This inquiry sought to investigate the opportunities and potential challenges of engaging in a self-study approach as a strategy for enhancing professional growth during my teaching of the topic of evolutionary genetics to 24 twelfth-grade students. I had, for many years, experienced pedagogical deficits and shortcomings when teaching evolutionary…

The purpose of this study was to quantitatively assess the integration of computational thinking with learning about biological evolution. Specifically, we investigated the effectiveness of a framework from a recently developed learning progression that emphasises the complex nature of teaching both computational thinking and biological evolution.…

In this paper, we present a simulation of artificial selection of maize that can be used as a bridging case for the subsequent introduction of natural selection in school. The proposed simulation takes up essential biological elements but also has a cultural meaning for the inhabitants of some regions of Latin America. After implementing a test of…

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.…

Teachers are eager for professional development on teaching evolution, especially if it includes direct ties to relevant curricula and detailed lesson plans. Howard Hughes Medical Institute's BioInteractive Online Professional Learning: Evolution course was developed to provide educators with free, in-depth, multimedia resources that highlight…

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…

Is it possible to teach biology without mentioning evolution? The answer is yes, but it is not possible for students to understand biology without the evolutionary context on which the meaning and intellectual value of biological concepts depend. Meaningful learning of evolution requires (1) that the students incorporate new knowledge into a…

Many students have very robust misconceptions about natural selection, stemming from intuitive theories that form a child's earliest understandings of the natural world. For example, students often imagine that species evolve in response to environmental pressures that cause a need for change and that all individuals in the population…

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…

Understanding natural selection and adaptation are important precursors to learning evolution (NGSS Lead States 2013), the central unifying principle of biology. This lesson sequence, guided by the Five Practices Model (Cartier et al. 2013), incorporates data described by Andersson (1982) that details female choice in a population that eventually…

Teleology has been described as an intuitive cognitive bias and as a major type of student conception. There is controversy regarding whether teleological explanations are a central obstacle to, are legitimate in, or are even supportive of science learning. However, interaction in science classrooms has not yet been investigated with regard to…

Secondary school teaching of evolution through natural selection is very important because for most people, it is the only formal introduction to the scientific understanding of this theory. However, there are major concerns over its unsatisfactory teaching. In several European countries, including the Flanders region in Belgium, natural selection…

The topic of natural selection presents challenges to high school students since it requires understanding of an emergent process, which is a missing schema for most students. Many interventions for teaching natural selection have limited effect in bringing about substantial ontological conceptual change. This study evaluates the effectiveness of…

Computational thinking (CT) is a way of making sense of the natural world and problem solving with computer science concepts and skills. Although CT and science integrations have been called for in the literature, empirical investigations of such integrations are lacking. Prior work in natural selection education indicates students struggle to…

A lesson that focuses on the intricate co-evolution of flowers with their pollinators is one way to help students learn the delicate balance in nature and help ensure that our actions do not upset this balance. In this lesson students use the engineering design process to engineer a flower that is a perfect model for its chosen pollinator. Next,…