Generating an increasingly skilled and numerous workforces of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) professionals is a national priority. Central to this goal is improving the ability of STEM graduates to apply scientific inquiry within oral communication, a necessary skill for STEM professionals. In this case study of an…

Current research has shown that writing to learn strategies have a positive impact on overall student learning. However, previous studies mainly assessed student learning through instruments that have been self-designed by researchers and there is little research examining relations between writing to learn strategies and science related context…

Academic entrepreneurship refers to university faculty engagement in commercialization of research and innovative activities that are beyond their academic work in research, teaching, and service in their university. Academic entrepreneurship includes three types of entrepreneurial activities: academic patenting, technology licensing, and…

This mixed-methods study addresses the perceived impact of working in Professional Learning Teams (PLTs) on teaching practices and student achievement in biology. The study replicates Roberts's (2010) study. Success in biology is important to the nation because it aligns with national efforts to prepare students to compete in global markets.…

Evolution is a central concept that unifies all areas of life sciences. Despite longstanding scientific efforts in science education, the public's scientific awareness of evolution still needs to improve. Furthermore, teaching evolution is subject to recurring controversy. This study aimed to investigate the gap between public understanding of…

Naturalists enrich our scientific understanding of biodiversity. However, just as countries have fallen behind on commitments to provide biodiversity conservation funding, so has the focus of life science stayed arm's length. The purpose of this article is to consider why biodiversity should be the center of life sciences education and how…

Home-based biology experiments (HBEs) are practical learning activities that allow students to perform safe and relevant experiments at home. Motivated by the need to innovate teaching approaches in science education due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this study was conducted to determine the effects of home-based biology experiments (HBEs) on their…

Undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) students' motivations have a strong influence on whether and how they will persist through challenging coursework and into STEM careers. Proper conceptualization and measurement of motivation constructs, such as students' expectancies and perceptions of value and cost (i.e.,…

Epidemiological models have enhanced relevance because of the COVID-19 pandemic. In this note, we emphasize visual tools that can be part of a learning module geared to teaching the SIR epidemiological model, suitable for advanced undergraduates or beginning graduate students in disciplines where the level of prior mathematical knowledge of…

Studies are emerging documenting the experience of fatigue, exhaustion and loss of functioning that has long been described by autistic adults as autistic burnout. New assessment tools are needed to enable identification and diagnosis. Here, we sought to identify factors associated with severity, develop an autistic burnout assessment and test the…

While expository texts are an efficient and dominant genre used by science teachers in the United States, they generally lack justification for their claims and fail to reflect science as practice. In contrast, epistemically considerate texts detail specific scientific experiments, providing the reader insight into the methods and data of a…

Teachers' career choice motives are defined as the interests, orientations, and motives of young people that motivate them to aspire the teaching career. Teachers' career choice motives have been shown to impact teaching and job retention. Many studies investigated teachers generic career choice motives but studies on teachers' subject-specific…

Effective communication about science is a core skill undergraduates should learn, but little research has explored how students communicate about culturally controversial science topics. In this study, we explored how Black undergraduate science students took on the role of science communicators in their communities during the COVID-19 pandemic.…

Formative assessments (FA), which can occur in or out of class, are a way for students to demonstrate their understanding of the material, to see progress, and to receive feedback from instructors related to their learning process. Examples of in-class FAs include clicker questions with peer discussion, while homework assignments are an example of…

The early college experience is different for everyone, but most would concede that the transition to college requires students to develop new social and academic habits. This transition can be daunting, especially in light of early coursework that sets the groundwork for competitive admission to professional programs. Further, the literature…