Learning the meaningful use of the microscope is an essential requirement in school curricula. Modern science and medicine is hardly conceivable without the inclusion of microscopy. The number of didactic studies in this area, however, is negligible. Real microscopy is rarely used to gain knowledge in higher school years. Could the understanding…

Scholars are increasingly being asked to share teaching materials, publish in open access journals, network in social media, and reuse open educational resources (OER). The theoretical benefits of Open Educational Practices (OEP) have become understood in the academic community but thus far, the use of OER has not been rapidly adopted. We aim to…

The present article reports on the results of a three-year German-wide program Biology in Context ("bik"). In this program teachers and researchers worked together in 10 learning communities with the goal of enhancing the quality of teaching and learning in biology classrooms as mandated by the recently passed National Educational…