In 1988, Robert O'Hara coined the now ubiquitous phrase "tree thinking" to highlight the importance of cladistics for proper evolutionary reasoning. This accessible phrase has been taken up widely in the professional, popular, and educational literatures, and it has played an important role in helping spread phylogenetic thinking far…

Water is one of the most common molecules in the universe. Water is polarized, but it has many states besides the normal tetrahedron depicted in standard biology texts. Water is also the most ubiquitous molecule on Earth, the universal solvent. It is the internal and external habitat of cells. Ecologically, water is contiguous with life and the…

Evolution is the central concept of biology and key to a comprehensive understanding of any complex biological interaction. It has proven to be a particularly difficult subject for both teachers and students. Hybrid teaching environments have the potential to support students in learning about complex topics and simultaneously enable researchers…

The recent discovery of radiocarbon in dinosaur bones at first seems incompatible with an age of millions of years, due to the short half-life of radiocarbon. However, evidence from isotopes other than radiocarbon shows that dinosaur fossils are indeed millions of years old. Fossil bone incorporates new radiocarbon by means of recrystallization…

The origin of life is one of the most interesting and challenging questions in biology. This article discusses relevant contemporary theories and hypotheses about the origin of life, recent scientific evidence supporting them, and the main contributions of several scientists of different nationalities and specialties in different disciplines. Also…

"What if…?" is a four-day summative assessment for a unit on biodiversity and evolution within a general biology course for ninth and tenth graders. Students gather evidence through multiple investigations to answer the questions: (1) "How has life changed on the planet? (2) What has caused those changes? and (3) What is happening…

Teaching and understanding evolution is challenging because students must synthesize several biological processes that are traditionally taught separately. We developed a set of free online lessons and activities centered on a single evolutionary phenomenon -- why deer mice have different fur colors in different subpopulations -- to help high…

The United States still has one of the lowest evolution acceptance rates in the world. Biology educators have been diligent in their methods to increase evolution acceptance and knowledge, with much success. However, misconceptions still arise through education, textbooks, and even social and religious settings that may influence our citizens' low…

We describe a novel, university-level, introductory biology course that uses evolution as a narrative framework. Our course conveys the content in an introductory biology course by telling the story of the evolution of life on Earth. We begin with early Earth environments in which biological molecules and processes evolved and led to the first…

Despite the importance of evolution to understand biology, there is significant evidence that many biology teachers have difficulties to successfully teach this topic. The purpose of this study is to describe procedures by which a paper-and-pencil instrument to assess teachers' pedagogical content knowledge for evolution (PCK[subscript evo]) was…

Case studies are valuable tools for instruction but are often limited to a single topic and a single class period. Courses such as evolution that synthesize multiple concepts around a common theme, however, can use a single case study type project that extends over the entire semester to develop and link core concepts. A central theme in…

We present a drawing discovery lab that crosscuts multiple disciplines in biology and links concepts in genetics and evolutionary thinking to enhance understanding of the genotype-to-phenotype transformation. These combined concepts are also linked to ecological frameworks in nature through the model of biological plasticity. Students and teachers…

Training in compassion can lead to an enhanced ability to tolerate distress, maintain focus, and discern clinical interventions for clients in a variety of clinical scenarios. Cultivating a compassionate stance provides the opportunity to engage clients with full attention and presence, allowing openness and receptivity for both the painful and…

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…

The initial application of evolutionary theory to the universal practice of music-making in humans was at best marginal and at worst dismissive of non-Western musics. Darwin's biography defines an agenda for musicality in the emergence of human culture that is receiving considerable attention in several disciplines, presenting a robust case for…