Advanced Placement Biology Research Articles

How Do Teachers Collaborate in Informal Professional Learning Activities? An Epistemic Network Analysis

Teachers turn to many sources for support and professional learning, including social media-based communities that have shown promise to help teachers access resources and facilitate productive exchanges. Although such online communities show promise, questions about their quality for providing a suitable learning environment remain insufficiently answered. In this study, we examine how teachers’ engagement on Twitter (now known as “X”) may adhere to characteristics of high-quality professional development (PD) activities. In that, we employ advanced conversational analysis techniques that extend the primarily descriptive methods used in prior research. Specifically, we collected data from three Twitter communities related to Advanced Placement Biology (N = 2,040 tweets, N = 93 teachers). Qualitative two-cycle content analyses derived both tweet content and sentiment. Using epistemic network analyses, we examined the collaborative structures to examine how participation patterns can identify characteristics of high-quality online PD. Results indicate that some teachers use Twitter with a content focus and coherent to their individual contexts and prior knowledge. Notably, differences in collaboration and participation patterns by teachers’ overall activity level hint at the existence of an online community of practice. More active teachers communicated more about how their individual contexts relate to instruction, whereas less active teachers exhibited more targeted engagement, for instance, related to sharing teaching resources and organizing learning opportunities. Overall, this study illustrates how Twitter may provide a meaningful learning environment to teachers so that it can serve as a relevant avenue for their professional learning.

A card-sorting tool to measure expert versus novice thinking in scientific research.

Undergraduate research and laboratory experiences provide a wide range of benefits to student learning in science and are integral to imbed authentic research experiences in biology labs. While the benefit of courses with research experience is widely accepted, it can be challenging to measure conceptual research skills in a quick and easily scalable manner. We developed a card-sorting task to differentiate between novice and expert conceptualization of research principles. There were significant differences in the way faculty/postdocs, graduate students, and undergraduate students organized their information, with faculty/postdocs more likely to use deep feature sorting patterns related to research approach. When provided scaffolding of group names reflecting expert-like organization, participant groups were better able to sort by that organization, but undergraduate students did not reach expert levels. Undergraduates with Advanced Placement experience were more likely to display expert-like thinking than undergraduates without Advanced Placement Biology experience and non-PEER (persons excluded because of their Ethnicity or Race) students displayed more expert-like thinking than PEER students. We found evidence of undergraduates in various stages of development toward expert-like thinking in written responses. This card-sorting task can provide a framework for analyzing student's conceptualizations of research and identify areas to provide added scaffolding to help shift from novice-like to expert-like thinking.

Things Matter: A Posthuman Empirical Inquiry into the Actualization of Gender in an Advanced Placement Biology Classroom

The purpose of this study was to investigate and document the conditions in which gender was actualized in a high school Advanced Placement biology classroom. The authors of this study begin with the assumption that equitable and inclusive science instruction should not reinforce or condition students into thinking about themselves as single beings with fixed identities. Rather, science instruction should support a view that students are changing beings who can become other.
 We also draw on scholars of new materialisms to examine how things matter in the actualization of students’ gender. Our study traces how gender followed unpredictable lines of flight and shows what gender could become. Using these theories to explain our findings we offer a new concept for the science classroom, students’ subjectivities-in-motion.

Advanced Placement Biology Scores: A Comparison of Scores for White and Hispanic Students from California, Texas, and Arizona

The performance of White students and Hispanic students from California, Texas, and Arizona on the Advanced Placement (AP) Biology exam were compared using archival data from the College Board from 2016 through 2019. Pearson chi square tests yielded statistically significant differences in all four-year comparisons of White and Hispanic students in all three states. White students from California had the highest percentage of students earn a 3 or higher for all four years, Arizona had the second highest percentage of White students earn a 3 or higher for all four years, and Texas had the lowest percentage of White students earn a 3 or higher for all four years of comparison. Hispanic students from Arizona had the highest percentage of students earn a 3 or higher for all four years, California had the second highest percentage of Hispanic students earn a 3 or higher for all four years, and Texas had the lowest percentage of Hispanic students earn a 3 or higher for all four years of comparison. It was discovered a majority of White students who took an AP Biology exam, from 2016 to 2019, earned a passing score (3 or higher), while the majority of Hispanic students who took an AP Biology exam failed to earn a passing score (3 or higher), that would result in college credit. Implications of these findings are discussed. Key Words: AP Biology, Hispanic students, College Board.

