Vanishing Amphibians in Central America

Vanishing Amphibians in Central America




Applicable for Courses:

General Biology or Ecology Course

Educational Level:

Made for lower-level but could be modified for higher-level

Roadmap Objectives:

    • Article: K.R. Lips, et al. (2006) Emerging infectious disease and the loss biodiversity in a Neotropical amphibian community. PNAS 103(9):3165-3170.
    • Content area/major concepts: ecosystem health, ecology and evolution of infectious disease, species richness vs. density, epidemiology, extinction, biodiversity, statistical modeling, PCR amplification, identifying species by DNA, histology, host-pathogen interactions
    • Methods or technology used to obtain data: transects for ecological survey, PCR, statistics (confidence intervals, t-tests, nonlinear regression). Note that PCR and/or statistical details may be skipped if desired.
    • How the CREATE strategy was used: Day 1 Teaching concept mapping: use Post-Its and whiteboards to make concept map about “amphibians.” This will establish what they already know about amphibians. Watch video “Frogs: The Thin Green Line” for homework. Make new concept map at home (individually) about amphibians after watching the movie. Use an online program, like “Cmap Tools” to learn to use this technology. Day 2 Compare concept maps, discuss video. As a class, translate first sentence of paper. Then have groups work on second (and third?) sentences together. Give students an electronic version of the Introduction for the paper. Tell them not to try to read it, just paste it into a word cloud program, such as Wordle. They can use any program, and may modify it however they wish. Bring in their favorite version to class. Also as homework, scan through the Intro for unfamiliar words. Make a list of definitions needed to understand the paper. (Again, do not try to understand it all yet.) Day 3 In groups, use word clouds to identify nodes for concept mapping, then build concept maps. (On board or on computer, depending on preference.) Discuss major concepts from Intro. Annotate first figure in groups and compare to learn annotation. Begin cartooning methods if time allows. For homework, cartoon first part of methods, annotate figure 2. Day 4 (may take more than one day if you want to go into detail on methods) Compare and discuss homework. Annotate figures 3 and 4. Discuss statistics to extent desired. Cartoon/discuss PCR identification of species if desired. Cartoon/discuss histopathology if desired. For homework, transform data in Table 1 into a different format (pie charts, bar graphs, line graphs, etc.) Day 5 Discuss homework. Debate different ways of displaying data. Generate list of bullet points that students would like to see in Discussion. Have groups translate Discussion into a list of bullet points. Compare authors’ conclusions with students’. For homework, have students develop 2 next experiment ideas. Day 6 Generate criteria for grant panels. Have grant panels discuss proposals, and vote on one to fund.
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