The central dogma of molecular biology describes the transfer of genetic information from nucleic acids to proteins and stipulates that the system cannot work in the reverse direction. As a fundamental principle in biology, the dogma is as influential as it is controversial. Some commentators have debated the central dogma's empirical accuracy…

Plant metabolite compounds have been applied on plant cellular metabolism, produces organic and inorganic compounds, primary and secondary bioactive molecules, such as glucose, amino acids, fat acids, alkaloids, flavonoids, and terpenoids. Undergraduate biology students learn about the plant terpenoid assisted by bioinformatics to store, manage,…

Existing research has investigated student problem-solving strategies across science, technology, engineering, and mathematics; however, there is limited work in undergraduate biology education on how various aspects that influence learning combine to generate holistic approaches to problem solving. Through the lens of situated cognition, we…

Critical thinking is essential in academia and the workforce. Although writing can be used as a pedagogical tool for fostering deeper subject matter understanding, increased retention, and critical thinking, relatively few science courses are writing based. This writing-based introductory science course provided an opportunity for students to…

Views of obesity as a consequence of "lack of willpower" or other behavioral choices, rather than a complex array of biological and other factors, are quite common among undergraduate students. Many undergraduates in prenursing or biology programs have little exposure to the physiology and pathophysiology of obesity, including learning…

To make sound science-related decisions in a global society, individuals must possess a science identity, or see themselves as capable of doing and understanding science. Science identity development begins in school-aged years, when multilingual students (MLs) are often marginalised in the classroom due to language challenges and low expectations…

As a strategy to carry out a better achievement in the Biochemistry course, undergraduate dentistry education manage a traditional course on the basic concepts of general chemistry necessary in the understanding of Biochemistry. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of learning outcome, we aimed to develop an evaluation tool that was applied to…

Biology education researchers seek to improve biology education, particularly at the introductory level, yet there is little documentation about what is actually happening in introductory biology. To characterize the landscape of learning expectations for introductory biology, we analyzed course-level learning objectives (n = 1108) and course…

We introduce the "Whitehead complex", a one-complex associated to a finite regular cover of the rose and show that it is connected if and only if the fundamental group of the associated cover is generated by its intersection with the set of elements in proper free factors of the fundamental group of the rose. The Whitehead complex admits…

A curriculum description of a general introductory biology course titled "Introduction to Research Methods" is presented here. The course aims to provide a glimpse of biomedical research to students who have had no or limited exposure to research to encourage them to do research as freshmen. Thus, this course aims to better equip and…

Mathematics provides us with tools to capture and explain phenomena in everyday biology, even at the nanoscale. The most regularly applied technique to biology is differential equations. In this article, we seek to present how differential equation models of biological phenomena, particularly the flow through ion channels, can be used to motivate…

Abstract Microbiome study requires both molecular techniques and bioinformatics skills, which are challenging for biologists to participate in this growing field. To introduce microbiome concepts and skills to students, a 6-week wet-lab and bioinformatics course for undergraduates was implemented through the project-based learning (PBL) approach.…

Visual literacy, which is the ability to effectively identify, interpret, evaluate, use, and create images and visual media, is an important aspect of science literacy. As molecular processes are not directly observable, researchers and educators rely on visual representations (e.g., drawings) to communicate ideas in biology. How learners…

Exposure to environmental pollutants has been associated with cellular aging in children and adolescents. Individuals may vary, however, in their sensitivity or vulnerability to the effects of environmental pollutants. Larger hippocampal volume has emerged as a potential index of increased sensitivity to social contexts. In exploratory analyses…

Eliciting student thinking as resources for learning is central to productive sense making. Educators use pedagogical tools such as talk moves to direct classroom conversations toward and sometimes away from student learning. This mixed methods study describes how teaching assistants (TAs) use talk moves as pedagogical tools to elicit and work…