Students tend to be very interested in medical issues that affect them and their friends and family. Using cancer as a hook, the ART of Reproductive Medicine: Oncofertility curriculum (free, online, and NIH sponsored) has been developed to supplement the teaching of basic biological concepts and to connect biology and biomedical research. This approach allows integration of up-to-date information on cancer and cancer treatment, cell division, male and female reproductive anatomy and physiology, cryopreservation, fertility preservation, stem cells, ethics, and epigenetics into an existing biology curriculum. Many of the topics covered in the curriculum relate to other scientific disciplines, such as the latest developments in stem cell research including tissue bioengineering and gene therapy for inherited mitochondrial disease, how epigenetics occurs chemically to affect gene expression or suppression and how it can be passed down through the generations, and the variety of biomedical careers students could pursue. The labs are designed to be open-ended and inquiry-based, and extensions to the experiments are provided so that students can explore questions further. Case studies and ethical dilemmas are provided to encourage thoughtful discussion. In addition, each chapter of the curriculum includes links to scientific papers, additional resources on each topic, and NGSS alignment.

Teachers often wonder how best to teach the myriad of social and ethical issues that are encompassed in the biology curriculum. One can just think of issues such as genetic engineering, evolution (and the continuous evolution-creationism debate), research ethics (the haunting book The immortal life of Henrietta Lacks comes to mind), human population studies, health care and nutrition, sexuality and gender, drugs, environmental pollution, to name but a few. In this article we highlight the advantages of puppetry in the biology classroom, as an engaging pedagogy that could assist conceptual change in students. We explore the dual epistemological border-crossing that takes place in the classroom when puppetry is used: (a) the integration of societal and ethical issues within the biology curriculum, and (b) the infusion of art and drama within the natural sciences. We reflect on our own classroom action research on puppetry, and share our main findings. We also provide practical guidelines for using puppetry as pedagogy within a problem-based and cooperative learning setting.

Higher education must improve student retention and graduation rates to meet increased demand for STEM degrees in the workforce projected for the next ten years. The high rate of attrition among STEM students entering college compels institutions to implement strategies that improve student retention because more states now employ performance-based funding models with increased pressures to improve student outcomes, such as first- and second-year retention rates. We piloted a two-year hierarchical mentoring model as part of a first-year experience course developed for biology students (BioSkills) to increase retention rates among first-time-in-college (FTIC) students. We describe the mentoring structure we adopted and how the design of BioSkills supports and educates future biology professionals. Our findings show that FTIC students who participated in this program earned significantly higher first-year GPAs and were retained at higher rates than students who did not participate, which documents the impact of BioSkills as a successful first-year intervention. However, we were surprised that the benefit of BioSkills was not replicated among under-represented minority (URM) students. We briefly speculate on explanations for this finding. Lastly, we offer best practice suggestions for future implementation.

To enhance/update our microbiology course, we employed a geographic information science and technology (GIST) infusion to improve students' understanding of epidemiology and disease spread and to encourage students to earn a GIST certificate, making them more marketable in an increasingly competitive workplace. Following a 25-minute introductory GIST infusion lecture during a microbiology class session, a 1.5-hour GIST laboratory exercise was performed in which teams of students evaluated Centers for Disease Control (CDC) chlamydial disease incidence data. In addition to answering three quiz questions addressing the data, students created a map, using ArcGIS software, indicating which Texas counties experienced the highest rates of chlamydia in 2014. To determine the efficacy/value of our infusion, GIST survey data (pre- and post-infusion), GIST lab quiz scores, and answers to four GIST lecture exam questions were evaluated. In conclusion, our study was successful in improving understanding of what GIST is and how it could impact biological fields by improving attitudes about the likelihood of further GIST study leading to a certificate program, and by exposing biology undergraduates to GIST technologies and software, enabling student data mapping. Ultimately, our efforts could promote enhanced vocationalization of our biology program, thereby enhancing and broadening employment opportunities for our graduates.

It is often difficult for students grasp the concept that some organisms can grow in the absence of oxygen and that oxygen can be toxic to organisms. However, as educators usually describe in the classroom, the importance of the anaerobic growth of microorganisms can be seen in many areas of industry, health, and the creation of several categories of food ranging from fermented alcohols to breads and cheeses. To demonstrate that microorganisms can grow and thrive in the absence of oxygen, we have developed an inexpensive and easy technique to culture facultative anaerobic bacteria from yogurt in high school or undergraduate biology laboratories. Using the method discussed, which uses readily available and low-cost equipment, students can culture and visually identify facultative anaerobic bacteria that they may consume on a regular basis, demonstrating the utility of organisms that thrive in an anaerobic environment.