True Facts: Snake and Lizard Tongues

In this era of social media, “fake news,” and every effort to discredit science, essential science communication is imperative to student learning. Students need to have access to factual, accurate scientific information to help them learn basic concepts. True Facts: Snake and Lizard Tongues takes scientific communication to the next level. It offers a straight-to-the-point, humorous survey of the anatomy and physiology of reptile tongues, while also delving into their evolution.The 10-minute YouTube video takes the viewer through a deep look into the work of Dr. Kurt Schwenk (“a good science name” according to the narrator). It examines the structure and function of lizard and snake tongues, looking at how these organisms are able to “see” and “hear” by using them. It talks about how the tongue evolved from a common ancestor but then diverged because not all organisms use it in the same manner.Excellent photography shows the diversity of reptile tongues—from the forked tongue of snakes to the sticky tongues of skinks. Each of these animals has a tongue that is adapted for a particular function.Snakes, for example, are the champion “smellers” with their tongues due to it being long, skinny, and forked at the end. It turns out that the very tips of each fork are loaded with millions of tiny chemoreceptors that can detect many types of molecules. Additionally, Dr. Schwenk has determined that each fork of the snake tongue is able to rotate in an opposite direction, creating tiny vortices of air. Snakes are also unique in that they flick their tongues up and down in the air. The receptors on the tips are able to collect the molecules that converge in these vortices to give the snake a complete picture of the stimulus. They can sample two different things at once. This all happens each time the snake sticks its tongue out.Skinks are another animal with a unique tongue. Their tongues are a bit wider than snakes’ tongues and also covered with scales. They are more used tools for swallowing than sensing. However, they also have the ability to grasp things, similar to the way an elephant’s trunk can. The skink has evolved this ability to help it trap and eat large prey. The tongue also has a sticky mucus on it to prevent the prey from escaping.The fact that Dr. Schwenk has devoted his life to the study of lizard and snake tongues is remarkable. His discoveries show a lot about the evolution of these animals and provide needed information about adaptation in the animal kingdom.True Facts: Snake and Lizard Tongues has a lot of science in it. It is a great exploration of adaptation and evolution. It is appropriate for students in high school and Advanced Placement Biology classes, as well as in college biology courses. It does a wonderful job of communicating very interesting information in a manner that is engaging and entertaining. However, a word of warning. The video does use some language that may be inappropriate for students in school settings. Swear words are bleeped out, but there are several other references that may be deemed suggestive. Teachers should review the video before showing it to be sure their students will be comfortable with it.

Identifying Levers Related to Student Performance on High-Stakes Science Exams: Examining School, Teaching, Teacher, and Professional Development Characteristics

