With the global increase of infections caused by antibiotic-resistant bacterial strains, there is an urgent need for new methods of tackling the issue. Genomic analysis of bacterial strains can help to understand their virulence and antibiotic resistance profile. Bioinformatic skills are in great demand across the biological sciences. We designed…

Collaborative teamwork is fundamental to successful research and is a desirable skill set for employers. Yet students receive little training in how to effectively work in teams. This article presents the preliminary design and implementation of course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) in biology, geology, and environmental…

The current and ongoing challenges brought on by climate change will require future scientists who have hands-on experience using advanced molecular techniques, can work with large data sets, and can make correlations between metadata and microbial diversity. A course-embedded research project can prepare students to answer complex research…

Supporting students in building well-grounded explanations plays a crucial role in scientific practice. Research in organic chemistry education on students' mechanistic explanations, however, has revealed various challenges. When solving mechanistic tasks, students experience difficulties when (I) deriving implicit properties from structural…

Open access to research data is one of the key themes of current science development concepts and relevant R & D strategies at least in Europe. A systemic change in the modus operandi of science and research should lead to so-called Open Science. The presented paper questions the extent to which the Open Science concept is reflected in the…

This article examines student engagement in an inquiry-based learning activity, planned to provide students with elements in the social, epistemic, and conceptual dimensions related to the scientific practice in immunology. The activity was applied to 39 groups of students enrolled in immunology or biochemistry courses in a public university in…

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to an urgent need for engaging computational alternatives to traditional laboratory exercises. Here we introduce a customizable and flexible workflow, designed with the SARS CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19 in mind, as a means of reinforcing fundamental biology concepts using bioinformatics approaches. This workflow…

Without any major changes, a pilot version of a physical science lab course was able to continue when the COVID-19 crisis necessitated the abrupt suspension of on-campus education. The 'Maker Lab' course, in which students conceive and set up their own experiments using affordable microcontrollers, required students to follow the entire arc of the…

One of the goals for requiring all college students to take science courses is to develop critical thinking about scientific issues they will encounter as citizens, consumers, and patients. This article integrates skill development activities targeting civic scientific literacy skills in a nonscience majors (liberal arts) biochemistry course, but…

Students in introductory college science courses often have a simplified understanding of the scientific method. To introduce students to the complexity of the scientific process and the value of empirical observations, I implemented a semester-long assignment that required introductory-level college science students to build and calibrate weather…

This paper aims to provide a contribution to the research in physics education regarding the interplay between mathematics and physics in teaching and learning physics at the university level. The argument is developed through a study focused on the historical case study of the blackbody that led Planck to make one of the most significant…

In 2016, professors representing Biology, Dance, Music, and Theatre and dance program students created "Dunes," a performance piece that depicts the ecological succession of Michigan's sand dunes. The process used to make this work is a direct representation of the steps that Team Hyena Puppet, a collective of teaching artists and…

The plant taxonomy textbooks that are generally used in colleges need to be complemented with a DNA-based molecular review. In general, plant taxonomy textbooks devote more space to morphology than to molecular-level characteristics. The research reported here used the results of DNA-based research to develop a molecular plant taxonomy textbook.…

Environments of learning often remain unnoticed and unacknowledged. This study follows a student and myself as we became aware of our local environment at MIT and welcomed that environment as a vibrant contributor to our learning. We met this environment in part through its educational heritage in two centennial anniversaries: John Dewey's 1916…

Evolution is widely regarded as biology's unifying theme, yet rates of rejection of evolutionary science remain high. Anecdotal evidence suggests that cognitive dissonance leading to an emotional response is a barrier to learning about and accepting evolution. We explored the hypothesis that students whose worldviews may be inconsistent with the…