Biological Sciences Curriculum Research Articles

Using of 5E Model in Teaching Reading Comprehension for Preparatory School Students

Bybee (1997) defines 5E instructional model as an approach that allows students redefine,)reorganize, elaborate, and change their initial concepts through self-reflection and interaction with their peers and their environment. The 5 E's Instructional Model Origin is one of the most practical recommended models in the application of constructivist learning theory. It is built around a structured sequence and designed as a tangible and practical way for teachers to implement the constructivist theory. In other words, the model is based on constructivism which confirms that learners build or construct new ideas on top of their old ones. The origin of the model refers to 1980s when Biological Science Curriculum Study (BSCS) Team, whose leader was Rodger Bybee designed a model based on constructivist thinking. They named the model the 5E's to represent all the stages and their numbers. The 5E instructional model is predicated on inquiry based learning. In this model, instructors must work with their students, who will feel more motivated to learn when they feel supported by their instructors to generate thought-provoking questions and create hypotheses. The instructional model also promotes rational discussions as well as collaborative problem solving, which ultimately lead to understanding (Gillies etal, 2012).

Why We Must Teach Our Students about Race

Editorial| March 01 2023 Why We Must Teach Our Students about Race Joseph L. Graves, Jr. Joseph L. Graves, Jr. Joseph L. Graves Jr. Professor of Biological Sciences North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University gravesjl@ncat.edu Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar gravesjl@ncat.edu The American Biology Teacher (2023) 85 (3): 133. https://doi.org/10.1525/abt.2023.85.3.133 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 Joseph L. Graves; Why We Must Teach Our Students about Race. The American Biology Teacher 1 March 2023; 85 (3): 133. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/abt.2023.85.3.133 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 Twenty years ago, I wrote a piece for the newsletter of the Biological Sciences Curriculum Study explaining how important it was to teach high school students about human biological variation and conceptions of race. The issue of variation within species has been of interest to naturalists beginning in the eighteenth century. Unfortunately, when Linnaeus published the tenth edition of Systema Naturae in 1758, he included a description of human varieties ranked hierarchically, with Europeans at the top and Africans at the bottom, as influenced by the colonialism and racism of the time. Thus began the sad history of Europeans deploying pseudoscientific schemes to classify and rank human beings. Fortunately, using concepts from the neo-Darwinian synthesis of the twentieth century based on genetic variation and phylogenetic methods, we know that modern humans do not display biological races, but earlier views are frustratingly long-lasting. Despite our modern understanding of biological variation, race... You do not currently have access to this content.

A new hub-and-spoke biology curriculum designed around interdisciplinary laboratory practical sessions to enhance student employability

A new hub-and-spoke (H&S) model for restructuring the traditional biological science curriculum is presented here. The H&S model emphasises the integration of sub-disciplines of biology and the integration of biology with other scientific disciplines. In this model, traditional undergraduate courses that include both theory and a stand-alone laboratory component are replaced with discovery-based research courses that act as the hub, servicing discipline-specific theory-only courses, which act as the spoke. The hub course includes an immersive laboratory experience, aimed to integrate all the spoke components that the hub unit serves. The H&S model also offers an opportunity to develop a new framework that will support active pedagogies such as inquiry-based and open-ended problem-based learning, where students work in groups to solve challenging problems and build their capacity to design and implement approaches to undertake their own investigation, thus enhancing students critical thinking as well as generic skills. Overall, this model offers higher interdisciplinary biological laboratory skills, and an integrative understanding of scientific projects thus enhancing the graduate’s employability. This curriculum model may be easily adapted for other branches of science, given the interdisciplinary nature of all sciences and the R&D innovation sector.

How Might We Raise Interest in Robotics, Coding, Artificial Intelligence, STEAM and Sustainable Development in University and On-the-Job Teacher Training?

