Most of humanity's important and difficult problems such as pandemics, environmental health, and social unrest require recognizing and understanding complex systems. Students often have difficulty understanding complex systems concepts and previous research indicates that scaffolded computer simulations may facilitate learning. Few studies,…

As the food system, from production to consumption, has increasingly become complex, the need for food literacy among American school-aged children has also increased. Teaching and learning interventions using inquiry-based learning (IBL) can be used to improve food literacy. The purpose of this study was to determine how an IBL approach paired…

Regarding future ecological challenges, it is highly relevant for students to understand the processes within ecosystems and the effects of external influences on their conservation. Since ecosystems are complex, difficulties in learning are often examined from a systems thinking perspective. However, challenges also arise in other areas,…

Background: Obesity-driven nutrition education in schools does not appear to result in healthier adolescent food choices. This study explored food systems as an alternative pedagogical approach to engage students in nutrition education. Methods: After playing a food systems computer game, 250 13- to 16-year-old students in 5 Western Australian…

Understanding molecular processes and coordinating the various activities across levels of organization in biological systems is a complicated task, yet many curricular guidelines indicate that undergraduate students should master it. Employing mechanistic reasoning can facilitate describing and investigating biological phenomena. Biofilms are an…

This study examines how lower secondary school students understand the circulatory system, using the structure-behavior-function (SBF) framework for conceptual representation. It evaluates the progress of students' understanding after interventions with two different teaching approaches, one using a biology textbook supported by augmented reality…

Project EQuIPD--Engaging Quality Instruction through Professional Development--sought to establish and test for efficacy a professional development model to produce highly qualified teachers in STEM practices for all children, especially for students who are in traditionally underserved schools and districts within the State of Florida. The…