Background/Context: In an age of test-driven accountability, many schools are returning to banking pedagogies in which students passively take in content. Inquiry-based instruction offers one approach for actively involving students in meaningful learning activity, however, research on inquiry pedagogies often focuses on academic accomplishments.…

The authors suggest that "CSI," a public mass media product, and other television programming have greatly influenced how students, especially female students, perceive scientists at work. Perhaps the increased airing of television programs focusing on laboratory sciences has caused student perceptions of scientists to shift away from the "mad…

This article discusses the challenges that bioinformatics education is facing and describes a bioinformatics course that is successfully taught at the California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, to the fourth year undergraduate students in biological sciences, chemistry, and computer science. Information on lecture and computer practice…

Providing fair assessment with timely feedback for students is a difficult task with science laboratory classes containing large numbers of students. Throughout our Faculty, such classes are assessed by short-answer questions (SAQs) centred on principles encountered in the laboratory. We have shown recently that computer-assisted assessment (CAA)…

Many plant biologists claim that there is a tremendous bias towards the study of animals in science curricula, however, there is even less attention given to topics on fungi. On average, Biology laboratory manuals will have only one fungi exercise, and most of the time, it is mainly descriptive. As we developed this exercise we realized how much…

Recent education reform efforts are at the forefront of educators' minds across the nation, science teachers notwithstanding. At least 48 states have developed a mandated standardized test, the majority of which also publish an individual school proficiency report. Washington State's new standardized science test is an example of such reforms…

This article describes learner and tutor reports of a learning network that formed during the completion of investigative projects on a residential field course. Staff and students recorded project-related interactions, who they were with and how long they lasted over four phases during the field course. An enquiry based learning format challenged…

Previous work has established that a narrated animation is more effective at communicating a complex biological process (signal transduction) than the equivalent graphic with figure legend. To my knowledge, no study has been done in any subject area on the effectiveness of animations versus graphics in the long-term retention of information, a…

The Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside has developed and implemented an innovative, multidisciplinary undergraduate curriculum in Molecular Biology and Bioinformatics (MBB). The objective of the MBB program is to give students a hands-on facility with molecular biology theories and laboratory techniques, an…

Discussions on species taxa directly refer to a range of complex biological phenomena. Given these phenomena, biologists have developed and continue to appeal to a series of species concepts and do not have a clear definition for it as each species concept tells us part of the story or helps the biologists to explain and understand a subset of…

Undergraduate retention is a major concern for universities and first year failure is a significant contributor to the overall statistics for non-progression. This report describes an interview-based investigation of students' perceptions for the reasons underlying their failure in 1st and 2nd semester modules. The most commonly cited reasons were…

Assessment is an integral and vital part of teaching and learning, providing feedback on progress through the assessment period to both learners and teachers. However, if test items are flawed because of misconceptions held by the question setter, then such test items are invalid as assessment tools. Moreover, such flawed items are also likely to…

Introduction: Action Research is a formative study of progress commonly practiced by teachers in schools. Basically an action research is a spiral process that includes problem investigation, taking action & fact-finding about the result of action. It enables a teacher to adopt/craft most appropriate strategy within its own teaching…

Introduction: Action Research is a formative study of progress commonly practiced by teachers in schools. Basically an action research is a spiral process that includes problem investigation, taking action & fact-finding about the result of action. It enables a teacher to adopt/craft most appropriate strategy within its own teaching environment.…

The grades attained by students studying biological science at level 1, at Liverpool John Moores University, UK, were examined between the academic years 2003/04 - 2005/06. The marks attained in the study skills module, and the mean level 1 mark (number of modules, n = 10) were also analysed. The data were divided into two groups: those relating…