Schools are searching for strategies to foster 4C competencies (Creativity, Cooperation, Communication and Critical Thinking) in children. Scientific Reasoning, Critical Thinking, and the ability to debunk myths are already important competencies that can be fostered with science education. How can we approach the majority of seventh grade students in a given school to create innovative approaches for the future, and leverage their skills in science, art and (digital) technology along the path? And are the teachers ready to guide them on this path? This article focuses on the questions: how did the teachers adopt both the STEAM approach, and the use of digital tools while being supervised by researchers and student teachers and how did this change their beliefs about technology in education. As a pathway, we aimed to connect Robotics, Coding, Artificial Intelligence (AI) with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations. To end poverty, protect the environment, and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity by 2030, the SDGs are incorporated into national policies and school curricula. With this, citizens, teachers, and governments alike struggle with strategies on how these goals can be reached by 2030, facing the growing challenges in an ever increasingly complex and insecure world. It is clear that technology will take a dominant role in this development. Based on the STEAM paradigm and the 5E approach of the Biological Sciences Curriculum Study (BSCS), we have developed a pedagogical concept that encompasses both the technological aspects, AI and the SDGs. We tested this concept as part of an on-the-job teacher training project with 60 education science student teachers and 8 teachers in their classrooms, together with their 116 7th grade students and found out that STEAM-based projects with a sixth phase in addition to the 5E approach can be carried out promisingly with the help of digital creativity tools. We found that the 5E model with an additional sixth phase is well suited for bringing STEAM into the classroom.

Harnessing the Four‐Dimensional Ecology Education Framework to redesign an introductory ecology course in a changing higher education landscape

AbstractAs higher education undergoes rapid and fundamental change, eco‐educators need to be prepared to promote the inclusion of the ecological sciences in the biological sciences curriculum of the future. Here, we present an instructional alignment for an introductory ecology course, which is informed by and integrated with the Four‐Dimensional Ecology Education (4DEE) Framework. Our instructional alignment was created collaboratively among faculty involved in teaching the course and emphasizes the relevance and utility of the ecological sciences. We believe that this approach positions the ecological sciences for continued success and inclusion in the biological sciences curriculum of tomorrow.

Development of INoSIT (Integration Nature of Science in Inquiry with Technology) Learning Models to Improve Science Literacy: A Preliminary studies

Has successfully created the INoSIT learning paradigm to increase students' science literacy competency. This design aims to integrate information and communication technology (ICT) with inquiry and nature of science (NoS) models to teach scientific literacy to junior high school students using a multi-representation method. The BSCS 5E model (Involvement of Biological Science Curriculum Study, Exploration, Explanation, Elaboration, and Evaluation) and the IBL model (Investigation-based learning) have many phases whose implementation requires many processes. So, the INoSIT model is designed to simplify multiple phases or sub-phases. As a result, IBL (inquiry-based learning) is ineffective and inefficient in terms of learning time. It is also challenging to teach scientific literacy of abstract concepts using this method. The study employs a descriptive analysis method in conjunction with a literature review pattern. The INoSIT model with the syntax Eliciting, Hypothesis, Testing Hypothesis, Elucidation, and Reflection was created from the results of the investigation of the weaknesses of the BSCS 5E (Biological Science Curriculum Study Engagement, Exploration, Explanation, Elaboration, and Evaluation) and the IBL (Inquiry-based learning) models. To construct students' knowledge of literacy and the study is anticipated to contribute to creativity, originality, and the development of a proclivity for inquiry and research

