Currently, the world needs health-literate citizens who are able to make informed decisions about COVID-19 and other diseases. Here, we propose a COVID-19 roadmap consisting of four commented maps about infection, diagnosis, defense, treatment, and prevention. We built the maps based on those from the Atlas of Science Literacy following a qualitative methodology. Main ideas about health linked to COVID-19 and how they relate to each other can be visualized in the maps in an organized structure and according to K-levels. The maps are accompanied by a text that relates the health ideas to the COVID-19 disease. This tool can be used to promote health education and, ultimately, health literacy through the teaching and learning of COVID-19.

Genotyping real alleles in real people is an excellent way to connect abstract genetics concepts to human variation in the classroom; however, these activities can inadvertently promote misconceptions of the power of genetics to determine individual and group traits. By analyzing our own and others' experiences of genotyping activities in the classroom, we illustrate the types of problems encountered and propose solutions. We find that genotyping activities can be an effective learning experience for genetics students when instructors use a nuanced approach to these activities emphasizing the predictive utility of genotyping, avoiding racializing or differentially valuing genotypes, and promoting good communication in the classroom.

Organismal biology (OrgBio) comprises the diversity, structures, and functions of all organisms from bacteria to humans. Arguably, OrgBio is often the most poorly taught and least conceptually rigorous section of the introductory biology sequence offered at most U.S. institutions of higher education. This article reports on the successful implementation of conceptual and pedagogical reforms in an introductory OrgBio course offered at a large public university. Conceptual reforms were based on a theoretical framework consisting of universal physical and chemical laws, deep molecular homologies, and diverse structure–function relationships. Pedagogical reforms involved the development of group active engagements (GAEs) that were designed to encourage students to develop their abilities to engage in principles-based reasoning. A new model for characterizing different approaches toward principles-based reasoning in biology was developed to analyze these GAEs. Two surveys indicated that OrgBio students developed more favorable perceptions about the effectiveness of GAE-based course offerings, as compared to similar lecture-based versions.

Students who experience research as undergraduates tend to remain in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields. Since course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) are often expensive to implement, we developed a relatively inexpensive first-semester research course for majors entitled “Freshman Research in Biochemistry,” in which approximately 100 students participated in an ongoing research project each year. During this course, students conducted laboratory work related to multiple research veins, and graduate teaching assistants (TAs) and the instructor ensured that sufficient data from the laboratory were made available to the students to analyze. During three unique course iterations, students worked on faculty research projects that included connecting contigs of the draft genome of a native Oklahoma bacterial Arhodomonas isolate capable of degrading petroleum hydrocarbons, cloning antibiotic resistance genes from the genus Elizabethkingia, and analyzing RNAseq data from Elizabethkingia anopheles challenged with cell wall-active antibiotics to determine gene function, gene differential expression, and relative gene genome location. During the course, students scored results, analyzed data, maintained laboratory notebooks, and presented posters in a symposium to faculty and graduate TAs. To determine positive impacts of the course on students, they completed the Laboratory Course Assessment Survey in two course sections. Survey data indicated/students agreed that the course included elements of Iteration, Collaboration, and Discovery and Relevance. Students also reported that they gained scientific skills but were ambivalent about whether instructor feedback was harsh. Examination of Student Survey of Instruction responses showed students thought positively about the course, but some considered it too difficult. Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and Biochemistry major cohort tracking revealed no effect of Freshman Research in Biochemistry on student persistence in the major or institution. Nonetheless, we consider the course a cost-conscious model for biochemistry and molecular biology departments for introducing research to first-year students.

Undergraduate science students who volunteer within a research laboratory group, or participate in funded research opportunities, in general are those who have the opportunity to engage in authentic research. In this article, we report the findings from two different iterations of a semester-long collaboration between a biology faculty member and a science education faculty member at a major research institution in the Southeastern United States. Specifically, the faculty members designed an ecology laboratory course for upper-level undergraduate students (primarily biology majors) where they would engage in an original and highly authentic ecological research project. The goal of this course was to have students explicitly learn about the nature of science (NOS), and authentic scientific practices such as inquiry and experimentation in the context of their own research. In the second year of the course, the global COVID-19 pandemic forced us to modify our approach to accomplish the same goals, but now in a remote and online format. Using questionnaires, concept inventories, and semi-structured interviews, the impact of the course on students' understandings of NOS, inquiry, and experimentation, in addition to their perspectives on the experience within the course compared to prior laboratory coursework, was investigated. We found that students showed modest gains in each of the aforementioned desirable outcomes. These gains were generally comparable in both face-to-face and remote course settings. Additionally, students shared with us their preference for authentic laboratory work as compared with the typical laboratory work with its given research question and step-by-step instructions. Our research demonstrates what is possible in both face-to-face and remote undergraduate laboratory courses in biology and the positive impact that was observed in our students. We hope it serves as a model for other scientists and science educators as they collaborate to design authentic research-based coursework for undergraduate biology students.

The larval plate test has been used by researchers as a choice test to study the response of terrestrial larvae to various external cues. We describe here a laboratory exercise using third instar larvae of wild-type Drosophila to study the response toward multiple cues including olfactory as well as physical environmental cues such as light. The experiment can be easily carried out in an undergraduate lab and does not require any sophisticated instruments or equipment. The results of a series of experiments indicate the extent of response that each of the cue generates relative to the other. The highlight of the article however is the pre-lab discussion that can be done with students by putting forth various possible designs followed by discussion regarding the benefits and/or errors that could creep into the results obtained by using a particular design. Such a discussion would prove to be helpful in enhancing student understanding of experimental design, especially in designing experiments in animal behavior. The article also includes an extended theoretical problem set that can be used by facilitators in an undergraduate classroom activity.

Pedagogical practices such as active learning and group-based exercises are increasingly being used to engage students in course content during class meetings. However, techniques employed in class may not always contribute to engagement outside of the class meetings, or to student satisfaction with the course itself. Previous reports have shown that student autonomy and initial perceptions of the course setup influence their engagement and satisfaction, independent of the course context. To address engagement in an upper level collegiate biology class, students were allowed to choose their own assignments accounting for 50% of their total grade and also choose the due dates for those assignments; the remaining 50% came from exam scores. The goal was to allow students the option to pick assignments that best reflected their perceived strengths and preferences in order to determine whether these options increased students' satisfaction and engagement with the course content. Students were surveyed with questionnaires at the beginning and end of the semester to monitor their perception of the course setup, their interest in the course content, and their satisfaction with the course. Comparing initial perception of the course layout with final experiences, students reported that assignment choice did increase interest in the course and resulted in a student-reported increase in personal responsibility within the course.