Non-science majors often lack motivation to take science courses required for their graduation, because these courses are usually taught in a lecture format and are disconnected from their everyday life and needs related to future careers. This two-phase action research, utilizing argumentative writing (AW) supported with online simulation, was…

The concepts of randomness and variation are pervasive in science. The purpose of this study was to document how post-secondary life science students explain randomness and variation, infer relationships between their explanations, and ability to describe and identify appropriate and inappropriate variation, and determine if students can identify…

Undergraduate students enrolled in an introductory biology course for nonmajors during the fall semester of 2007 were administered the Biology Attitude Scale (Russell and Hollander 1975), a constructed Mathematics Attitude Scale, and a portion of the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (Pintrich and Smith 1993). Together, the…

The purpose of this study was to identify some of the characteristics of Negro college students who majored in science in comparison to those who were non-majors. The science majors were sub-divided into pure science and applied science groups for some analyses. Twelve variables were investigated: (1) ACT composite scores, (2) ACT science scores,…

The mathematical skills possessed by students taking introductory biology courses were investigated. A list of 23 mathematical competencies was identified as part of the development of a 46-item multiple-choice test to measure the extent to which students possessed these competencies. The Biomathematics Skills Test (BST) was administered to…