Bacteria form an intense portion of reading and learning for students enrolled in microbiology education. As a part of the foundational course outline of bacteriology, bacterial classification is a significant topic of discussion. The purpose of our study was to analyze whether bacterial classification can be taught with a phylogenetic tree…

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…

Adult learning involves the analysis and synthesis of knowledge to become competent, which cannot be assessed only by traditional assessment tool and didactic learning methods. Stimulation of higher domains of cognitive learning needs to be inculcated to reach a better understanding of the subject rather than traditional assessment tools that…

The limitations of bacterial visualization media make bacteria consider as abstract and difficult material to study. Furthermore, the implementation of bacteria material and the integration of Islamic values are difficult to teach. This research aimed at developing and validating the BSB (Bacterial Set Box) media containing "fiqh al…

Course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) are tools used to introduce students to authentic participation in science. Several specific CUREs have been shown to benefit students' interest and retention in the biological sciences. Nevertheless, CUREs vary greatly in terms of their context, methodology, and degree of research…

Prior studies have shown that students have difficulty understanding the role of mutation in evolution and genetics. However, little is known about unifying themes underlying students' difficulty with mutation. In this study, we examined students' written explanations about mutation from a cognitive science perspective. According to one cognitive…

This paper describes the expressed models that children aged 7, 11, and 14 years have about micro-organisms and microbial activity. These were elicited using a variety of data collection techniques that complemented each other, resulting in a rich dataset, and provided information about the level of knowledge and progression of ideas across the…

Over the past decade, there has been growing interest in real-time assessment of student engagement and motivation during interactions with educational software. Detecting symptoms of disengagement, such as off-task behavior, has shown considerable promise for understanding students' motivational characteristics during learning. In this paper, we…

The ability to sequence genes has vastly altered our understanding of higher-level relationships among organisms such as those found at the kingdom level. It is important for biology teachers to incorporate these new views and not retain outdated concepts still present in some textbooks. This article provides an overview of our new understanding…

Presented is a card game (loosely based on Canasta) for use in teaching microbial systematics. The cards and rules are described for the game, which is based on the construction of named microorganisms drawn from a collection of cards carrying a range of characteristics. (CS)

Characteristics of the archaebacteria (comprising the methanogenic, thermoacidophilic, and extreme halophilic bacteria) are discussed, including comparisons of molecular traits for archaebacteria, eubacteria, eukaryotes, and taxonomic considerations. Issues related to integrating the archaebacteria into biology curricula and teaching about the…