Familiarize Your Students with Life at the Microscopic Scale

Abstract

Developing students’ understanding of cells and the microscopic scale is an important goal of biology education. Cells are the building blocks of multicellular organisms, and most of Earth’s biodiversity is found at the microscopic scale. Developing an understanding of the microscopic scale requires that students use their quantitative reasoning skills. Here, resources are presented that help students develop their quantitative reasoning skills and improve their understanding of the small scale of microscopic life. The crosscutting concept, Scale, Proportion, and Quantity, and the science and engineering practice, Using Mathematics and Computational Thinking, are highlighted. The development of students’ quantitative reasoning skills in biology is universally recognized as an important outcome of biology education.