Computational thinking (CT) is becoming increasingly important for K-12 science education, thus warranting new integrations of CT and science content. This intervention study integrated CT through unplugged, or handwritten, algorithmic explanations of natural selection. As students investigated natural selection in varying contexts (specific and…

Genetic variation is historically challenging for undergraduate students to master, potentially due to its grounding in both evolution and genetics. Traditionally, student expertise in genetic variation has been evaluated using Key Concepts. However, Cognitive Construals may add to a more nuanced picture of students' developing expertise. Here, we…

Holism evolution states that although energy, matter, life, consciousness and the human personality are independent and different substances/levels of evolution, they are holistically and intimately related. This paper presents the findings from teaching chemistry to high school science students and post-graduate university science-education…

Photosynthesis is the predominant metabolic process for energy obtention in plants. Here we describe a case study where a set of anatomical, biochemical, and molecular characters are used to reconstruct the evolution of the C[subscript 4] photosynthetic pathway, within the evolutionary framework provided by the genus "Flaveria." Our main…

Conflict-reducing practices during evolution instruction have been recommended to increase students' perceived compatibility between evolution and religion, increase evolution acceptance, and decrease stereotypes about religious students in science. However, the efficacy of these practices has not been demonstrated in a randomized controlled…

Evidence from isotopes other than radiocarbon shows that dinosaur fossils are millions of years old. Despite that, bone mineral from Mesozoic dinosaur fossils yields a falsely young radiocarbon "date" of less than 50,000 years, due to its accumulation of new radiocarbon via recrystallization. Similarly, the so-called collagen fraction of…

Evolutionary medicine is a growing area of research and practice; however, it is not widely discussed in introductory biology courses. Because of the interest in human biology, using evolutionary medicine is a great way to hold students' interest, placing topics in context, making the subject of evolution relevant. Too often students lose interest…

Evolution is foundational to understanding biology, yet learners at all stages have incomplete and incorrect ideas that persist beyond graduation. Contextual features of prompts (e.g., taxon of organism, acquisition vs. loss of traits, etc.) have been shown to influence both the learning process and the ideas students express in explanations of…

In this article, we describe curricular materials developed to engage undergraduate students in evolutionary thinking around antibiotic resistance using the MEGA-plate experiment (Microbial Evolution and Growth Arena). This elegant and visual experiment, developed by the Kishony Lab, shows the development of antibiotic resistance on the timescale…

There is emerging evidence that Christian undergraduates can be stigmatized in undergraduate biology classrooms. This stigma seems to stem from the secular culture of biology and may be affected by instructor identity as most biology instructors are non-religious, but no studies have examined the impact of instructors revealing that they are…

This study analyzes the effect of different instructions on threshold concepts within material covering natural selection on students' use of concepts about evolution. Moreover, it examines students' use of concepts as interconnected networks when reasoning about natural selection and analyzes how these concepts relate to each other regarding…

Science educators report that students struggle with understanding, using, and evaluating the evidence underpinning scientific knowledge. However, there are not many studies focused on helping instructors address those difficulties. Here, we report on a laboratory instructor's scaffolding of students' evidentiary reasoning with and about evidence…

Multicultural science education advocates that science education should pay attention to the uniqueness of students from different backgrounds. In developing instructional strategies, educators should respect students' differences according to their culture. However, In Taiwan, while Darwin's theory of evolution is taught in high school biology,…

The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) cites evolution as a core concept of biology, yet studies have found that biology students often exhibit low acceptance of evolution. As such, much of evolution education research aims to identify the causes of evolution rejection and develop instructional strategies to increase…

Evolutionary theory is fundamental to biology, yet evolution instruction in high schools has often been unsatisfactory. How or whether high school biology teachers teach evolution is influenced by their own acceptance or rejection of evolutionary theory, parents' and community members' views, and in the case of some private schools, their…