Resolving the Rules of Robustness and Resilience in Biology Across Scales

Why do some biological systems and communities persist while others fail? Robustness, a system's stability, and resilience, the ability to return to a stable state, are key concepts that span multiple disciplines within and outside the biological sciences. Discovering and applying common rules that govern the robustness and resilience of biological systems is a critical step toward creating solutions for species survival in the face of climate change, as well as the for the ever-increasing need for food, health, and energy for human populations. We propose that network theory provides a framework for universal scalable mathematical models to describe robustness and resilience and the relationship between them, and hypothesize that resilience at lower organization levels contribute to robust systems. Insightful models of biological systems can be generated by quantifying the mechanisms of redundancy, diversity, and connectivity of networks, from biochemical processes to ecosystems. These models provide pathways towards understanding how evolvability can both contribute to and result from robustness and resilience under dynamic conditions. We now have an abundance of data from model and non-model systems and the technological and computational advances for studying complex systems. Several conceptual and policy advances will allow the research community to elucidate the rules of robustness and resilience. Conceptually, a common language and data structure that can be applied across levels of biological organization needs to be developed. Policy advances such as cross-disciplinary funding mechanisms, access to affordable computational capacity, and the integration of network theory and computer science within the standard biological science curriculum will provide the needed research environments. This new understanding of biological systems will allow us to derive ever more useful forecasts of biological behaviors and revolutionize the engineering of biological systems that can survive changing environments or disease, navigate the deepest oceans, or sustain life throughout the solar system.

Mobile App for Science Education: Designing the Learning Approach

This paper reports research work related to a wider study, aimed at developing a mobile app for Science Education in primary-school. Several studies reveal that Science Education can be improved by using technology, namely educational software. However, to promote a structured use of technology, innovative learning approaches must be designed for educational software. This paper aims to answer how the interaction between students and a mobile app for Science Education can promote students’ scientific competences development and self-regulated learning. To achieve this, a learning approach was designed, combining the Universal Design for Learning principles, Inquiry-Based Science Education and the BSCS 5E – teaching model for Science Education designed by the Biological Sciences Curriculum Study, which results in the acronym of the model. The 5E is related to each phase of the model: Engagement; Exploration; Explanation; Elaboration; Evaluation. The proposed was based on a grounded, participatory, and user-centred approach, crossing literature contributions with data collected among primary-school teachers through the application of a questionnaire (n = 118). Data collected allowed deductions about the expected adequacy of the learning approach, according to Nieveen’s criteria for high quality educational interventions. This adequacy was revealed through the teachers’ conceptions about the potential impact of the conceptualized mobile app (i) to provide a comprehensive and practical Science Education learning; and (ii) to enhance students’ scientific competences development and self-regulated learning. The paper aims to contribute to the design of an innovative learning approach in Science Education and to share it with other researchers since it can be expanded to other educational software.

Pivot to online in a post-COVID-19 world: critically applying BSCS 5E to enhance plagiarism awareness of accounting students

ABSTRACT Teaching and assessment practices rapidly moved online as a result of the global coronavirus pandemic. Academic integrity is paramount for the credibility and reputation of educational institutions regardless of their teaching modality. Students commit plagiarism when they copy, borrow, or steal others’ work, without properly acknowledging their source(s). Especially in online environments, accounting students frequently fall prey to plagiarism and, as a result, transgress the fundamental values of integrity and honesty that should be deep-rooted in accountants. It is, therefore, critical that educators increase their students’ plagiarism awareness and understanding. Drawing on the findings of conceptual, literature review-based research, the Biological Sciences Curriculum Study 5E (BSCS 5E) instructional model is applied as a frame of reference for accounting educators to promote their students’ awareness of plagiarism while concomitantly enhancing their twenty-first-century skills. Both theoretical and practical contributions are envisaged through the application of this constructivist, student-centred approach.

Building an authentic cultural curriculum through tertiary cultural dance

This study identified a range of pedagogies developed to promote global citizenship within a university Latin American dance unit. It implemented changes to teaching and learning approaches in the unit using the Biological Sciences Curriculum Study (BSCS) 5E Instructional Model, supporting learning that privileges transcultural connections to Latin America. The action research used a range of dance teaching pedagogies that were adapted, and evaluated, using the Structure of Observed Learning Outcomes (SOLO)Taxonomy, to support a culturally enriched student learning experience. The findings challenge traditional dance teaching pedagogies through meaningful engagements with the local Latin American dance community and a range of student and teacher reflective approaches.

Design and implementation of structural bioinformatics projects for biological sciences undergraduate students.

