This article contains an original 5E lesson plan developed from conservation genetics research on the giant North American hellbender salamander, Cryptobranchus alleganiensis alleganiensis. The lesson plan provides background information on the hellbender, reviews basic genetics, and exposes students to the scientific process that is used during…

Little empirical evidence suggested that independent reading abilities of students enrolled in biology predicted their performance on the Biology I Graduation End-of-Course Assessment (ECA). An archival study was conducted at one Indiana urban public high school in Indianapolis, Indiana, by examining existing educational assessment data to test…

This article explains four kinds of inquiry exercises, different in purpose, for teaching advanced-level high school and college students the hypothetico-deductive (H-D) method. The first uses a picture of a river system to convey the H-D method's logic. The second has teams of students use the H-D method: their teacher poses a hypothesis…

The behavior of animals is an intrinsically fascinating topic for students from a wide array of backgrounds. We describe a learning experience using animal behavior that we created for middle school students as part of a graduate-student outreach program, Graduate Partners in Science Education, at Arizona State University in collaboration with a…

We describe how the increased level of religiosity in the United States is correlated with the resistance to the teaching of evolution and argue that this is a social, rather than scientific, issue. Our goal is to foster teachers' understanding of the philosophy of biology and encourage them to proactively deal with creationism at all levels,…

Many students leave the biology classroom with misconceptions centered on cellular structure. This article presents an activity in which students utilize images from an online database called "The Cell: An Image Library" (http://www.cellimagelibrary. org/) to gain a greater understanding of the diversity of cellular structure and the…

In this practice-based lab, students are provided with four Olympic athlete profiles and simulated blood and urine samples to test for illegal substances and blood-doping practices. Throughout the course of the lab, students design and conduct a testing procedure and use their results to determine which athletes won their medals fairly. All of the…

Gas diffusion, as a basis for complex biological processes such as respiration, is a core principle for understanding fundamental physiology. Students, however, often find these concepts challenging, in particular when expressed formally as in Fick's law of gas diffusion. This introduction to Fick's law uses the representations of…

Both the old National Science Education Standards (NSES) and the recent "Next Generation Science Standards" (NGSS) devote significant resources to learning about human environmental impact. Whereas the NSES advocate learning about human environmental impact in a section apart from the science- content learning strands, the NGSS embed…

One of the key aspects of natural selection is competition, yet the concept of competition is not necessarily emphasized in explanations of natural selection. Because of this, we developed an activity for our class that focuses on competition and provides an example of the effects of competition on natural selection. This hands-on activity models…

"Forest health" is an important concept often not covered in tree, forest, insect, or fungal ecology and biology. With minimal, inexpensive equipment, students can investigate and conduct their own forest health survey to assess the percentage of trees with natural or artificial wounds or stress. Insects and diseases in the forest are…

Why is it so hard to get students talking in science class? Who is responsible? Are the students unwilling to speak in class? What kinds of supports are helpful for in-the-moment teaching during classroom discussions in science? We present one high school teacher's facilitation of science discussions while supported by a dialogic discussion…

In learning genetics, many students misunderstand and misinterpret what "dominance" means. Understanding is easier if students realize that dominance is not a mechanism, but rather a consequence of underlying cellular processes. For example, metabolic pathways are often little affected by changes in enzyme concentration. This means that…

Recent reform initiatives in undergraduate biology call for curricula that prepare students for dealing with real-world issues and making important links between science and society. In response to this call, we have developed an issues-based laboratory module that uses guided inquiry to integrate the concepts of animal behavior and population…

Recent scientific studies are providing increasing evidence for how microbes living in and on us are essential to our good health. However, many students still think of microbes only as germs that harm us. The classroom activities presented here are designed to shift student thinking on this topic. In these guided inquiry activities, students…