Making Biology Teaching More “Graphic”

In an age of enhanced visual technology, the use of visual supplements in the classroom has become increasingly effective in conveying information about complex biological concepts. What is more, many students feel the need to “see” concepts depicted in one form or another. Over many years of teaching biology at a university, I discovered the usefulness of incorporating simple, generic graphs into lectures and assignments to show relationships between assorted variables discussed in class. Here, I show how to illustrate a relationship between two variables on a single graph and integrate relationships for multiple related variables on a series of “stacked” graphs. I also demonstrate how graphs can help make a distinction between two commonly confused concepts: negative correlation and negative feedback.