BackgroundMany students enter into postsecondary education without the preparation to face the demands of postsecondary coursework in science. Increasingly, policymakers and educational researchers are responding to calls for reforming secondary education to provide more opportunity for all students to receive high-quality education and to become career and college ready.PurposeThis study attempts to identify levers to increase student learning in secondary education. In particular, it examines relationships between school, teaching, teacher, and teacher professional development characteristics and student scores on high-stakes Advanced Placement (AP) examinations in the sciences.SettingThis study is situated in the context of the large-scale, top-down, nationwide AP curriculum and examination reform in the sciences (biology, chemistry, physics) in the United States. This is an unprecedented opportunity to analyze changing educational landscapes in the United States with large-scale national student-, teacher-, school-, and district-level datasets across multiple science disciplines and different stages of the curriculum reform implementation connected to a standardized and high-stakes student outcome measure.PopulationThis study analyzes nationwide data samples of the AP Biology, AP Chemistry, and AP Physics population during the first, second, and third year of the curriculum reform implementation. Across disciplines and years, the analytical samples include a total of 113,603 students and 6,046 teachers.Research DesignThis empirical quantitative study uses data from web-based surveys sent to all AP science teachers. Additionally, the College Board provided student- and school-level data for all students taking AP examinations. Data preparation methods included exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. Associations with student achievement were analyzed through a multilevel ordered logistic regression analysis, separately by science discipline and year of the curriculum reform implementation. Afterwards, results were aggregated through a meta-analysis.FindingsEven after controlling for student background variables, roughly 60% of the AP score variance could be explained at the teacher and school levels. In particular, teachers’ perceived administrative support, self-efficacy, teaching experience, and elements of classroom instruction were related to student performance. Notably, teachers’ professional development participation—which has been a major focus of interventions—has a small, mixed impact on student achievement.ConclusionThe identified levers for improving student achievement provide a strong rationale for the continued efforts of policymakers to improve school environments and to support science teachers, with the ultimate goal of improving student learning to help all students to be prepared for college and ready for their future careers.

From the Inside Out: Teacher Responses to the AP Curriculum Redesign

ABSTRACTFrom 2012–2015, Advanced Placement (AP) science courses underwent a large-scale curricular reform to include more scientific inquiry and reasoning, reduce emphasis on broad content coverage, and focus on depth of understanding, with corresponding changes in high-stakes AP examinations. In this study, we explored how teachers prepared for and adapted to this reform over a three-year period. Data included four waves of individual interviews with 22 AP Biology and Chemistry teachers across the United States. Data were qualitatively analyzed using emic and etic coding. Four themes were developed from these data: (1) initial perceptions about the reform including uncertainty, anxiety, and excitement, (2) preparation for reform, (3) impact of time, and (4) intersection of affinity toward the reform with time and uncertainty. Although teachers faced a variety of implementation challenges, these did not always influence their professional development (PD) choices. Rather, choices were more often driven by the price and proximity of those activities, resulting in a jumbled mélange rather than a coherent, extended series of learning experiences. Despite a variety of attitudes, beliefs and instructional skills, teacher beliefs about the purpose and value of the reform—over and above their learning experiences—influenced the time needed to transition and to become comfortable with the redesigned course. This study has implications for how teachers may respond to large-scale, top-down, curriculum reforms (e.g., NGSS, Common Core) and how education leaders, policy makers, and PD providers might support teachers in their efforts to adapt efficiently and effectively.

A ‘KAHOOT!’ Approach: The Effectiveness of Game-Based Learning for an Advanced Placement Biology Class

Background.Keeping high school students engaged and motivated to learn complex scientific concepts can be difficult and challenging; this is especially true if the task feels daunting and unfamiliar to the students. Incorporating educational technology, such as KAHOOT, into the classroom can help students learn scientific material even when it is difficult. Aim. Our objective is to determine the effectiveness of gamification in an Advanced Placement Biology (AP biology) classroom by using the online game ‘KAHOOT!’ as a supplement to traditional teacher-centered learning. In addition, we determine the use of ‘KAHOOT!’ in enhancing student engagement and the learning experience for biology. Methods. A presentation on Transcription and Translation was given to a small group of high school AP Biology students ( n = 18, 18 women). After the presentation, the students were given 15 questions and twenty seconds to answer each question in the ‘KAHOOT!’ game. Both the students and the teacher were given a post-activity survey to assess their interest in the activity. Results. Based on the responses in the Students’ Survey, ‘KAHOOT!’ can be used as a gamified assessment tool to help students learn the topic of ‘Transcription and Translation’ by actively engaging them in a fun and exciting manner. Conclusion. The overall activity had a positive impact on the students and teacher as the students enjoyed learning Transcription and Translation through the use of ‘KAHOOT!’.

