The method for producing monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) was first published in 1975. MAbs have revolutionised research, diagnosis, and disease treatment approaches. While students need a good understanding of MAb production, teaching the key steps via traditional methods can be challenging. Numerous resources exist, but these focus on hybridoma…

Live cell imaging is a standard technique in experimental biology that enables the observation of isolated cells and tissue slices in real time and the testing of cellular responses to changes in buffer composition. However, most live cell imaging devices require the use of dedicated microscopes and/or specialised stage adaptors, and come at a…

Many students majoring in biology education at university find genetics as a quite complicated and difficult subject. A reflective journal has been used widely in teacher education to improve students' performance. This study aims to describe the role of the reflective journals for biology education students ina genetics course. The subjects in…

Reflection on current practices is key to the transformation of teachers into reflexive practitioners. This study describes how design thinking was integrated in Schön's 'reflection in and on' model, to transform traditional teaching of Biology into constructivist learning. As a first step, the reflection model was used to identify limitations in…

In this paper, we describe a dynamic-model as a strategy to teach DNA transcription and translation in an active way. This activity aims to provide learning beyond memorisation through the simulation of molecular processes, stimulating the elaboration of questions and hypotheses by students. The dynamic consists of four steps, starting with…

In this article, we present how educational resources for zoology designed by undergraduate students help to propose means of action for teaching diversity and animal evolution in basic education. We realised that activities of creation and analysis of educational resources, in the context of didactic planning, have the potential to approximate…

Biomimicry is a useful method to develop students' skills, such as design and systems thinking, particularly when complemented with inquiry-based learning. The research seeks to uncover how students engage in the biomimicry process and what types of designs they produce to reveal insights that could assist educators in teaching biomimicry. A study…

The digestive system is a fundamental topic in biological science teaching. Despite its importance, the level of students' knowledge on the topic appears to differ from recommended levels at several educational grades. Their knowledge also seems to be resistant to change; therefore, this discrepancy may be viewed as an epistemological obstacle to…

While metabolism is a fundamental process in physiology, the measurement of metabolism by living animals often requires specialized and expensive equipment. In 2016, I developed a novel laboratory exercise for animal physiology students where students were able to observe the effects of temperature and long-term temperature acclimation on the…

We provide a protocol for rapid DNA extraction from spiders suitable for undergraduate practical sessions. Students who were previously naïve to the theory and laboratory technique of DNA barcoding were successfully able to extract and recover 29 DNA sequences from 16 species of small spiders in the family Linyphiidae. We anticipate that with…

Information literacy is an essential skill for biologists; however, most biology curricula do not intentionally integrate information literacy into classroom and laboratory exercises. There is evidence that developing information literacy skills in undergraduates improves their research skills, writing, and GPAs. Our objective was to integrate…

Programmed cell death, or apoptosis, is a cellular pathway by which individual cells self-destruct for the benefit of the organism. In this practical paper, we describe laboratory exercises with an inquiry-based learning (IBL) approach in which undergraduate students compared apoptosis among different types of cultured cells. Ultraviolet (UV)…

Research has focused on identifying and overcoming determinants that impede widespread adoption of instructional interventions, with little empirical examination of postsecondary educators' perceptions about these interventions. We explored postsecondary biology educators' sensemaking of education improvement interventions targeting undergraduate…

The evolution of resistance to antibiotics provides a timely and relevant topic for teaching undergraduate students evolutionary biology. Here, we present a module incorporating modified sequencing data from eight antibiotic resistant pathogen outbreaks in hospital settings with bioinformatics and phylogenetic analyses. This module uses whole…

Institutions of Higher Education have grappled with the predicament of first-year success and epistemological access for years. Recently, a study employed Legitimation Code Theory (LCT) to elucidate why students who performed relatively well in high school biology struggled with the subject in first-year. This study shed valuable light on this…