Wheat powdery mildew is an important fungal pathogen of wheat with an obligatory biotrophic lifestyle (a parasite that can only develop on a living host). We investigated the genetics of this host-pathogen interaction by using phenotyping and PCR assays to detect genes in both wheat and powdery mildew, which are known determinants of the outcome…

The contamination of wastewater with metals and the use of biotechnologies to remove them is commonly discussed in theoretical biology, microbiology and biotechnology classes aimed at undergraduate students. This work introduces an easy, economical and safe practical laboratory class related to this topic. The practice consists in performing batch…

Despite the growing awareness of the importance of plant secondary metabolites in insect-plant interactions, undergraduate degree content in agronomy and biology generally does not provide a clear concept to students in relation to secondary metabolite induction of plant defences, implying that students do not obtain a good understanding of the…

The curriculum for undergraduate Agricultural Engineering does not usually include much laboratory practice. In order to address this, here we propose the design of a practical class on legume-rhizobia symbiosis, using an interdisciplinary approach that takes elements from botany, agriculture, and microbiology. The students perform an assay to…

Providing hands-on practical education without access to laboratories during the COVID-19 pandemic has required creativity and innovation. In this paper, co-authored by academic staff and students, we describe an at-home mobile phone-based 'spectrophotometer' experiment used in an introductory undergraduate biology course. Using colour picker…

John Dewey's aesthetics subverts and transcends traditional aesthetics. He applied his empiricism philosophy into the field of aesthetics and re-established the significance of aesthetic experience. Aesthetic experience comes from daily experience; hence it is not fundamentally different from students' biological learning experience. Based on…

While metabolism is a fundamental process in physiology, the measurement of metabolism by living animals often requires specialized and expensive equipment. In 2016, I developed a novel laboratory exercise for animal physiology students where students were able to observe the effects of temperature and long-term temperature acclimation on the…

The method for producing monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) was first published in 1975. MAbs have revolutionised research, diagnosis, and disease treatment approaches. While students need a good understanding of MAb production, teaching the key steps via traditional methods can be challenging. Numerous resources exist, but these focus on hybridoma…

This research aims to analyse the progression of 13-14 year-old students' ideas regarding the concept of energy transfer by means of heat in three biological mechanisms of thermal regulation. The outputs of 270 students, grouped in 77 cooperative groups, are analysed by comparing their explanations before and after conducting an experimental…

Most undergraduate students do not have practical experience working with model organisms despite having theoretical knowledge of their importance. This practical was developed to offer students experience working with three species of nematode, including "Caenorhabditis elegans." In the first task, students prepare slides of three…

In recent years the possibility of observing by microscopy the dynamic activity of living cells has been largely pursued. We have developed a low-cost (~ 260 euros) on-stage cell incubator for inverted optical microscopes. This device allows to keep cells in good conditions for their survival and proliferation. The device is based on the use of…

This study examines the epistemic disciplinary knowledge that students consider when addressing a real food emergency that requires their engagement in inquiry and argumentation practices. The study comprised two phases: (1) designing an experiment to study the emergency and (2) evaluating the real outcome of the emergency. The participants were…

We provide a protocol for rapid DNA extraction from spiders suitable for undergraduate practical sessions. Students who were previously naïve to the theory and laboratory technique of DNA barcoding were successfully able to extract and recover 29 DNA sequences from 16 species of small spiders in the family Linyphiidae. We anticipate that with…

Programmed cell death, or apoptosis, is a cellular pathway by which individual cells self-destruct for the benefit of the organism. In this practical paper, we describe laboratory exercises with an inquiry-based learning (IBL) approach in which undergraduate students compared apoptosis among different types of cultured cells. Ultraviolet (UV)…

Recent years have seen a dramatic increase in our understanding of the social behaviour of microbes. Here, we take advantage of these developments to present an undergraduate laboratory exercise that uses the cooperative flocculating behaviour of yeast ("Saccharomyces sp.") to introduce the concept of inclusive fitness and teach the…