New Contexts for Professional Learning: Analyzing High School Science Teachers’ Engagement on Twitter

This mixed-methods observational study analyzes Advanced Placement (AP) Biology teachers’ engagement in microblogging for professional learning. Data from three hashtag-based Twitter communities—#apbiochat, #apbioleaderacad, and #apbioleaderacademy (121 users; 2,253 tweets)—are analyzed using educational data mining, qualitative two-cycle content analysis, social network analysis, linear and logistic regression analyses, and hierarchical linear modeling. Results indicate that teachers’ use of Twitter reflects aspects of high-quality professional development. Notably, Twitter’s nonhierarchical organization affords shared content creation and distribution. Additionally, Twitter allows for different temporal participation patterns and supports the personalization of learning experiences aligned to teachers’ needs and preferences. Furthermore, teachers frame their interactions on Twitter positively—thus, creating a supportive environment for professional learning that might reduce perceived professional isolation. Based on this analysis, policymakers and school leaders should feel comfortable encouraging teachers to use microblogging as part of their professional learning activities.

Life on the Frontier of AP Expansion: Can Schools in Less-Resourced Communities Successfully Implement Advanced Placement Science Courses?

The Advanced Placement (AP) program has undergone two major reforms in recent decades: the first aimed at increasing access and the second at increasing relevance. Both initiatives are partially designed to increase the number of high school students from low-income backgrounds who have access to college-level coursework. Yet critics argue that schools in less-resourced communities are unable to implement AP at the level expected by its founders. We offer the first model of the components inherent in a well-implemented AP science course and the first evaluation of AP implementation with a focus on public schools newly offering the inquiry-based version of AP Biology and Chemistry courses. We find that these frontier schools were able to implement most, but not all, of the key components of an AP science course.

Acceptance, Understanding & Experience: Exploring Obstacles to Evolution Education among Advanced Placement Teachers

Students in the United States who wish to begin early enrollment in college-level coursework often turn to Advanced Placement (AP) secondary coursework such as AP Biology as an accelerated option. As such, it is expected that those teachers who are responsible for the AP Biology courses hold an advanced level of subject-area expertise that extends to topics that are often seen as controversial in K–12 classrooms, including evolution. We surveyed 71 AP Biology teachers in a state in the southeastern United States to see how their levels of evolution content knowledge, evolution acceptance, and understandings of the nature of science compared to results that have been found in similar studies in general biology teachers and preservice science teachers. Our results indicate that AP Biology teachers in the Southeast have understandings and levels of acceptance regarding evolution that are in line with or lower than those of fellow teachers. This suggests that in spite of the nationalized AP curriculum, there are still gaps in fundamental knowledge, understandings, and approach that need to be addressed.

Using human case studies to teach evolution in high school A.P. biology classrooms