Contemporary biology is currently undergoing a revolution, driven by the availability of high-throughput technologies and a wide variety of bioinformatics tools. However, bioinformatics education and practice is still in its infancy in most of the African continent. Consequently, concerted efforts have been made in recent years to incorporate bioinformatics modules into biological sciences curriculum of African Universities. Despite this, one aspect of bioinformatics that is yet to be incorporated is structural bioinformatics. In this article, we report on a structural bioinformatics project carried out by final year project students in a Nigerian university. The target protein was the thermoacidophilic Sulfolobus islandicus rod-shaped virus 1 (SIRV1) Rep protein, which was further characterized using various free, user-friendly and online sequence-based and structure-based bioinformatics tools. This exercise gave students the opportunity to generate new data, interpret the data, and acquire collaborative research skills. In this report, emphasis is placed on analysis of the data generated to further encourage analytical skills. By sharing this experience, it is anticipated that other similar institutions would adopt parallel strategies to expose undergraduate students to structural biology, and increase awareness of freely available bioinformatics tools for tackling pertinent biological questions. © 2018 International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, 46(5):547-554, 2018.

Science Teacher Educators’ Engagement with Pedagogical Content Knowledge and Scientific Inquiry in Predominantly Paper-Based Distance Learning Programs

This article focuses on the dilemmas science educators face when having to introduce Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) to science student teachers in a predominantly paper-based distance learning environment. It draws on the premise that science education is bound by the Nature of Science (NOS), and by the Nature of Scientific Inquiry (NOSI). Furthermore, science educators’ own PCK, and the limitations of a predominantly paper-based distance education (DE) model of delivery are challenges that they have to face when introducing PCK and authentic inquiry-based learning experiences. It deprives them and their students from optimal engagement in a science-oriented community of practice, and leaves little opportunity to establish flourishing communities of inquiry. This study carried out a contextual analysis of the tutorial material to assess the PCK that the student teachers had been exposed to. This comprised the ideas of a community of inquiry, a community of science, the conceptualization of PCK, scientific inquiry, and the 5E Instructional Model of the Biological Sciences Curriculum Study. The analysis confirmed that the lecturers had a good understanding of NOS, NOSI and science process skills, but found it difficult to design interventions to optimize the PCK development of students through communities of inquiry. Paper-based tutorials are ideal to share theory, policies and practices, but fail to monitor the engagement of learners in communities of inquiry. The article concludes with a number of suggestions to address the apparent lack of impact power of the paper-based mode of delivery, specifically in relation to inquiry-based teaching and learning (IBTL).

Testing Common Misconceptions about the Nature of Human Racial Variation

Race is a hot-button topic in American society, but one that needs to be addressed in the biological science curriculum. This paper examines how college students in a large introductory course came to understand race through the exploration of four key concepts about the nature of human biological and genetic variation. Using clicker data collected from four courses (n = 296), change in starting and ending understanding of content was compared using paired t-tests and mean difference scores. Results indicate statistically significant improvement in student understanding of common fallacies of the “biological race concept” after a single exposure to content.

The College Science Learning Cycle: An Instructional Model for Reformed Teaching.

Finding the time for developing or locating new class materials is one of the biggest barriers for instructors reforming their teaching approaches. Even instructors who have taken part in training workshops may feel overwhelmed by the task of transforming passive lecture content to engaging learning activities. Learning cycles have been instrumental in helping K-12 science teachers design effective instruction for decades. This paper introduces the College Science Learning Cycle adapted from the popular Biological Sciences Curriculum Study 5E to help science, technology, engineering, and mathematics faculty develop course materials to support active, student-centered teaching approaches in their classrooms. The learning cycle is embedded in backward design, a learning outcomes-oriented instructional design approach, and is accompanied by resources and examples to help faculty transform their teaching in a time-efficient manner.

