The discovery of frog abnormalities by students on a school field trip in 1995 sparked hundreds of scientific studies in search of the cause of abnormality. This Socio-Scientific Issue has been used as an inquiry-based learning exercise for training in the practice of science, but it is also well-suited to teaching the nature of science. Our goal…

Asking questions can be one of the most difficult, yet important, steps in driving student inquiry. As post-secondary instructors work to integrate inquiry into classrooms, very few concrete strategies exist for developing and promoting student questioning. The Question Formulation Technique (QFT) is a structured process used widely in K-12…

As researchers, teachers, and practitioners we often encounter young professionals and lay adults who do not understand basics of mammalian body temperature regulation. Often their single solid piece of knowledge is that some vertebrates (mammals and birds) are warm-blooded and some (fish, amphibians, and reptile) are cold-blooded, which is…

Further analysis of the effectiveness of integrating project-based learning (PjBL) in Invertebrate Zoology courses to improve students' science process skills and conceptual understanding needs to be carried out. This research was aimed to analyze the integration of PjBL in the Invertebrate Zoology course on scientific process skills and…

In the 21st century, students must have high knowledge and thinking skills which can be achieved through learning activities. This study aimed to develop a Project-Based Module (PBM) on the topic of determination, differentiation, and organogenesis that is feasible and effective in improving students' cognitive learning outcomes (CLO), critical…

Natural history museums (NHM) are important for students' learning and motivation. However, the lack or scarcity of NHMs in countries with emerging markets may hamper the learning process. Virtual 3D models represent an important tool to counterbalance the lack of access of students to NHMs. Our study aims to understand if the use of 3D models may…

Questioning skills is one of competencies required by teachers in dealing with the 21st-Century challenges. The purpose of this study was profiling biology teacher candidates' questioning skills in Pekanbaru. The subjects of the research were the students, in three institutions, who were taking Zoology course. The total number of the subjects were…

Effective educational tools are needed to facilitate learning of organismal and ecological sciences in the virtual setting. For entomology laboratory classes, physically collecting insects and curating them in formal collections encompass the traditional learning and assessment tools to introduce students to the natural world and increase their…

Students in environmental sciences, ecology, or wildlife management are often reluctant to acquire training in basic laboratory techniques. To advocate the importance of this training, we reviewed literature in the fields of biological and environmental science for one frequently used technique--centrifugation--and evaluated whether centrifugation…

In this article, we present how educational resources for zoology designed by undergraduate students help to propose means of action for teaching diversity and animal evolution in basic education. We realised that activities of creation and analysis of educational resources, in the context of didactic planning, have the potential to approximate…

Acknowledging the diverse perceptions about science-religion relationships among learners who come from various religious environments may increase learners' willingness to learn about evolution. This study is based on a zoology course designed for in-service teachers, which aimed to provide basic scientific knowledge about evolution using the…

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…

Textbooks are one of the most important teaching aids in education. They often serve as the main or the only source of information for students and teachers. The aim of this study was to analyze the sources of students' scientific knowledge--teachers and textbooks, with focus on information about amphibians and reptiles. Authors have conducted an…

This study explores the current knowledge and understanding about animal biology of zoo visitors and investigates whether knowledge of animal biology influences the ability of people to understand how human activity affects biodiversity. Zoos can play a role in the development of scientific literacy in the fields of animal biology and biodiversity…

Effective feedback can build self-assessment skills in students so that they become more competent and confident to identify and self-correct weaknesses in their work. In this study, we trialled a feedback code as part of an integrated programme of formative and summative assessment tasks, which provided feedback to first-year students on their…