We designed and evaluated a student laboratory workshop on plant-based vaccines against the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The workshop focused on hands-on laboratory techniques, including DNA extraction from rice seeds, where the recombinant protein was produced, detection of the transgene, and basic concepts on how vaccines work in the human body to offer…

Mechanobiology is an interdisciplinary field that aims to understand how physical forces impact biological systems. Enhancing our knowledge of mechanobiology has become increasingly important for understanding human disease and developing novel therapeutics. There is a societal need to teach diverse students principles of mechanobiology so that we…

Students majoring in non-STEM fields often identify introductory biology courses as irrelevant and overly rigorous. Resistance to enroll in a required general education science course, coupled with negative attitudes toward the subject, can adversely affect the academic performance of students; this can especially be present in students from…

Project-based learning (PBL) in the science classroom provides an opportunity for students to investigate socioscientific issues that are current, authentic, and relevant. In a typical PBL unit, the teacher designs a narrative plan and acts as a facilitator who helps gather and organize student ideas. The framework of the Next Generation Science…

The conflict between the amount of material to be addressed in high school science classes, the need to prepare students for standardized tests, and the amount of time available forces science educators to make difficult pedagogical decisions on a daily basis. Hands-on and inquiry-based learning offer students more authentic learning experiences…

Explains the fight or flight reaction and presents a hands-on activity for high school students. Uses crayfish behavior as an example. (Author/SOE)

Describes a series of hands-on experiments that engage students in hypothesis testing and promotes active learning of the concepts of evolution and adaptation. Laboratory exercises demonstrate how features of the hands and eyes distinguish primates from other mammals. (SOE)

Describes the design and implementation of an activity to teach electrocommunication in animals using scientific inquiry and engineering design to pose questions, seek answers, and develop solutions in understanding electrocommunication in electric fish; develop explanations of natural phenomena as a creative process; and help understand that…