Reinventing PowerPoint: A New Look at an Old Tool

Microsoft PowerPoint is a powerful, yet often underutilized, orchestration tool for learning. While its most common use may be no more powerful or effective than an overhead projector, the multimedia capabilities of the software open up powerful means to connect with diverse learners in the classroom. In this piece, we explore how PowerPoint can be used in ways that connect with Universal Design for Learning principles and make teacher and student presentations more engaging and effective. We offer several concrete examples of “thinking outside the slide” to leverage the unique potential of PowerPoint in the classroom

Host-parasite interactions and the evolution of immune defense

Opening paragraph: Parasites are both numerous and ubiquitous, and so all living organisms face a continual struggle to fend off a constant barrage of immunological insults within their environment. The mechanisms for doing so are many and varied; they include physical and chemical defenses, such as thick skin, fur, or cuticle; behavioral defenses, such as grooming, behavioral fever, and self-medication; and immune defenses, including the innate immune system common to all animals and the vertebrate-specific acquired immune system (Schmid-Hempel, 2011; Wilson, 2005). Since the advent of molecular advances such as whole-genome sequencing and next-generation techniques, our mechanistic understanding of immune defenses has grown considerably for both vertebrates and invertebrates. Amongst the many things these have revealed is the similarity between many aspects of innate immune defences of vertebrates and invertebrates (Vilmos & Kurucz, 1998), and this has highlighted the utility of using insects, especially Drosophila, as model hosts for understanding the evolution of, and plasticity in, the innate immune response