BackgroundWhile recent research indicates that using human examples can be an engaging way to teach core evolutionary concepts such as natural selection and phylogenetic thinking, teachers still face potential conflicts and challenges that arise from cultural barriers to teaching and learning about evolution. The “Teaching Evolution through Human Examples” (TEtHE) project developed (1) a set of four curriculum mini-units for advanced placement (A.P.) biology that use human examples to teach evolutionary principles (Adaptation to Altitude, Evolution of Human Skin Color, Malaria, and What Does It Mean To Be Human?), and (2) a cultural and religious sensitivity (CRS) teaching strategies resource that includes background materials and two in-class activities to help teachers create a classroom environment to increase student willingness to engage the topic.MethodsThis paper reports on the development and field test of the TEtHE materials in A.P. biology classes in 10 schools in 8 states during the 2012–2013 school year using a design-based research framework (cf. Anderson and Shattuck in Educ Res 41:16–25, 2012). We chose A.P. classrooms to study the potential impacts of the materials in a “best case scenario” and analyzed data about understanding and acceptance of evolution from pre-post assessments in the 10 classrooms separately to mitigate potential validity concerns arising from the design (Anderson and Shattuck in Educ Res 41:16–25, 2012; Shadish et al. in Experimental and quasi-experimental designs for generalized causal inference. Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 2002). These data were treated as a secondary source of formative data to add additional perspective to teacher self-reports, observations, student and teacher questionnaires, teacher interviews, and student focus groups.ResultsResults indicate that the use of the three curriculum mini-units which focus on natural selection and the CRS classroom activities generally increased A.P. biology students’ understanding and acceptance of evolution. Students whose teachers used one of the CRS activities showed generally larger increases in understanding of evolution than those whose teachers did not use one of the CRS activities.ConclusionsAlthough the utility of using human examples to teach evolution in college-level classes has been demonstrated in a few previous studies, this is the first national project of which we are aware to systematically explore the effect of a similar approach in high school biology classes. While we recognize that the results may be mitigated by the limitations of design-based research, particularly the absence of a comparison or control group, the general effectiveness of this approach suggested by qualitative and quantitative data in increasing student understanding and acceptance of evolution suggests that using human examples and explicitly creating a classroom environment to help students engage the topic of evolution are worth considering for further development and more robust testing.

Adapting to large-scale changes in Advanced Placement Biology, Chemistry, and Physics: the impact of online teacher communities

ABSTRACTOver the past decade, the field of teacher professional learning has coalesced around core characteristics of high quality professional development experiences (e.g. Borko, Jacobs, & Koellner, 2010. Contemporary approaches to teacher professional development. In P. L. Peterson, E. Baker, & B. McGaw (Eds.), International encyclopedia of education (Vol. 7, pp. 548–556). Oxford: Elsevier.; Darling-Hammond, Hyler, & Gardner, 2017. Effective teacher professional development. Palo Alto, CA: Learning Policy Institute). Many countries have found these advances of great interest because of a desire to build teacher capacity in science education and across the full curriculum. This paper continues this progress by examining the role and impact of an online professional development community within the top-down, large-scale curriculum and assessment revision of Advanced Placement (AP) Biology, Chemistry, and Physics. This paper is part of a five-year, longitudinal, U.S. National Science Foundation–funded project to study the relative effectiveness of various types of professional development in enabling teachers to adapt to the revised AP course goals and exams. Of the many forms of professional development our research has examined, preliminary analyses indicated that participation in the College Board's online AP Teacher Community (APTC) – where teachers can discuss teaching strategies, share resources, and connect with each other – had positive, direct, and statistically significant association with teacher self-reported shifts in practice and with gains in student AP scores (Fishman et al., 2014). This study explored how usage of the online APTC might be useful to teachers and examined a more robust estimate of these effects. Findings from the experience of AP teachers may be valuable in supporting other large-scale curriculum changes, such as the U.S. Next Generation Science Standards or Common Core Standards, as well as parallel curricular shifts in other countries.

When Do Students in Low-SES Schools Perform Better-Than-Expected on a High-Stakes Test? Analyzing School, Teacher, Teaching, and Professional Development Characteristics

This empirical study analyzed data from 638 teachers and 11,800 students in low-socioeconomic status (SES) urban schools (and schools with urban characteristics) exploring associations of school, teacher, teaching, and professional development characteristics toward student performance on the revised Advanced Placement (AP) Biology and AP Chemistry examinations. The analyses indicated that districts per-student funding allocations, the days of instruction, teachers’ knowledge and experience, and some aspects of teachers’ professional development participation were significantly associated with student performance on AP science examinations that was better than predicted by students’ Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test (PSAT) scores.

