For decades, studies have revealed students' decreasing interest in science. Extracurricular learning opportunities--the Science Olympiads being a publicly well-known example--are an important means identified to tackle this challenge and help students further differentiate their interests. Better understanding the underlying constructs and…

Experiential learning experiences (ELEs), opportunities for students to apply knowledge and skills critically in a hands-on environment, are fundamental to the apprenticeship model of biological and biotechnological sciences. ELEs enhance student-learning gains, increase career readiness, and provide important networking opportunities. However,…

Background/Context: Although academic departments have more tools to advance faculty diversity than ever before, many still downplay their own responsibility throughout the hiring process. This results in a cycle of apathy that activates once searches are already under way, and structural change is out of reach. Yet few studies empirically outline…

The article covers motivation as a complex psychopedagogical process reflecting the level of preparatory department students' personal readiness to learn Russian as a foreign language. The article shows that teaching Russian is a complex multi-dimensional process closely linked to an individual's motivational abilities. The author analyzes…

Genetics is an important basic course in the field of life science, and the cultivation of students' practical ability should be emphasized in the experimental teaching of genetics. How to let students have more time to participate in the experimental practice within the limited class hours? Our genetics experimental teaching team has developed…

This study explores how life science researchers conceptualize, operationalize, and value Interdisciplinary Research (IDR). We interviewed a sample of 10 established life science faculty to understand the researchers' lived experiences and perspectives on participating in IDR. Six themes emerged from our data: (1) IDR requires the integration of…

Governmental and educational organizations have pointed out that students coming into the biological sciences require stronger skills in statistics and data modeling that are not usually addressed in typical engineering-based calculus courses. Our work here documents how faculty in biology and mathematics addressed this issue at a large urban…

Teachers are highly reliant on textbooks for teaching. In the Republic of Korea, science textbooks help students to understand scientific terms through inquiry activities. However, there is a lack of analysis on whether the inquiry activities suggested in these textbooks appropriately cover the terms included in the main text. Therefore, this…

Course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) are increasingly popular, but less often implemented in core laboratory courses due to the strict learning objectives necessary for follow-on courses. A curricular core intermediate-level experimental biosciences laboratory course was implemented, which paired competency-based assignments…

The purpose of this study is to increase the understanding about undergraduate life science students' conceptions concerning the role of photosynthesizing plants in the ecosystem, utilizing a network analysis method. Science learning requires the integration and linking of abstract and often counterintuitive concepts successfully into multifaceted…

The metacognitive skill is a competency that must be mastered by students of educational program so that they are able to empower this competency in their students later. The purpose of this study was to analyze the metacognitive skill profile of students of the Science Education program at the University of Trunojoyo, Madura-Indonesia. The…

A mixed-method study was undertaken to investigate factors affecting the transition to university of life sciences students at a research-intensive UK university. Questionnaire responses (N= 234) suggested that undergraduate students tended to agree that they had successfully transitioned to university level study in the first year. However,…

This paper is a response to Cotton, Miller and Kneale's 2017 paper on the current state of higher education research within UK universities. It seeks to contribute to the debate surrounding the inclusion of pedagogic research (PedR) via SoTL in the UK's Research Excellence Framework (REF) in the context of researchers who reside within a…

Although many studies demonstrate that online education is as good as face-to-face education with regard to learning gains, course grades, and other near-term metrics, there is a major gap in exploring the long-term outcomes of online vs. face-to-face education, particularly in STEM programs. In this study, the effect of course delivery method on…

Cyberbiosecurity and workforce development in agriculture and the life sciences (ALS) is a growing area of need in the curriculum in higher education. Students that pursue majors related to ALS often do not include training in cyber-related concepts or expose the 'hidden curriculum' of seeking internships and jobs. Exposing students through…