Objective: Systems thinking can be counterintuitive to everyday ways of knowing. This can surface doubt around predicted patterns of emergence in complex systems data, especially as it relates to the current climate crisis and related justice-oriented solutions. Method: Our study describes a four-year design-based research project in which we…

Rural adolescents with asthma are a disparate group. Self-management is essential to asthma control. We describe asthma knowledge, self-efficacy, and self-management behaviors among 198 rural adolescents with poorly controlled asthma, exploring demographic differences; we also test the application of Social Cognitive Theory to asthma…

Background: School-based human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) education can reach most adolescents, but inconsistencies exist in state-level content policies. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the associations between state-level high school HIV education policies and adolescent HIV risk behaviors. Methods: This was a cross-sectional…

This paper presents an analysis of the socio-scientific dimensions which 46 11th graders, enrolled in the subject scientific culture, consider to justify their COVID-19 vaccination decision and how they managed to combine and integrate these dimensions before and after working on a sequence of activities aimed at learning about argumentation in…

In 2020, Year 12 students at John Curtin College of the Arts, were required to model COVID-19 data from five different countries in order to find correlations between daily infections and unemployment rates, in order to make future predictions. Work received from students demonstrated how the task successfully provided unique learning…

The article describes a science activity designed to increase students' knowledge and awareness of the spread of COVID-19. It helps students achieve scientific literacy through improving their views about the nature of science and their argumentation skills. It also promotes students' engagement in scientific practices such as modelling,…

The COVID-19 pandemic was an unprecedented event in world history with a global impact. In the United States, emergency remote teaching (ERT) was utilized due to significant changes in the educational system, including temporary closures, shifts to remote and hybrid learning, and the addition of various infection control measures such as the…

Biology, a living science, is known as a balance and complement among other branches of science. Just like the science of biology, biology as a course also plays a very important role among other courses at all school types and grades. It is thought that the adults of the future should not be deprived of knowledge in the field of biology and…

Mosquitoes are both a nuisance and public health threat. In recent decades, outbreaks of dengue, chikungunya, and Zika in Florida have raised awareness of the importance of domestic and peri-domestic container mosquitoes, Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus. The synanthropic nature of these species, coupled with their preference for human…

This study investigates the inclusion of health education concepts in biology textbooks in the United States of America and Singapore. It employs a content analysis methodology to examine biology textbooks, considering the theme as a unit and dividing health concepts into four main fields. The findings for both countries indicate that the field of…

The State of Vermont's policy is that all Vermonters, including secondary students, should receive educational services that enable them to master the skills essential for further education and training and for successful entry into or advancement in the workplace. As part of this policy, high schools are required to provide genuine access to…

Background: Many schools transitioned online to reduce viral spread and promote social distancing amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Remote learning may impact health behaviors and coping strategies among adolescents, including reduced physical activity and increased screen time. Social media and peers provide information about the pandemic to…

Once the COVID-19 pandemic occurred in the United States, social distancing measures that included closing sport facilities, recreational facilities, schools, restaurants, entertainment venues, and so on were put in place to decrease the spread of the virus. This posed a unique challenge for physical education (PE) instructors as they were left to…

This article describes a modeling project the author did with his algebra, geometry, and applications students in grades 9, 10, and 11 as an enrichment and exploration of an extremely relevant real-world phenomenon and introduction to the adult profession of epidemiologist. With discussion and exploration, this project consumed two periods of 88…

Purpose: The overall purpose of this journal-ready dissertation was to determine the degree to which school level (i.e., elementary, middle, and high schools) and school urbanicity (i.e., city, suburb, town, and rural) were related to written safety plans (i.e., active shooter, hostage, bomb, and pandemic flu/disease threats) and drilled safety…