Teachers often ask: How can I engage my students in the study of "real" science? The answer can be found in the National Research Council's "A Framework for K-12 Science Education: Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Core Ideas" (NRC 2012). This framework calls for a new approach to science education and is the basis for…

In the present study, we investigated genetic and environmental effects on motor impulsivity from childhood to late adolescence using a longitudinal sample of twins from ages 9 to 18 years. Motor impulsivity was assessed using errors of commission (no-go errors) in a visual go/no-go task at 4 time points: ages 9-10, 11-13, 14-15, and 16-18 years.…

Previous research showed that primary school children held several misconceptions about genetics of concern for their future lives. Included were beliefs that genes and DNA are separate substances, with genes causing family resemblance and DNA identifying suspects at crime scenes. Responses to this work "blamed" the mass media for these…

"The Kallikak Family" was, along with "The Jukes: A Study in Crime, Pauperism, Disease, and Heredity", one of the most visible eugenic family narratives published in the early 20th century. Published in 1912 and authored by psychologist Henry Herbert Goddard, director of the psychological laboratory at the Vineland Training School for Feebleminded…

The present study examined genetic and shared environment contributions to quantitatively-measured autism symptoms and categorically-defined autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Participants included 568 twins from the Interactive Autism Network. Autism symptoms were obtained using the Social Communication Questionnaire and Social Responsiveness…

This article discusses a number of aspects of the nature of science that can be illustrated by considering the development of pangenesis, a principle proposed by Charles Darwin to describe the rules of inheritance, explain the source of new variation, and solve other natural history puzzles. Pangenesis--although false--can be used to illustrate…

The link between parental autistic tendency and anxiety symptoms was studied in 491 Taiwanese couples raising biological children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). Parental autistic tendency as measured by Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ) was associated with anxiety symptoms across all domains. Large effect sizes were found in social phobia and…

An understanding of how genomics information, including information about risk for common, multifactorial disease, can be used to promote personal health (personalized medicine) is becoming increasingly important for the American public. We undertook a quantitative content analysis of commonly used high school textbooks to assess how frequently…

Publication of the "Next Generation Science Standards" will be just short of two decades since publication of the "National Science Education Standards" (NRC 1996). In that time, biology and science education communities have advanced, and the new standards will reflect that progress (NRC 1999, 2007, 2009; Kress and Barrett…

Evolution and inheritance appear in the new National Science Curriculum for England, which comes into effect from September 2014. In the curriculum documents, it is expected that pupils in year 6 (ages 10-11) should be taught to: (1) recognise that living things have changed over time; (2) recognise that living things produce offspring of the same…

Despite implications that stranger fear is an important aspect of developing behavioral inhibition, a known risk factor for anxiety, normative and atypical developmental trajectories of stranger fear across infancy and toddlerhood remain understudied. We used a large, longitudinal data set (N = 1285) including multi-trait, multi-method assessments…

We present a case study of a lesson that incorporates high school students' interests in heredity alongside the requirements of the curriculum. This was done by collecting students' questions in advance and inserting them in strategic places in the biology curriculum, thus creating a "shadow curriculum". The idea underlying the lesson…

The conflicts between nature and nurture are brought to the fore and challenges socio-scientific decision-making in science education. The multitude of meanings of these concepts and their roles in societal discourses can impede students' development of understanding for different perspectives, e.g. on gene technology. This study problematizes…

Engaging students in the study of genetics is essential to building a deep understanding of heredity, a core idea in the life sciences (NRC 2012). By integrating into the curriculum the stories of famous scientists who studied genetics (e.g., Mendel, Franklin, Watson, and Crick), teachers remind their students that science is a human endeavor.…

Genetics is an increasingly important topic in today's society, and one that permeates people's lives on many levels. Students, teachers, and the general public alike are constantly exposed to this topic through popular television shows such as "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," political issues like voting on stem-cell research, and the…