Learning basic cell biology in an essential module can be daunting to second-year undergraduates, given the depth of information that is provided in major molecular and cell biology textbooks. Moreover, lectures on cellular pathways are organised into sections, such that at the end of lectures, students might not see how various processes are…

Darwin's theory of evolution is explicitly competitive, yet co-operation between individuals is a common phenomenon. The Prisoner's Dilemma model is central to the teaching of the evolution of co-operation. The best-known explorations of the Prisoner's Dilemma are the tournaments run by Robert Axelrod in the 1980s. Aimed at students…

Teachers' conceptions of teaching, including assessment practices, are substantial in directing student learning. Our article refers to assessment at tertiary level biological education. We studied life science (more specifically microbiology-related) teachers' assessment discourse describing how they understood assessment as part of…

Genomics and proteomics projects have produced a huge amount of raw biological data including DNA and protein sequences. Although these data have been stored in data banks, their evaluation is strictly dependent on bioinformatics tools. These tools have been developed by multidisciplinary experts for fast and robust analysis of biological data.…

Field work and field courses within undergraduate biology degrees have been under threat in recent years for multiple reasons and while there has been widespread support from learned societies, academic staff and students for the retention of field study, there has been little research to support the perceived value of field teaching within this…

Mating between closely related individuals often causes reduced fitness, which is termed "inbreeding depression". Inbreeding is, therefore, a threat towards the persistence of animal and plant populations. Here we present methods and results from a practical for high-school and first-year university students and discuss learning outcomes of the…

A phylogenetics exercise is incorporated into the "Introduction to biocomputing" course, a junior-level course at Savannah State University. This exercise is designed to help students learn important concepts and practical skills in molecular phylogenetics through solving a real-world problem. In this application, students are required to identify…

This study investigated the effectiveness of three different instructional materials for learning how to identify fish at the species level in a blended classroom and out-of-classroom scenario. A sample of 195 first-year students of biology or geoecology at the University of Tuebingen participated in a course on identification of European…

Field experiments are at the core of ecology, yet rarely find their way into education, probably due to a combination of technical challenges and risks associated with fieldwork. This may compromise student education and perception of the subject, making interesting, readily manageable experiments extremely important. We describe how the daily…

We tried to determine the reasoning behind the stances taken by a group of 19-21-year-old students on the controversial issue of the feasibility and acceptability of human gene therapy. The students were in training at a biotechnology institute. We organised classroom debates, punctuated by phases of epistemological "disturbances". We used a…

Concept mapping is discussed as a tool for the visualisation of knowledge structures that can be exploited within biological education. Application of this tool makes it possible to relate the structure of the curriculum to the structure of the discipline, in order to support the development of robust student knowledge structures in ways that…

Teachers as well as students often have difficulty formulating good research questions because not all questions lend themselves to scientific investigation. The following is a guide for high-school and college life-science teachers to help students define question types central to biological field studies. The mayfly nymph was selected as the…

The ability to appreciate the inter-connectedness of complex biological relationships can be difficult for many students. Graphical knowledge in the form of concept maps and flow charts are learning tools which can assist students to recognise the inter-connectivity. This report focuses on a trial which incorporates these two related visual…

This practical paper describes a novel fluorescence imaging experiment to study the three processes of photochemistry, fluorescence and thermal energy dissipation, which compete during the dissipation of excitation energy in photosynthesis. The technique represents a non-invasive tool for revealing and understanding the spatial heterogeneity in…

This paper describes the development of a taught Master's course in biomedical diagnostics using a novel multi-disciplinary approach. This course, the first of its kind in Ireland, covers the science and technology underlying the development of medical diagnostic devices that detect early markers of diseases such as cancer. The ethical impact of…