20 Years of Evolution: How a Social Movement Is Changing Biology Education

My first experience teaching Advanced Placement Biology was likely not much different from many of yours. Even as a student teacher, I was eager to work with AP students and my “rockstar” mentor teacher. However, my excitement quickly faded as I realized that as visionary as my mentor was, her AP course was more about covering material than teaching students. When my time in front of a class came, I did as she had shown me. I tried to tell her story her way, word for word, slide for slide – and it flopped. Horribly. I tried to teach like her and didn't deviate from the script. Frustrated that I didn't get to tell my story, I told her I wanted to try to teach differently. She wrote in my evaluation that doing so would compromise her ability to prepare her students. I was devastated. I couldn't believe that the wonder I saw on the faces of students in other classes had to be stifled in AP. In this capstone course, why couldn't we allow students to be curious, to make mistakes, and to wonder? I almost gave up on AP. Fast-forward three years. The place was Clemson, South Carolina, and …

Computer-Aided Drug Design

Chemistry in high school is often presented as a jumbled mass of topics drawn from inorganic, analytical, and physical sub-disciplines. With no central theme to build on, students may have trouble grasping the chemical sciences as a coherent field. We believe that a relevant, compelling, accessible framework might better engage students in chemistry. In this article, we describe an activity aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS Lead States 2013; see box, p. 46) that integrates different facets of chemistry and biology into a scaffold structured around small-molecule medicinal drug discovery. This investigation was inspired by laboratory work the authors--a researcher (RS) and a high school teacher (JE)--undertook to pursue a new class of historie deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors (Wang et al. 2015). Small-molecule therapies, forged by evolution or human effort--from antibiotics to chemotherapeutics to anti-retrovirals--can combat many of the maladies that plague humanity. Despite past successes, current therapies are not guaranteed to work forever, and further development of molecular medicines is always required. The constant arms race against antibiotic-resistant bacteria serves as one example of the perpetual need for new therapies. To discover new medicinal molecules, intrepid chemists often must obtain and modify a lead compound of interest. Leads may arise either from nature or through the screening of large compound libraries against protein targets relevant to a particular disease. Once a lead is found, medicinal chemists must modify it through the iterative creation of structurally related analogs in order to arrive at a potent, selective, and relatively non-toxic clinical candidate. Modern biomedical researchers can model the interactions between small molecules and their macromolecular target on a computer and thereby plan structural modifications that seem most likely to increase compound tightness of binding. Through the use of these in silico (computer-based) models, scientists can bias those molecules they make in the lab on the basis of binding affinity predictions resultant from virtual screens containing millions of small molecules. The rapid increase in both personal computing power and efficient algorithms for small molecule binding-mode prediction has enabled researchers to access computer-aided molecular docking tools using commercially available laptops--a feat that would have been unthinkable a few years ago. Throughout this exercise, students assume the role of medicinal chemists searching for a new anticancer medicine by pursuing (structurally similar) analogs to a chemotherapeutic lead compound of interest. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Software tools Free software tools (Figure 1) can help students explore small molecule-protein interactions. For example, students can use AutoDockTools (Huey et al. 2007; Morris et al. 2009; Morris et al. 1998) to prepare the crystallographic macromolecule representation obtained from the Protein Data Bank (PDB) for screening; the PDB offers free downloadable macromolecular structures (including many disease targets). AutoDock Vina (Trott and Olson 2010) can perform the molecular dynamics calculations necessary to generate binding mode predictions, and PyRx (Wolf 2009) can provide the graphical user interface (GUI) for all screening protocols. Inhibitors may be visualized using Schrodinger LLC's Pymol software (Pymol 2015). Ligand preparation requires Marvin-sketch and Marvinview (Marvin 2016). To implement this challenging activity, teachers may need a refresher in organic chemistry, biochemistry, and/or molecular biology. Students need a background in chemistry and biology. Our class--an advanced placement (AP) chemistry course--was our students' second chemistry class, and most students had already taken AP biology (or an equivalent course). For help understanding computer-aided drug design, see the References section and the On the web section for links to helpful videos and supplemental information. …

An examination of Melody’s identities, contexts, and learning in a US science classroom: implications for science education of Asian transnational students