The scientific method is a core element of all science. Yet, its different implementations are remarkably diverse, based on the varied concepts and protocols required in each specific instance of science. For experienced scientists, coping with this diversity is second nature: they readily and continually ask tractable questions even outside their expertise, and find the process of forming hypotheses, designing tests, and interpreting results fairly transparent. At the secondary school stage, the scientific method is often introduced as a series of clear steps in a pre-planned lab activity. In between these two stages comes the essential step of abandoning the supports of a step-by-step approach, and instead learning how to work through the scientific method to generate and answer one's own questions. In our experience, this process is rarely taught explicitly. Yet, undergraduate students (even strong students) can have difficulty translating their initial questions into testable hypotheses, and designing and interpreting appropriate corresponding tests. To combat this difficulty, we have developed a conceptual framework that distinguishes the fundamental concepts of pattern and cause. This framework guides undergraduates directly to posing tractable questions, formulating testable hypotheses (descriptive or mechanistic), and designing clear tests (surveys or experiments). Anecdotal evidence, including our in-course assessments and student feedback, suggests this approach leads to improvement of students' scientific abilities. The benefits are noticeable when students apply the scientific method to their own questions and also while interpreting science reported in biological literature.

Since antibiotics have become routinely used to treat infections, antibiotic resistance is now an emerging concern for public health. To understand how bacteria become resistant to antibiotics, many students draw from the common misconception that bacteria gain resistance upon antibiotic exposure. We have designed models and a corresponding lab that explores how a population of bacteria can evolve antibiotic resistance, with emphasis on dispelling common misconceptions surrounding the mechanism of antibiotic resistance. Using an antibiotic disk diffusion assay, students compare the antibiotic resistance level of a harmless E. coli strain of bacteria over time. Then, students compare their lab data to the models, which together illustrate the roles that initial genetic variation and random mutation play in the evolution of antibiotic resistance. In this guided investigation, basic microbiology concepts and techniques are made accessible to students in a high school classroom. The models developed here are in line with the practices of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). The models, together with the lab, are used to guide students through the process of argumentation using a claim, evidence, and reasoning (CER) format to explain the evolutionary mechanisms of antibiotic resistance.

To create and implement meaningful tasks that go beyond the cognitive processes of understanding and that integrate all three dimensions of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) is challenging for both educators and curriculum makers. This issue is compounded when considering a content-rich biology course such as anatomy and physiology that requires first familiarity and understanding before engagement in higher-order thinking. The use of crime scene investigations that encourages students to examine evidence even as they learn specific biology concepts can encourage meaning making about scientific practices and science content. This paper deconstructs the implementation of a crime scene investigation titled the “Jewel Heist,” created by the New York Hall of Science and implemented in twelfth-grade anatomy and physiology classes in a diverse urban high school in the northeastern United States. The NGSS, the Framework for K-12 Science Education, along with Bloom's taxonomy and Krathwohl's revisions, are implicated in this process.

Engaging and gauging (engauging) first-generation, under-represented minority undergraduate general biology students through processes of inquiry, critical thinking, and affective learning is vital as they develop their scientific identity. An important challenge is how we can establish communities of practice and instill in our first-generation students self-awareness and reflection as they apply, analyze, and evaluate data on biological principles. In my article, I describe an innovative weekly assignment for my first generation Hispanic and Native Indigenous students called Quizfolio: quiz and mini-portfolios on biological principles and themes outlined in Vision and Change. Within a SOAR framework that will be introduced in my article, quizfolios provide an active learning space for students to integrate inclusive student-centered, in-class discussions and longitudinal lab inquiries in a first-year undergraduate biology course through metacognition and reflection-in-action. This transformative, culturally responsive mentoring approach encourages first-generation undergraduates to bring self-awareness to unclear or confusing topics that are clarified at the start of class or lab settings, and provides future framework for longterm retention of biological concepts.

There are forces at the local, state, and national levels that have worked to delegitimize and obstruct the teaching of evolution and, in some cases, to legitimize the teaching of religious ideas. Despite scientific evidence, public opinion, and even legislation, these forces have continued to influence, and in some cases block, the teaching of evolution in public schools. Proponents for the teaching of aspects of religion in schools have been defeated in the courts many times but have continued to find new ways to insert their ideology into the U.S. education system. Strategies for avoiding controversy, confronting misinformation, and distinguishing science from non-science are provided.