This November 2011 press release can be used as an accessible reading assignment to accompany and introduce a discussion of the ecological concepts included in issue #14 of ESA's Issues in Ecology series, "Using air pollution thresholds to protect and restore ecosystem health."
This lab exercise is an active learning introduction to techniques used to analyze soil microbiome data. Students will also learn about forming hypotheses, what kind of questions can be answered with this data, and practice the scientific method.
This resource was developed with support from the National Science Foundation.