중등학생들의 과학과 생물에서의 '실험'의 의미에 대한 인식구조 비교

Perception of the experiment is one of the most important factors of students' understanding of scientific inquiry and the nature of science. This study examined the perception of middle and high school students of the meaning of 'experiment' in the biological sciences. Semantic network analysis (SNA) was especially used to visualize students' perception structure in this study. One hundred and ninety middle school students and 200 high school students participated in this study. Students responded to two questions on the meaning of 'experiment' in science and biology. This study constructed four semantic networks based on the collected response. As a result, middle school students about the 'experiment' in science are 'we', 'direct', 'principle' of such words was aware of the experiments from the center to the active side. The high school students' 'theory', 'true', 'information' were recognized as an experiment that explores the process of creating a knowledge center including the word. In addition, middle school students relative to 'experiment' of the creature around the 'dissection', 'body', high school students were recognized as 'life', 'observation' observation activities dealing with the living organisms and recognized as a core. The results of this study will be used as important evidence in the future to map out an experiment in biological science curriculum.

Taking an Attention‐Grabbing “Headlines First!” Approach to Engage Students in a Lecture Setting

AbstractLet's face it. Traditional lectures do not consistently capture our students’ attention, especially when they are PowerPoint‐driven and lack student/instructor interaction. Most of us have had the unfortunate feeling that our students were not fully engaged in our lectures, despite hours of preparation on our part. This sense of “wasted” investment of time can be especially frustrating for pretenure faculty, who must balance teaching, research, extension and administrative (as well as personal) responsibilities in order to be successful. How can we engage students in our course content, given limited time and resources to prepare lecture material and demonstrations? Active learning strategies are a possibility, but shifting courses from a lecture format to problem‐based learning or a flipped format requires a significant time and effort investment from the instructor. Why not start by making lecture more fun and engaging for our students? Storytelling is an effective and efficient means of getting and maintaining our students’ attention and interest during lecture to drive home key points. The BSCS (Biological Sciences Curriculum Study) 5E Instructional Model provides a conceptual framework that emphasizes the primacy of student engagement in science education (Bybee). Our goal here is to provide practical examples and external references to show how “Headlines First!” storytelling can be used effectively to engage students in the science classroom.

Connecting the Hands-on to the Minds-On: A Video Case Analysis of South African Physical Sciences Lessons for Student Thinking

Background:In South Africa, there is a strong curriculum imperative for school science teachers to not only involve learners in practical inquiry activities but also to support students in making a connection between the construction of substantive scientific knowledge to these activities. The research reported in this article investigated the extent to which South African teachers at historically disadvantaged township schools engaged students in the construction of science ideas in inquiry lessons.Materials and methods:To this end, video transcripts of thirty two lessons were analysed and coded using a framework of student thinking lens developed by the Biological Sciences Curriculum Study (BSCS) for the Science Teachers Learning from Lesson Analysis (STeLLA) project. The trends on the teaching features are explicated in the presentation of an in-depth analysis of a chemistry lesson.Results:The findings on the analysis of the thirty two lessons reveal that these teaching features are poorly manifested in the lessons, and it is concluded that teachers only weakly make visible student thinking in inquiry lessons.Conclusions:This research suggests the need for a re-alignment of inquiry-based science education with the development of science ideas.

Evolution of a cross‐institutional asynchronous online 500 level college histology course with interactive lectures and virtual lab component (530.1)

Prior to Spring Semester 2011, the University of South Carolina Biological Sciences curriculum offered only a face‐to‐face histology course where students were required to attend lectures and labs utilizing the microscope. Laboratory space and equipment limited enrollment in the face‐to‐face class which never exceeded 50 consisting mainly of pre‐medical and pre‐dental students. In Spring, 2011, for the first time, we offered a fully online histology course in which all lectures, labs, quizzes and exams were online with no face‐to‐face meetings. Enrollment jumped to 121 in that first semester to include students from more than ten curricular programs across the institution such as anthropology, biochemistry, biomedical sciences and experimental psychology. We now have eight semesters of experience with the course that includes nearly 800 undergraduate, graduate and special certificate program students having completed the course successfully. Lectures have evolved to include SCORM grading of quizzes at the end of each lecture permitting the assignment of viewing lectures as course activity. For the virtual labs, a web based virtual microscopy program is used that contains a collection of over 100 annotated specimens, including two forms of self‐assessment. Recently, we have implemented Biolucida Cloud (MBFbioscience.com) allowing the inclusion of virtual slides in practical exams as unknowns and delivered in random order integrated with Blackboard. Exams have evolved from two attempts with feedback to one attempt with no feedback except the score. Included will be the impact of midterm and final exam construction and administration changes on final grade distribution. The online histology course is now offered year around and remains very popular.Grant Funding Source: Supported by NSF Grant‐1317771

