Within the scope of this investigation, educational instruments grounded on materialist ontology were employed to undertake a semantic analysis of the concepts of cell and the mechanisms of living organisms as they appear in biology and natural science textbooks. Drawing upon the ontological categories applied to distinct biological system levels,…

This paper explores the extent to which Biology syllabi are open to students' engagement with and acquisition of critical thinking skills in Tanzania's developing country context. It focuses on the Biology syllabus of Ordinary-level secondary education and that of Advanced-level secondary education. The paper reports the findings of a study whose…

We provide a protocol for rapid DNA extraction from spiders suitable for undergraduate practical sessions. Students who were previously naïve to the theory and laboratory technique of DNA barcoding were successfully able to extract and recover 29 DNA sequences from 16 species of small spiders in the family Linyphiidae. We anticipate that with…

We evaluated an emerging smartphone application, iNaturalist, to increase taxonomic identification and engage first-year undergraduate biology majors in outdoor laboratories of aquatic ecosystems (stream and lake ecology) and terrestrial ecosystems (tree and leaf litter ecology). Labs involved identifying organisms using both standard field guides…

Scientific drawing and writing are critical to the development of observational and recording skills in biology. However, it is unclear how the process of drawing and writing contribute to the learning of plant taxonomy. In the present study, 41 adult botanical novices studied a suite of UK native plant species using two methods: labelled drawing…

Evolutionary trees are key tools for modern biology and are commonly portrayed in textbooks to promote learning about biological evolution. However, many people have difficulty in understanding what evolutionary trees are meant to portray. In fact, some ideas that current professional biologists depict with evolutionary trees are neither clearly…

During the 2012-2013 academic year the University of North Dakota (UND) piloted the use of a Student Centered Active Learning Environment for Undergraduate Programs (SCALE-UP) classroom. "Genetics," a 300 level class for Biology majors, and "Concepts of Biology," an introductory course for non-majors were two of the classes…

Taxonomic education and botany are increasingly neglected in schools and universities, leading to a "missed generation" of adults that cannot identify organisms, especially plants. This study pilots three methods for teaching identification of native plant species to forty-three adults engaged in the participatory science project…