The aim of the International Society for Technology, Education, and Science (iHSES) conference is to offer opportunities to share ideas, discuss theoretical and practical issues, and connect with the leaders in the fields of "humanities," "education" and "social sciences." It is organized for: (1) faculty members in…

This paper proposes a coherent and unique set of 12 standards, adopting a neuroscience framework for biologically based on school reform. This model of educational principles and practices aligns with the long-standing principles and practices of the Progressive Education Movement in the United States and the emerging principles of neuroscience.…

Color is a complex and rich perceptual phenomenon that relates physical properties of light to certain perceptual qualia associated with vision. Hering's opponent color theory, widely regarded as capturing the most fundamental aspects of color phenomenology, suggests that certain unique hues are mutually exclusive as components of a single color.…

In recent years, new bioinformatics technologies, such as gene expression microarray, genome-wide association study, proteomics, and metabolomics, have been widely used to simultaneously identify a huge number of human genomic/genetic biomarkers, generate a tremendously large amount of data, and dramatically increase the knowledge on human…

Good quality, timely feedback is a key factor to help students achieve their full potential. Increased class sizes have put significant strain on the ability to return work promptly without compromising feedback quality. In the current study, two screencasting technologies were used to produce audiovisual feedback. For essays, Jing was used,…

For the purpose of teaching collegians the fundamentals of biological research, literature explaining the discovery of the gastric proton pump was presented in a 50-min lecture. The presentation included detailed information pertaining to the discovery process. This study was chosen because it demonstrates the importance of having a broad range of…

Biology majors team with business administration majors to develop proposals for "green" enterprise for a business plan competition. The course begins with a series of student presentations so that science students learn about the fundamentals of business, and business students learn about environmental biology. Then mixed biology-business student…

A challenging topic in undergraduate physiology courses is the complex interaction between the vertebrate endocrine system and the immune system. There are relatively few established and accessible laboratory exercises available to instructors to help their students gain a working understanding of these interactions. The present laboratory module…

Argumentation and discourse are two integral parts of scientific investigation that are often overlooked in undergraduate science education. To address this limitation, the story of peptide bond formation by the ribosome can be used to illustrate the importance of evidence, claims, arguments, and counterarguments in scientific discourse. With the…

Gel electrophoresis DNA fingerprints offer a graphical and visually appealing illumination of the similarities and differences between DNA sequences of different species and individuals. A polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and restriction digest protocol was designed to give high-school students the opportunity to generate simple fingerprints of…

Self-formed out-of-class study groups may benefit student learning; however, few researchers have quantified the relationship between study group use and achievement or described changes in study group usage patterns over a semester. We related study group use to performance on content exams, explored patterns of study group use, and qualitatively…

Students have been largely ignored in discussions about how best to teach science, and many students feel the curriculum is detached from their lives and interests. This article presents a strategy for incorporating students' interests into the formal Biology curriculum, by drawing on the political meaning of "shadow government" as alternative…

The enzyme ribose 5-phosphate isomerase (RpiA) has many features that make it attractive as a focal point of a semester-long, advanced biochemistry laboratory for undergraduate students. The protein can easily and inexpensively be isolated from spinach using traditional purification techniques. Characterization of RpiA enzyme activity can be…

Recent research has demonstrated the effectiveness of programmed instruction that integrates derived relations to teach college-level academic material. This method has been demonstrated to be effective and economical in the teaching of complex mathematics and biology concepts. Although this approach may have potential applications with other…

Chromosomes, alleles, chromatids, genotype, phenotype, mitosis, meiosis, fertilization--this vocabulary can be overwhelming, confusing, and difficult for students to tie together. However, since these terms are commonplace in the high school biology classroom, and are the basis for understanding both DNA and heredity, students must understand…