The goal of our study was to examine a large (>400), cross-sectional sample of Chinese pre-service biology teachers (PBTs) in order to document their evolution acceptance levels, evolution knowledge, and evolutionary reasoning patterns. This approach was taken in order to better understand the degree to which particular evolutionary reasoning…

Multiple-choice testing is a staple within the U.S. higher education system. From classroom assessments to standardized entrance exams such as the GRE, GMAT, or LSAT, test developers utilize a variety of validated and heuristic driven item-writing guidelines. One such guideline that has been given recent attention is to randomize the position of…

Background: The intense nature of the camp experience and the unique role of camp counselors can be a rewarding experience for camp counselors and campers alike. However, to experience compassion satisfaction necessitates evaluation of a number of factors that may enhance or decrease compassion satisfaction. Purpose: To better understand the camp…

Live-in college residential life positions often involve extensive and diverse responsibilities including the support of residential students experiencing traumatic life events. While live-in staff undergo extensive training in regard to supporting these students, they are often ill-equipped to understand and prevent potential negative…

In many countries, including in Finland, promoting inclusive school practices supporting pupils' equal rights for learning is the focus of school development. Special education teachers play a central intermediary role in developing inclusive school and classroom practices by providing support both for pupils and peer teachers. This may increase…

Problem solving is an integral part of doing science, yet it is challenging for students in many disciplines to learn. We explored student success in solving genetics problems in several genetics content areas using sets of three consecutive questions for each content area. To promote improvement, we provided students the choice to take a…

We report here on an effort to involve high school physics students in research on impacts of oil spills on marine mammals at a local university. We believe that the effort described here might be useful to others who would like to involve physics students in research, especially work of an interdisciplinary nature. The students learn to work…

Mechanistic reasoning, or reasoning systematically through underlying factors and relationships that give rise to phenomena, is a powerful thinking strategy that allows one to explain and make predictions about phenomena. This article synthesizes and builds on existing frameworks to identify essential characteristics of students' mechanistic…

To understand both immediate and longer-term effects of a short duration, interpretive wildlife tourism program, we studied responses from participants in a sea turtle watch program. This program comprised an interpretive presentation followed by an opportunity to view a nesting loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta). We conducted 37 programs in…

This article describes a five-lesson curriculum that introduces students to the primary cause, multiple predicted impacts, and possible solutions to ocean acidification. It builds upon the strengths of over 90 existing teaching resources on the topic while also contributing new ways to teach about the impacts and solutions to this pressing…

Drawing on a text-based ethnography of digital writing in a biology laboratory, this article examines the text trajectory of a scientific manuscript and a scientific team's related writing for public audiences, including for citizen scientists. Using data drawn from texts, observations, interviews, and related artifacts, the author examines how…

Gender disparities in STEM fields have been under extensive study, the focus of which has been on future career aspirations. However, the primary phases in gender differences are still ambiguous when examined from this perspective, possibly due to the fact that most of the studies have targeted samples of upper secondary school or college…

Student motivation is widely regarded as an essential prerequisite for learning and success. To learn more about biology student motivation and how it changes over time, pre/post-surveys were administered to a large introductory biology course during the fall of 2015. These pre/post-surveys contained motivation subscales from the Intrinsic…

The processes of mitosis and meiosis are oft-cited and long-standing examples of concepts that are difficult for students to learn and understand. While there are many examples in the literature of "how-to-do-it," innovative instructional approaches for teaching mitosis and meiosis, publications that include measurement of learning gains…

Driven by our recent mapping of the human genome, genetics research is increasingly prominent and beginning to reintersect with education research. We describe previous intersections of these fields, focusing on the ways that they were harmful. We then discuss novel features of genetics research in the current era, with an emphasis on…