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…

The video game SPORE was found to hold characteristics that stimulate higher-order thinking even though it rated poorly for accurate science. Interested in evaluating whether a scientifically inaccurate video game could be used effectively, we exposed students to SPORE during an evolution course. Students that played the game reported that they…

Educators are increasingly looking to Information and Communications Technology (ICT) as a means of enhancing student learning. The New Life Sciences (NLS) is a domain where complex and often abstract concepts must be communicated from a scientific perspective and understood by the student in terms of their underlying implications. This…

This paper explores how two teachers concurrently enacting the same technology-based inquiry unit on evolution structured activity and discourse in their classrooms to connect students' computer-based investigations to formal domain theories. Our analyses show that the teachers' interactions with their students during inquiry were quite similar,…

This study addresses the need for research in three areas: (1) teachers' understandings of scientific inquiry; (2) conceptual understandings of evolutionary processes; and (3) technology-enhanced instruction using an inquiry approach. The purpose of this study was to determine in what ways "The Galapagos Finches" software-based materials created a…

This publication presents a collection of research projects presented at the Annual Research Forum at Wake Forest University: "The Use of Group Work as an Effective Teaching Technique in Lower Level Spanish Classes" (James Blackburn); "What Are the Real Factors behind Student Motivation?" (Matthew Grey Burdick); "Can…