Using COVID-19 to Reboot Biology Education

Abstract

Editorial| September 01 2020 Using COVID-19 to Reboot Biology Education Uno Gordon Uno Gordon GORDON UNO is David Ross Boyd Professor of Botany in the Department of Microbiology and Plant Biology, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK 73019; e-mail: guno@ou.edu. Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar The American Biology Teacher (2020) 82 (7): 437. https://doi.org/10.1525/abt.2020.82.7.437 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation Uno Gordon; Using COVID-19 to Reboot Biology Education. The American Biology Teacher 1 September 2020; 82 (7): 437. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/abt.2020.82.7.437 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentThe American Biology Teacher Search The novel coronavirus pandemic forced American educators to change the way we teach. Now, it's time for us to rethink what we teach. The old phrase “never let a good crisis go to waste” applies because COVID-19 has created incredible problems but also unexpected opportunities for us to seize the moment and change the focus of biology instruction. We should all ask why so many Americans choose to ignore or reject scientific information in favor of unsourced, speculative, and generally nonsensical disinformation that appears online. Our response must be to help students develop correct explanations regarding the natural world, or they will likely accept the commonly offered pseudoscientific explanations from nonexperts. As Carl Sagan noted in The Demon-Haunted World, “science can be a candle in the dark.” The unscientific responses to the coronavirus make clear how important the use of valid evidence and the expertise of scientists and health... You do not currently have access to this content.