One way to connect research with its clinical application is to examine the interplay between context and child. This article discusses the relationship between temperamental characteristics and the caregiving environment. During the first year of life, individual temperament differences in newborns are moderately stable and influence the nature…

This article examines discourse in the United States used to socially construct an "underachieving boys" moral panic. Employing discourse analysis I examine the adversarial rhetoric of claims-makers and the frames they deploy to undermine alternative and conflicting accounts (of females as disadvantaged) and to forestall any challenges to the…

To complement legislative measures protecting cetaceans and other marine animals, the Peruvian Centre for Cetacean Research in the period 1993-2000 implemented an environmental education program at the kindergartens, primary and high schools of several fishing towns and in Lima, Peru. This program included environmental classes based on selected…

A collaborative effort between biology and communication instructors to facilitate speaking skills for senior biology majors resulted in improved organization, clarity and confidence in delivering an oral scientific presentation. But this instruction also favorably impacted students' scientific writing. This benefit seems best attributed to…

In this study, the cognitive characteristics of students' decision-making processes centered on phases, difficulties, and strategies are analysed in the personal dailylife context involving biological knowledge. The subjects were first year science and general high school students in Seoul, Korea; 6 female students and 7 male students. The…

Websites that accompany science courses typically aim to provide easy access to learning materials, and to facilitate student-instructor communication. We tested whether these aims were achieved in two web enhanced, lower division undergraduate biology courses in an Israeli college. We collected data on the students' attitudes through pre- and…

Students are most motivated and learn best when they are immersed in an environment that causes them to realize why they should learn. Perhaps nowhere is this truer than when teaching the biological sciences to engineers. Transitioning from a traditionally mathematics-based to a traditionally knowledge-based pedagogical style can challenge student…

Diffusion and osmosis are central concepts in biology, both at the cellular and organ levels. They are presented several times throughout most introductory biology textbooks (e.g., Freeman, 2002), yet both processes are often difficult for students to understand (Odom, 1995; Zuckerman, 1994; Sanger "et al.", 2001; and results herein). Students…

Just-in-Time Teaching (JiTT) combines the best features of traditional in-class instruction with the communication potential available via the Web. We describe here how JiTT has been used in Biology Education and how it can be used in Food Science Education. JiTT uses Web-based "Warm Up" assignments due before class to stimulate critical thinking…

Sophisticated software such as Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) are rapidly being deployed by universities. Despite widespread use of such systems, experience shows that there is frequently poor pedagogic development, leading primarily to use of VLEs as electronic document repositories rather than as online learning systems in which the…

Several studies support that stored memories undergo a new period of consolidation after retrieval. It is not known whether this process, termed reconsolidation, requires the same transcriptional mechanisms involved in consolidation. Increasing evidence supports the participation of the transcription factor NF-[Kappa]B in memory. This was…

Discussing the ethical issues involved in topics such as cloning and stem cell research in a large introductory biology course is often difficult. Teachers may be wary of presenting material biased by personal beliefs, and students often feel inhibited speaking about moral issues in a large group. Yet, to ignore what is happening "out there"…

Damage to the brain in children results in a multiplicity of visual difficulties which have to be managed both at home and at school. Parents of such children have detailed knowledge about the nature and characteristics of their child's visual difficulties and develop a range of coping strategies, often without realizing they have done so. The…

The Faculty Institutes for Reforming Science Teaching (FIRST II) network was established in 1998 by ecologists accustomed to conducting their research in the field. The original impetus behind establishing FIRST was to engage biology faculty in active, inquiry-based science teaching, first in the field, an ideal environment for cooperative…

Science education reform initiatives emphasize (1) the value of concepts over facts; (2) the benefits of open-ended, inquiry-based problem-solving rather than protocols leading to a single correct answer; and (3) the importance of a multidisciplinary approach to teaching that is not confined by departmental boundaries. Neuroscientists should be at…