This study addressed the following research questions: 1) What is the effect of differentiated gamified instruction on the cognitive engagement of ninth grade students in the unit of plant and animal systems? 2) What is the effect of differentiated gamified instruction on the behavioral engagement of ninth grade biology students in the unit of…

Understanding natural selection and adaptation are important precursors to learning evolution (NGSS Lead States 2013), the central unifying principle of biology. This lesson sequence, guided by the Five Practices Model (Cartier et al. 2013), incorporates data described by Andersson (1982) that details female choice in a population that eventually…

Among potential topics in the new science of biodiversity, understanding the characteristics and impact of invasive birds is an attractive subject to include as part of junior high school biology studies. Birds are aesthetic and raise curiosity. Curiosity about birds, combined with field observations, can stimulate students to ask authentic…

This study investigated the characteristics students use in attributing value to and classifying the living things; the relational construction of the life concepts and the living things and the place of human in this construction. Participants were first-year high school students from seven schools in Izmir (a large western city in Turkey). An…

No other food industry depends so heavily on a wild caught resource than those associated with aquatic food products. Domestication of fish, shellfish, and other aquatic resources production has lagged behind other terrestrial livestock products; however, demand for these aquatic natural resources has continued to increase dramatically. Teaching…