Content release logs

July 2026

Introducing the Life Sciences - Cell Structure/Function Unit

• We added lots of new images (more than 30!) to the Cell Membrane and Membrane Transport Readiness Readings.  We also updated some of the original images to better meet accessibility standards. Hooray for better visual support for students!

• We reorganized some of this content to make it easier to find:

  • The Cell Structure/Function topic originally had 3 different Readiness Readings and sets of in-class activities. We made each reading and set of in-class activities into its own topic, for three topics instead of one:

    • Intro to Cells

    • Eukaryotic Cell Structure

    • Endomembrane System

  • We reorganized three Readiness Readings and sets of in-class activities related to the cell membrane and membrane transport into two Readiness Readings with an improved LO organization:

    • Life on the (Cell's) Edge 1 → Life on the (Cell's) Edge, focuses on membrane structure and components. These still live in the Cell Membrane topic.

    • Life on the (Cell's) Edge 2 and 3 → Movement Across Membranes, focused on diffusion, selective permeability, and the mechanisms of active/passive transport. These all now live in the Membrane Transport topic.

  • We updated the built-in questions to support more modular curricular designs (ex: students no longer need to recognize different protein secondary structures to complete the Readiness Reading.)

Principles of Genetics - 2nd Edition

• We have two new topics, including their Readiness Readings, in-class activities, and post-class assessments, available as part of our Genetics revamp:

  • Chromosome and Genome Structure

    • We incorporated fantastic visual literacy ideas from the research of Dr. Crystal Uminski, Dr. Kate Wright, and Dr. Dina Newman, which uncovered major student misconceptions about chromosomes and DNA. (Sketchy understandings: drawings reveal where students may need additional support to understand scale and abstraction in common representations of DNA.)

  • PCR

    • In the PCR in-class activities, students design primers to detect the presence of great white sharks using environmental DNA. They also grapple with ways that PCR design and implementation can go wrong.

Coming Soon

• We will be adding a new topic to the Introducing the Life Sciences course called Welcome to Biology in early August. These learning objectives cover the characteristics of life and introduce students to the five core concepts of biology as outlined by Vision and Change in Undergraduate Biology Education. (See Brownell et al. 2017).

• DNA Gel Electrophoresis, Mitosis, Meiosis, and Principles of Inheritance are coming soon for Principles of Genetics - 2nd Edition!
  

June 2026

Introducing the Life Sciences

• The Community Ecology topic has new post-class assessment questions for the LO: Predict how a specific population might evolve or acclimate in response to given changes in species interactions or resource availability. Students analyze the impacts of lawn ecology, Siberian tiger conservation, zombie fungi and ants, and more!

Principles of Genetics - 2nd Edition

• Readiness Readings, in-class activities, and post-class assessments are available for the first two topics in our new 2nd edition of the Principles of Genetics course.
  

May 2026

Introducing the Life Sciences - Cell Structure/Function topic

• We added lots of new images! We now have much better visual support for students.

• We updated existing images, text, and questions for improved accessibility.

• We made updates to the text and questions to make the content more modular for people who want to teach cells before biomolecules (ex: removed and replaced questions that relied on detailed biomolecule knowledge like protein quaternary structure, alpha vs beta-glyocosidic linkages).

• We updated some of the questions to better focus students on key takeaways and not rely on external knowledge.

• We renamed the RRs to more clearly communicate what each one focuses on:

  • The Life of a Cell 1 → Intro to Cells: Bacteria, Eukarya, and Archaea

  • The Life of a Cell 2 → Exploring Eukaryotic Cells

  • The Life of a Cell 3 → The Endomembrane Express
    

Introducing the Life Sciences - Photosynthesis topic

• We added a lot of images! Much more visual support for students.

• We updated the text and some of the questions for improved accessibility.

• We updated the built-in questions to better focus students on the key take-home messages.

Introducing the Life Sciences - Cell Structure/Function topic

• We retired ILS-LO-3.3.5: Propose hypotheses to explain 1) the adaptive significance of organelles (the advantages and disadvantages of having membrane- bound structures inside cells), and 2) why organelles are more common in eukaryotes than bacteria and archaea.

• If you are already using this LO, no sweat! It will stay in your courses. It just now lives in the “Retired LOs” topic.

April 2026 

Introducing the Life Sciences - added Invertebrate Animal Diversity topic

We’ve had many requests to open this can of worms! The new invertebrate animal diversity topic examines the characteristics of relationships between the major lineages of invertebrate animals. Scott Freeman authored a new Readiness Reading loaded with fun images. The Readiness Reading is accompanied by nineteen new post-class assessments and three new in-class activities. To help students connect diversity to other topics, two of the in-class activities focus on the evolution of key characteristics. 

Introducing the Life Sciences - added Vertebrate Animal Diversity topic

Along with invertebrates, Scott also authored a Readiness Reading for vertebrate animal diversity, examining characteristics of and relationships between the vertebrates. This new topic also includes 25 post-class assessment and two in-class activities, one of which helps students connect ecology and conservation to traits of specific vertebrate groups. 

March 2026

Introducing the Life Sciences - added Virus Diversity assessments

We’ve also added six new post-class assessments to viruses! These multiple-choice assessments focus on the Learning Objective "Explain why viruses are considered obligate intracellular parasites, and why viral diseases are difficult to treat with drugs."