Low Marks for Education Funding Priorities

Anyone involved substantively in science education during the past five decades will see the irony in the decision by the Office and Management and Budget (OMB) to trim the federal government's science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) programs on the grounds that many of them lack evaluation data on efficacy (“An invisible hand behind plan to realign U.S. science education,” J. Mervis, News Focus, 26 July, p. [338][1]). Although federal funding often supported formative evaluation (assessment in the pilot phase to improve the program itself) during the development of new curricula, it was virtually impossible to secure funding for summative evaluation (assessment of effectiveness after implementation) because of the costs and time frames involved. At the Biological Sciences Curriculum Study ([ 1 ][2]), where the value of summative evaluation always has been self-evident, we often lamented that the federal government funded a series of 90-meter dashes, supporting development of new instructional materials but not their evaluation. Funding from the Institute for Education Sciences for efficacy trials ([ 2 ][3]) that provide one type of summative evaluation constitutes some progress, but it is not enough. It is perverse for OMB to blame STEM projects for deficiencies that were inherent in the government's funding priorities. Perhaps an evaluation of those priorities is in order. 1. [↵][4]Biological Sciences Curriculum Study ([www.bscs.org][5]). 2. [↵][6]1. J. K. Spybrook, 2. S. W. Raudenbush , Educ. Eval. Pol. Anal. 31, 298 (2009). [OpenUrl][7][CrossRef][8] [1]: pending:yes [2]: #ref-1 [3]: #ref-2 [4]: #xref-ref-1-1 View reference 1 in text [5]: http://www.bscs.org [6]: #xref-ref-2-1 View reference 2 in text [7]: {openurl}?query=rft.jtitle%253DEduc.%2BEval.%2BPol.%2BAnal.%26rft.volume%253D31%26rft.spage%253D298%26rft_id%253Dinfo%253Adoi%252F10.3102%252F0162373709339524%26rft.genre%253Darticle%26rft_val_fmt%253Dinfo%253Aofi%252Ffmt%253Akev%253Amtx%253Ajournal%26ctx_ver%253DZ39.88-2004%26url_ver%253DZ39.88-2004%26url_ctx_fmt%253Dinfo%253Aofi%252Ffmt%253Akev%253Amtx%253Actx [8]: /lookup/external-ref?access_num=10.3102/0162373709339524&link_type=DOI

Infusing quantitative approaches throughout the biological sciences curriculum

A major curriculum redesign effort at the University of Maryland is infusing all levels of our undergraduate biological sciences curriculum with increased emphasis on interdisciplinary connections and quantitative approaches. The curriculum development efforts have largely been guided by recommendations in the National Research Council's Bio 2010 report and have resulted in revisions to courses in biology, mathematics, and physics over a period of 10 years. Important components of this effort included (1) developing online modules to infuse more mathematical content into six biology courses taken by biological sciences majors during their first 2 years of study; (2) strengthening the interdisciplinary connections of ancillary courses in mathematics and physics to support the development of quantitative skills in biological contexts; and (3) creating more quantitatively intensive courses for the final 2 years of the bachelors of science programme. These efforts, carried out by a large, multidisciplinary team of faculty, have resulted in increased coherence in the undergraduate biological sciences curriculum, increased quantitative skills in first- and second-year students, and a greater appreciation among graduates for the essential relationship between mathematics and modern biology.