Like every other species, we humans are here by accident. But it is shocking just how many things—any of which might never have occurred—had to happen in certain ways for any of us to exist. From an extremely improbable asteroid impact, to the wild gyrations of the Ice Age, to invisible accidents in our parents’ gonads, we are all here through an astonishing series of fortunate events. And chance continues to reign every day over the razor-thin line between our life and death. A Series of Fortunate Events tells the story of the awesome power of chance and how it is the surprising source of all the beauty and diversity in the living world.

Dr. Sean B. Carroll joined the NABT community on October 16, 2020 for a special presentation and Q&A about the book.

Dr. Offit, one of the country’s foremost vaccine experts, spent a casual evening with NABT answering vaccine-related questions. He gave a brief overview of the COVID-19 vaccine story, and then responded to attendee questions. This is your opportunity to find out more about the science behind COVID-19 vaccines!

Watch the recording here.

Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson joined us on November 6, 2020 for a special interview. Ayana is a marine biologist, policy expert, writer, and Brooklyn native. She is the founder of Urban Ocean Lab, a think tank for the future of coastal cities, and founder and CEO of Ocean Collectiv, a consulting firm for conservation solutions. Her mission is to build community around solutions for our climate crisis. Find her @ayanaeliza.

View the recording here.

What’s to be done about a jaywalking moose? A bear caught breaking and entering? A murderous tree? Three hundred years ago, animals that broke the law would be assigned legal representation and put on trial.

These days, as New York Times best-selling author Mary Roach discovers, the answers are best found not in jurisprudence but in science: the curious science of human-wildlife conflict, a discipline at the crossroads of human behavior and wildlife biology.

Mary Roach discussed her books and answered questions starting at 7:00 PM ET / 4:00 PM PT on Friday, December 9th, 2022.

Watch the video here.

NABT and the Quantitative Biology @ Community Colleges (QB@CC) project hosted a special webinar to examine cellular biology content through a quantitatively focused exploration using the popular open educational resource (OER) entitled Sizes, Scales, and Specialization: An activity highlighting the diversity in cell types.

Watch the video here.

Files shared during the webinar are below:

• OER Resource: Cell Sizes, Scales, and Specialization
  • OER File Downloads
  • Final Facilitation Guide
  • Student Hand Out

The audience level for this module is appropriate for undergraduate and high school educators.

Award-winning educator Dr. Neil Lamb will explain some of the coolest genomics discoveries of the previous 18 months. Participants will become familiar with the annual "Genetics and Biotech Guidebook", produced annually by the educational outreach branch of the HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology. Packed with ‘too new for textbooks’ content and phrased in student-friendly language, all participants will receive access to a FREE digital version of the guidebook for classroom use.

View the recording here.

What do you learn when you have spent more than a decade pursuing the idea that undergraduate research and other "high impact practices" are the tools needed to bring equity not just in STEM, but in all higher education? How do you take success in the classroom and bring it to scale at your institution, and to other institutions in your state? How do you recover from setbacks? How do you nurture a community of leaders who will not only continue the work but will take it to even greater success?

Dr. Gita Bangera shared her journey as a change agent in the community college ecosystem during a Community Conversation hosted by NABT's Two-Year College Section on Monday, May 2nd, 2022.

Watch the recording here.

NABT Community Conversations:
The Introductory Biology Experience in the Age of Covid-19

The NABT Introductory Biology Task Force is presented a series of online moderated focus group discussions to inform introductory biology faculty professional development needs.

The online event took place August 5^th- 7^th from 3:00pm - 4:30pm Eastern Time, and attendees participated in discussions about recent challenges of teaching introductory biology, and helped bring to light the pressing professional development needs of introductory biology faculty.

The “Tips for Teaching Science in a Pandemic: Ways to Lessen the Stress on Both Students and Educators” webinar series was sponsored by NABT to bring together biology educators from community colleges, liberal arts colleges, and research institutions in India and the US to share best practices in remote teaching and student engagement. This webinar will also cover education histories as part of an Indian and United States cultural exchange.

The series was organized by co-chairs from The Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER Kolkata), the Indian Institute of Science (IISc Bangalore), the University of Colorado School of Medicine, and Northwestern Connecticut Community College.

