There have been numerous calls for improved pedagogical practices in biological education, and there is a clear need for such improvements in ecology and related curricula. Most ecology-related texts lack pedagogy and are designed to be content-rich. National initiatives, such as Vision & Change, provide guidance on undergraduate biology education, including increasing use of evidence-based active learning, and taking a more conceptual and science practice skills approach. Biology education research is rich with evidence-based teaching practices, which reveal that active learning approaches implemented in thoughtful ways lead to strong learning gains relative to lecture-based course delivery. CREATE (Consider, Read, Elucidate the hypothesis, Analyze and interpret data, Think of the next Experiment) integrates evidence-based active pedagogical practices into one approach to STEM education that focuses heavily on the process of science and science practice skills rather than content delivery by replacing the textbook with selected journal articles. The approach focuses on deep reading and analysis of primary literature; immersing students in the literature is an advantage of the pedagogy. CREATE was developed and tested in other biological disciplines (genetics, molecular biology) that have long been at the forefront of pedagogical best practices in biology. We transformed two upper-level undergraduate ecological courses (Conservation Biology & Biodiversity and Ecology) into CREATE courses. We provide examples of assignments, student work, and assessments of the approach, illustrating the various ways CREATE can be successfully implemented. The approach can be adopted in part, to ease into it and test it out, or in whole. We recommend that ecology teachers consider making their courses more active if they have not already done so; adopting pedagogical practices embedded within CREATE can be a way to achieve active learning. The CREATE approach and other evidence-based pedagogical best practices lead to strong learning gains and more inclusive learning environments.

These anonymized data were collected using the EcoEvo-MAPS assessment tool developed by Summers et al. (2018; CBE—Life Sciences Education 17(2):ar18. https://doi.org/10.1187/cbe.17-02-0037). Students in an upper-level ecology course at Davidson College (Davidson, NC, USA) taught in Fall 2016 and Fall 2018 took the assessment at the beginning and end of the course.

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