This activity describes a mini- to microscale setup that offers an affordable, reproducible, and accurate method to compare the aerobic and anaerobic respiration of Saccharomyces boulardii, a strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. By using cost-effective methodology and standards, students are exposed to concepts such as stoichiometric relationships, yeast metabolism, reaction kinetics, and analytical testing. Yeast CO2 production is measured by reduction of mass (aerobic) and water displacement volumetric change (anaerobic). Data collected from the activity are used to compare the two modes of respiration. The activity presented has been tested in the context of advanced high school chemistry material and introductory undergraduate chemistry.

Conservation of wildlife often depends on high quality molecular data to establish reliable species identification. Traditional approaches in extracting material (DNA) for phylogenetic studies on chameleons have relied on removed, euthanized or preserved/museum specimens, while field sampling usually takes the form of tail clippings from living individuals and their subsequent release. In this article, we propose an alternative to these approaches for field sampling, towards isolation of nuclear and mitochondrial DNA with oral (buccal) swabs, a methodology already been demonstrated as effective in other taxa. Options of sampling, storage, transport, extraction of DNA are presented and the quality and quantity of extracted material (using venipuncture as a positive control) was demonstrated as sufficient for downstream applications, including sequencing thereby presenting a practical field alternative. The advantages and limitations of this minimally invasive and non‐destructive method applied to Chamaeleo africanus are further discussed.

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