at the National Academies Special Topics Summer Institute on Quantitative Biology on June 20th. To see the event on Facebook, click here. The Data Nugget “9 piece” team – developing new activities to bring real data into undergraduate classrooms! From left to right: Melissa Kjelvik, Jodi Forrester, Elizabeth Schultheis, Vedham Karpakakunjaram, Michelle Fisher,
How the cricket lost its song, Part II
In Part I you determined that the Kauai flatwing mutation led to a decrease in parasitism rates for male crickets. Today, most of the male crickets on Kauai have evolved flat wings and can no longer produce songs that were previously used to attract female crickets. Without their songs, how do males attract females? The activities are as
Make way for mummichogs
The activities are as follows: Teacher Guide Student activity, Graph Type A, Level 4 Student activity, Graph Type B, Level 4 Student activity, Graph Type C, Level 4 Powerpoint – Views of the marsh and experiment Grading Rubric Salt marshes are important habitats and contain a wide diversity of species. These ecosystems flood with salt water during