This study examines how Melody, a Korean transnational girl in the US, participates in high school AP (Advanced Placement) biology class, engages in identity work, and learns science. Melody was a daughter of a gireogi family (a transnational family separated for educational purposes), living with her mother and brother in the US. The recent increase of transnational educational migration among Asian students and the importance of identity in understanding students’ learning and participation motivated this study. I define identity as a type of personhood and view that it is always performed and negotiated by individuals in their social lives. Drawing on ethnographic data collected in Melody’s AP Biology class, I will show Melody constructed identities as a non-participant, limited English-proficient student and incompetent biology learner. Her identity construction was influenced by the meso level contexts (e.g., school, classroom) and personal contexts (e.g., gireogi family contexts). Yet, Melody constantly negotiated with these contexts to re-figure her identities to be more conducive to her biology learning and to enhance her classroom participation. This study demonstrates how individual students in the US, while coming from a stereotypically successful ethnic group, experience their life contexts and explore possibilities for learning and being in different ways. Implications include how researchers and teachers should pay attention to individual differences and contexts in order to better facilitate their science learning and classroom participation. I will also provide implications for education in countries that send gireogi families and transnational students.

Understanding Korean Transnational Girls in High School Science Classes: Beyond the Model Minority Stereotype

ABSTRACTThis study examines six Korean transnational girls enrolled in two advanced placement (AP) biology classes to understand their experiences in science classrooms at the intersection of race, language, and gender. Confronting the model minority stereotype for Asian students, which is particularly salient in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics related disciplines, I ask why these six girls chose to take advanced science and mathematics classes, in general, and AP biology, in particular, and what challenges they faced in the focal biology classes. Based on an analysis of classroom observation and interview data, I argue that their decisions to take science and mathematics courses were ways of negotiating their positions as members of a racial minority, English learners, and Koreans with stereotyped characteristics. In the class, they encountered challenges related to various modes of language used in advanced science classes, such as unfamiliar science terms, complex texts, social linguistic skills required in discursive practices, and various knowledge going beyond class texts. While challenged, the girls were not empowered enough to pursue academic assistance in the gendered sites of the AP biology class. I discuss research and pedagogical implications of the study focusing on the science education of transnational nonnative English‐speaking students.

Positionings of racial, ethnic, and linguistic minority students in high school biology class: Implications for science education in diverse classrooms

In the present study, I analyze ethnographic data from a year-long study of two Advanced Placement (AP) Biology classes that enrolled students with diverse racial, ethnic, and linguistic backgrounds. Specifically, I consider participation, positioning, and learning of newcomer Korean students in the focal classes. Building on the notion of figured worlds, I define the AP Biology classes as a localized figured world in which students position and are positioned within its interpretive frameworks and analyze how newcomer Koreans are positioned in relation to each other. The analysis illustrates that students were relationally positioned, primarily based on their biology achievement and discursive participation, among other interpretive frameworks. In this localized figured world, newcomer Korean students were positioned at a lower status because they did not participate in the classroom discourses, as well as their lack of speech and certain forms of speech indicated their failure to adequately learn English and U.S. school practices. Based on the findings, I discuss practices and ideologies about science, classroom participation, and transnational students that are prevalent in broader contexts and reflected in the localized figured world. In light of the national and international contexts in which increasingly more people migrate across national borders, I draw implications for science education in racially, ethnically, and linguistically diverse classrooms. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 52: 347–370, 2015

The Electron Transport Chain

This activity provides students an interactive demonstration of the electron transport chain and chemiosmosis during aerobic respiration. Students use simple, everyday objects as hydrogen ions and electrons and play the roles of the various proteins embedded in the inner mitochondrial membrane to show how this specific process in cellular respiration produces ATP. The activity works best as a supplement after you have already discussed the electron transport chain in lecture but can be used prior to instruction to help students visualize the processes that occur. This demonstration was designed for general college biology for majors at a community college, but it could be used in any introductory college-level or advanced placement biology course.