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 purpose of this study is to develop a framework for analyzing classroom argumentation that includes a process of rebutting. A most commonly used framework to analyze argument in science education is Toulmin's Argumentation Pattern. It is useful for analyzing argumentation but it cannot represent the complexity of students' rebuttals during…

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…

Teaching human evolution should be initialized by understanding the learners' perspective to yield fruitful results. This study was conducted to aid in achieving that objective and provide ways for educators to develop strategies that learners can perceive and appreciate, particularly those who are not inclined toward science. This study also…

While expository texts are an efficient and dominant genre used by science teachers in the United States, they generally lack justification for their claims and fail to reflect science as practice. In contrast, epistemically considerate texts detail specific scientific experiments, providing the reader insight into the methods and data of a…

What contributes to science skepticism? Virtually every U.S. high-school student is required to study biology, at minimum, to earn a diploma. But the exact content of the course varies from state to state. This article investigates the role of state standards for high-school science content in shaping knowledge and attitudes about…

In response to calls for curricular materials that integrate molecular genetics and evolution and adhere to the K--12 Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), the Genetic Science Learning Center (GSLC) at the University of Utah has developed and tested the "Evolution: DNA and the Unity of Life" curricular unit for high school biology.…

This article provides two activities, exploring genetic drift of small breeding populations, highlighting the black-footed ferret ("Mustela nigripes"). According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife service, all black-footed ferrets are descended from 18 individuals, making them extremely vulnerable to genetic drift. They were thought to be…

Even though the concept of species is central in biology, the history of species concept and the existence of different species concepts are rarely discussed in biology classroom. This is unfortunate, as teachers could use the plurality of species concepts to enrich discussion in the classroom. Therefore, knowing the students' perception of…

This paper analyzes Sim-Evolution, an educational simulator designed to help teachers presenting three basic principles of the theory of evolution by natural selection (TENS): the trait variation within a population, the heritability of trait variation, and the selective survival based on heritable traits. Sim-Evolution focuses on high school…

Arguing from evidence is one of eight key science practices in which students should engage. It is an essential component of science, yet students have difficulties with this practice. We describe a scaffolded claims-evidence-reasoning (CER) argumentation framework that is embedded within a new eight-week, freely available curriculum unit…

Accurate, rational, and scientific decision making is now considered to be the most important skill in science education. Many studies have found that overconfidence bias is one of the cognitive biases hindering people from achieving such decision making. Gender and country play crucial roles in overconfidence bias. For instance, some particular…

The purpose of the current study was to explore and further elucidate secondary teachers' knowledge of students' conceptions (KOSC) on the topic of evolution by natural selection. Prior research has documented students' natural selection conceptions, but allowing the opportunity for teachers to describe their own students' conceptions can permit…

We present a laboratory exercise that leverages student interest in genetics to observe and understand evolution by natural selection. Students begin with white-eyed fruit fly populations, to which they introduce a single advantageous variant (one male with red eyes). The superior health and vision associated with having the red-eye-color allele…

This exercise demonstrates the principle of parsimony in constructing cladograms. Although it is designed using mammalian cranial characters, the activity could be adapted for characters from any group of organisms. Students score categorical traits on skulls and record the data in a spreadsheet. Using the Mesquite software package, students…