The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has underscored the importance of mRNA vaccines. The mechanism for how such vaccines work is related to the core biology topic of the central dogma, which students often misunderstand despite its importance. Therefore, we wanted to know whether students can apply their biology knowledge of central…

Over the past year, educators have developed curricula teaching about the COVID-19 pandemic (Reed 2020; Royce 2020; Sadler et al. 2020). Many of these curricula feature computer simulations of epidemic dynamics (Kelter 2020; Sadler et al. 2020). Because an epidemic pattern is an emergent property of interacting human behaviors, it is crucial for…

The current COVID-19 pandemic shows how little many people know about viruses. Yet apart from COVID-19, the world has observed epidemic spread of another SARS virus, of the Ebola virus, and of the Zika virus during the last two decades. The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is still one of the most dangerous viruses worldwide. Some types of the…

By highlighting the critical thinking that (1) analyzes and evaluates arguments for claims about vaccinations and autism, and (2) engages in a form of methodological skepticism that systematically and continuously asks Critical Questions, a philosophical approach is introduced to deal directly and systematically with students' (and publicly…