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This open-access textbook provides an in-depth introduction to CRISPR-Cas9 technology and explores its use across the gamut of biological model systems. This volume is intended for classroom instructors at the high school and undergraduate level. It provides insight into integration of CRISPR-Cas into undergraduate laboratory courses as well as options for dry-bench work and activities to scaffold learning. 

The skill of analyzing and interpreting research data is central to the scientific process, yet it is one of the hardest skills for students to master. While instructors can coach students through the analysis of data that they have either generated themselves or obtained from published articles, the burgeoning availability of preprint articles provides a new potential pedagogical tool. We developed a new method in which students use a cognitive apprenticeship model to uncover how experts analyzed a paper and compare the professional’s cognitive approach to their own. Specifically, students first critique research data themselves and then identify changes between the preprint and final versions of the paper that were likely the results of peer review. From this activity, students reported diverse insights into the processes of data presentation, peer review, and scientific publishing. Analysis of preprint articles is therefore a valuable new tool to strengthen students’ information literacy and understanding of the process of science.