Plant awareness disparity (PAD, formerly plant blindness) is the tendency not to notice plants in one's environment, which leads to the perspective that plants are unimportant. In this paper, we explore how plants and animals are represented in introductory biology textbooks to determine if these texts are contributing to PAD in undergraduate…

Epigenetics shows how environmental factors and life experiences alter gene activity without changing the gene sequences. This review examines key epigenetic mechanisms such as DNA methylation, histone modifications, microRNAs, and long non-coding RNAs, and their roles in gene regulation. It also highlights the impact of maternal diet, stress, and…

This study aimed to investigate research trends related to socio-scientific issues (SSI). The SSI articles analysed were from highest-rating five science education journals with the highest impact ratings, published between 2011 and 2022, including "Science Education" [SE], "Journal of Research in Science Teaching" [JRST],…

Mitochondrial dysfunction has been linked to many psychiatric disorders. Ketogenic diets have been shown to reduce mitochondrial dysfunction and thus may be helpful to patients who suffer from these disorders. In this article, we review the effects of a ketogenic diet in patients with psychiatric disorders such as autism, depression, anxiety, and…

Disrupting a gene to determine its effect on an organism's phenotype is an indispensable tool in molecular biology. Such techniques are critical for understanding how a gene product contributes to the development and cellular identity of organisms. The explosion of genomic sequencing technologies combined with recent advances in genome-editing…

The teaching process is well described as an interaction between teacher, student, and content. Thus, it seems obvious that teachers must know the content to help students to learn it. Instruments have been developed to measure teachers' content knowledge (CK) in biology, but few of them have been provided to the scientific community. Furthermore,…

Our paper analyses the genetics and gene technology contents of German (Bavarian) and Portuguese biology textbooks, as fields common in science-technology-society-environment (STSE) issues. Our aim was to determine the extent to which textbooks from both countries contribute to students' understanding of the STSE issues and therefore to students'…

Emergent technologies are commonly characterized as involving cutting-edge developments while lacking wide-scale public implementation. Although currently prevalent in many applications, gene technology is often considered emergent in that the science changes so rapidly. Science educators at all levels of formal education are faced with a unique…

We review the state of genetics instruction in the United States through the lens of backward design, with particular attention to the goals and assessments that inform curricular practice. An analysis of syllabi and leading textbooks indicates that genetics instruction focuses most strongly on foundations of DNA and Mendelian genetics. At the…

Infection by pathogenic microbes initiates a set of complex interactions between the pathogen and the host mediated by pattern recognition receptors. Innate immune responses play direct roles in host defense during the early stages of infection, and they also exert a profound influence on the generation of the adaptive immune responses that ensue.…

We conducted a literature review of using educational technology in biology learning from 2001 to 2010. A total of 36 empirical articles were included for review. Based upon the content analyses of these studies, such as technologies utilized, student sample, biological topics involved, the research purpose, and methodology, the following…

Reviewed are some of the techniques being used in plant biotechnology laboratories. Described are tissue culture and genetic manipulation. Advantages and disadvantages of this approach and ethics and public concern issues are discussed. (CW)

Knowledge construction and scientific reasoning were examined during a unit in genetics, in which anomalies were used as a catalyst for student learning. Students used genetics simulation software to develop hypotheses and run tests of fruit fly crosses to develop mental models of simple dominance trait transmission. Instruction was intended to…

Examines the technical vocabulary of genetics as a source of error and confusion. Suggests that it is necessary to identify different types of problems associated with terminology and to organize them into logical classes to deal effectively with the difficulties. Highlights terms misused in textbooks. (RT)

Describes some basic findings in the radiation chemistry of genetic material derived from studies of model systems. Uses these findings to extrapolate the consequences of radiation damage to DNA within cells. (CS)