Program:

• Sunday, Feb 21: The Role of Culture and Faith in Reducing Stress During a Pandemic
• Monday, Feb 22: Tips and Resources to Address Engagement and Minimize Stress in the Virtual Classroom
• Tuesday, Feb 23: Navigating Science Classes Online
• Wednesday, Feb 24: Addressing Engagement and Minimizing Stress when Teaching and Learning Virtually

When Dr. Gabriel Guzman developed his personal teaching philosophy over 20 years ago, he decided that it would be based on something that he felt was missing when he was a student struggling to fit in, with friends, classmates, and the college experience in general. “Students learn what they care about, from people they care about and who, they know, care about them.”

Join Dr. Guzman as he discusses what have been the most impactful practices in his community college classroom: metacognition, active learning, and more recently ungrading.

Watch the recording here.

Dr. Guzman has also shared his PowerPoint and answers to the Zoom Chat.

NABT and NCSE presented "Celebrating Kitzmiller and Its Enduring Impact," on Friday, February 12, 2021. Kitzmiller vs. Dover was decided in December 2005 and remains one of the most important legal precedents in education. Join us for a special (and free) Darwin Day discussion regarding the case, and how it continues to protect science education in America’s classrooms.

A full recording of this special Darwin Day event is available at Celebrating Kitzmiller.

Panelists included:

• Jen Miller was a Dover Area Senior High biology teacher who refused to read the contentious statement about intelligent design to her class and helped challenge the Dover Area School District.
• Eugenie Scott, PhD is the founding Executive Director of NCSE and will share her insight on NCSE’s pivotal role in coordinating the Kitzmiller plaintiffs’ legal strategy.
• Kenneth R Miller, PhD Professor of Biology and the Royce Family Professor for Teaching Excellence at Brown University. An award winning-educator and author, Dr. Miller was called as an expert witness in the Kitzmiller trial, and currently serves as president of the NCSE Board of Directors. Dr. Miller will offer guidance on how we can all be champions for science education - and science communication.
• Glenn Branch, NCSE Deputy Director will share data illustrating how in the years following Kitzmiller, more biology teachers are teaching evolution as established science and the central theme of biology. The adoption of standards such as NGSS have provided teachers with guidance to teach evolution openly and accurately - but have also provided evolution's foes with a new target. 
• Julie Angle, PhD is an Associate Professor at Oklahoma State University and current NABT President. She will discuss how campaigns to promote “strengths and weaknesses” take shape at the local level, and remind us why helping students learn how to use facts has never been more important.
• Lin Andrews, Director of Teacher Support, NCSE, will share resources and tips to help teachers feel confident in their content knowledge and practice.

Snakes are really odd, really successful kinds of lizards. They are so successful and so unusual that most people don’t even think they are lizards. The origin of snakes has led to a deep well of questions: When and why did they lose their limbs? Why don’t snakes have eyelids? What’s up with all the tongue flicking?

NABT and NCSE hosted a special encore presentation of the popular "Squamate Speciation Symposium" that was presented during the 2021 NABT Conference in Atlanta. This session will explore the origins of limblessness, the discovery of the largest snake of all time, Titanoboa cerrejonensis, and how 3D imaging of museum specimens opens up a whole new world of opportunities for scientists and educators alike.

This webinar was presented by: Edward L. Stanley, oVert program/Florida Museum, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL Rebecca Brewer, Troy High School, NCSE Teacher Ambassador, Troy, MI Lin Andrews, Director of Teacher Support, NCSE, Oakland, CA

View the recording of Squamate Speciation.

2023 Darwin Day with NABT & NCSE
Thursday, February 9th from 6:00pm - 7:30pm Eastern

Chewing on Change: The Tales Teeth Tell Us

Teeth come in a variety of shapes and sizes and help us understand the evolutionary history of mammals. In addition, they can also paint a more vivid picture of the ecology of ancient wildlife.

This session will explore ways we infer the ecology of extinct mammals, highlight how these efforts are relevant when assessing impacts of climate change on mammalian communities, and reveal cautionary conservation lessons that are relevant today.

View the recording at 2023 Darwin Day.