Genotyping real alleles in real people is an excellent way to connect abstract genetics concepts to human variation in the classroom; however, these activities can inadvertently promote misconceptions of the power of genetics to determine individual and group traits. By analyzing our own and others' experiences of genotyping activities in the…

Pedigree analysis has long been an essential tool in human genetics as well as a staple of genetics education. Students of genetics might be surprised to learn that human pedigrees were first popularized in the United States by proponents of eugenics, the pseudoscientific social movement aimed at improving the genetic quality of the human race.…

Gene therapy has fascinated clinicians, scientists, and patients since decades ago because of its potential to treat a disease at the genetic level. This can be achieved in many ways, including replacing a disease-causing gene with a healthy copy. Gene therapy must overcome complex tissue and cellular barriers to introduce genetic modifications…

The purpose of this research was to determine the effect of the 5E model on the understanding of the molecular genetics concepts taught in general biology. The research had a quantitative focus and a quasi-experimental design, and the participants were 40 undergraduate students from a private university in the west of Puerto Rico, which were…

Biology teachers consider basic Mendelian genetics to be value-free, objective science, immune to misinterpretation and misuse. It may thus come as a surprise to learn that in the early days of genetics a cornerstone of genetics education, the dihybrid cross, was employed to support claims of the racial superiority of whites over blacks and to…

Genetics plays an increasing role in modern life as evidenced by the development of revolutionary techniques such as CRISPR-based genome editing and the rise of personalized genome services. However, genetics is difficult to learn; known issues include its abstract nature, different scales, and technical language. Pedigree analysis is a…

Although unrecognized for his scientific achievements during his life, Gregor Mendel pioneered our modern understanding of the gene, work that shaped the field of genetics and advances in biology and medicine. The field that he set in motion 200 years ago lies at the center of current ethical debates about the future of humanity, the limits of…

Teaching and understanding evolution is challenging because students must synthesize several biological processes that are traditionally taught separately. We developed a set of free online lessons and activities centered on a single evolutionary phenomenon -- why deer mice have different fur colors in different subpopulations -- to help high…

Cell size is an important variable in the study of cellular growth, metabolism, and the cell cycle. The large size of "Amoeba proteus" and the ease with which it can be collected and cultured have made it a star in biology education--and it was a model for research on cell biology before the introduction of molecular genetic methods.…

In instructional settings, evolution and natural selection are challenging concepts to teach, due to the fact that these topics are difficult to observe in the laboratory or lecture hall. In the past few years, Avida-ED has emerged as an innovative tool for teaching evolutionary principles. It allows students to directly observe effects of…

We present a drawing discovery lab that crosscuts multiple disciplines in biology and links concepts in genetics and evolutionary thinking to enhance understanding of the genotype-to-phenotype transformation. These combined concepts are also linked to ecological frameworks in nature through the model of biological plasticity. Students and teachers…

Idiograms are graphical representations in which chromosomes appear ordered by their relative size, homology groups, and the presence of cytogenetic landmarks such as centromeres, secondary constrictions, and banding patterns. They have become crucial elements in cytogenetic research. Here, we describe a simple protocol for spreadsheet software to…

Instructors often present Mendelian genetics and molecular biology separately. As a result, students often fail to connect the two topics in a tangible manner. We have adopted a simple experiment to help link these two important topics in a basic biology course, using red and white onions bought from a local grocery store. A lack of red coloration…

Various sequences for teaching genetics have been proposed. Three seventh-grade biology textbooks in Taiwan share similar key knowledge assemblages but have different knowledge arrangements. To investigate the influence of knowledge arrangements on student understanding of genetics, we compared students' reading comprehension of the three texts…

Genetic drift is a concept of population genetics that is central to understanding evolutionary processes and aspects of conservation biology. It is frequently taught using rather abstract representations. I introduce three real-life zoological examples, based on historical and recent color morphs of tigers, tapirs, and ravens, that can complement…