High School Biology Classes Research Articles

Improving Students' Fluent and Flexible Thinking Skills through the Problem-Based Learning (PBL) Model Based on Technological Pedagogical and Content Knowledge (TPACK) in High School Biology Classes

Improving Students' Fluent and Flexible Thinking Skills through the Problem-Based Learning (PBL) Model Based on Technological Pedagogical and Content Knowledge (TPACK) in High School Biology Classes

Enhancing Biology Education through Hydroponics: A Practical Approach in High School Classes

Hydroponics, the practice of growing plants without soil, presents an engaging method for teaching biology. By visually demonstrating essential plant biology concepts and sustainable agricultural techniques, hydroponics provides students with an interactive learning experience. This study explores the integration of hydroponics into high school biology curricula, assessing its influence on student engagement, understanding of plant science, and practical skills. The findings reveal that students show greater curiosity and enthusiasm for biology through exposure to hydroponics, understand complex biological processes more effectively, and develop critical scientific inquiry skills through hands-on experimentation. However, challenges include the initial investment required for implementation, the need for consistent care and monitoring, and the necessity for specialized training for educators to effectively incorporate hydroponics into their lessons. While hydroponics offers significant potential, further research is needed to explore its scalability across different educational settings. Refining implementation strategies will make hydroponics a more accessible and valuable tool for high school biology classes.

Designing Effective Instructional Feedback Using a Diagnostic and Visualization System: Evidence from a High School Biology Class

Although instructional feedback plays an essential role in regulating learning and improving performance, few studies have systematically investigated the needs of teachers and students for instructional feedback systems or developed designs and experiments, especially at the high school level. To address this research need, the present study investigated the needs of selected students and teachers in a high school in Hubei Province, China, and designed and developed a diagnostic visual feedback system for an experimental study with 125 students from a 10th-grade biology class in the same high school. The results showed that this diagnostic visual feedback report improved student performance (ES = 0.37) and that functions such as misconception location, knowledge diagnosis, and knowledge alert were well received by students. These findings have multiple implications for facilitating the design and development of diagnostic visual feedback systems.

Identification of Ferns (Pteridophyta) in the Indrokilo Botanical Garden, Boyolali Regency, as a Resource for High School Biology Learning on Biodiversity

Indonesia is a country with high biodiversity, both flora and fauna. Biodiversity is an important wealth for life and serves as an indicator of the ecological system and a means of detecting changes in species. Identification of ferns (Pteridophyta) was carried out because the Indrokilo Boyolali Botanical Gardens are very supportive for research and have not been clearly identified and used as a source of learning biology. This study aims to identify the types of ferns (Pteridophyta) in Indrokilo Botanical Garden, Kemiri Village, Mojosongo District, Boyolali Regency which is used as a learning resource on Biodiversity material in tenth grade. The method used was exploration research. Data collection is done by exploring, the results are identified using google lens, then used as a learning resource by adjusting the high school syllabus and data analysis using description analysis. The analyzed research report can be used as a learning resource. Research in Indrokilo Boyolali Botanical Garden obtained 31 species of ferns (Pteridophyta) consisting of 14 families namely, Pteridaceae, Polypodiaceae, Dryopteridaceae, Thelypteridaceae, Dennstaedtiaceae, Woodsiaceae, Aspleniaceae, Marattiaceae, Selaginellaceae, Cyatheaceae, Dicksoniaceae, Lygodiaceae, Ophioglossaceae, and Equisetaceae. Through the analysis of the research report, it can be used as a learning resource for high school biology class ten, the material of Biodiversity on KD 3.2 Analyze the various levels of biodiversity in Indonesia. So that the report of the results of this study can be used as additional examples of the level of species-level diversity at the species-level diversity in biodiversity.

Exploring high school biology students’ discussions of multi-genre texts

ABSTRACT While expository texts are an efficient and dominant genre used by science teachers in the United States, they generally lack justification for their claims and fail to reflect science as practice. In contrast, epistemically considerate texts detail specific scientific experiments, providing the reader insight into the methods and data of a biological discovery. This multi-case exploratory comparison analysed videos of students in introductory and advanced high school biology classes who individually read and then discussed the main ideas, sources of justification, and questions raised expository and alternate biology texts. Videos of eight class periods were analysed with a focus on the types of statements students made during the discussion, points of comprehension, questions posed, and whether and how students identified sources of justification for the texts’ claims. The epistemically considerate texts were perceived as more difficult to comprehend, but for both developmental levels, and particularly for students in the advanced class, these alternate texts elicited more sequences of productive talk and more elaborative, cognitively deep questions, particularly related to the practices of science. We discuss the potential implications for developing complementary sets of texts to optimise students’ science learning and link elements of genre to students’ reading and discussion experiences.

Effect of Project Based Learning (PJBL) Learning Model on Creative Thinking Ability of High School Biology Students: A Literature Review

Education is an effort made by the government to create an atmosphere in the learning process for students to be active in building their potential. In the educational process, students are expected to have religious values, be able to control themselves, personality, intelligent, intellectual, moral, and skilled. Students in schools are asked to have 21st-century skills, namely the appearance known as "4C", one of which is creative thinking skills. To realize this, the role of teachers in schools is needed as educators. In the learning process, the learning model needs to be considered by a teacher for the learning objectives to be achieved. The learning model is (Project Based Learning) which reveals whether the learning model influences the creative thinking of high school biology students, researchers conduct literature reviews related to this. The method in this study is a literature review method, namely analyzing relevant articles with a descriptive type qualitative approach by including the keywords "Project Based Learning" and "creative thinking ability". The result of this literature review is that the PJBL (Project Based Learning) learning model has a significant effect on the ability to think in high school biology class students. In addition to the syntax of the PJBL (Project Based Learning) model which can require students to solve problems in the form of projects so that students can think creatively, other things also support the use of the PJBL (Project Based Learning) learning model such as the use of interesting media-assisted or the use of supporting student worksheets.

SEXO/GÊNERO NA CONSTITUIÇÃO DE NORMAS SOCIAIS DE CONSTRUÇÃO DO CONHECIMENTO EM AULAS DE BIOLOGIA

ABSTRACT: In science education, several authors have pointed out the importance of thinking about how sex/gender can be incorporated into research and teaching in order to overcome inequalities. Taking high school biology classes as a context, we analyzed the interactions of a group of students to understand how sex/gender influences the social norms of knowledge construction. We found evidence that indicates an imbalance in the moderate equality of group members, with cis boys’ contributions being more valued. The use of public analysis standards ensured the visibility and acceptance of cis girls’ arguments. We discuss how the recognition that the social norms of construction of knowledge in the classroom are influenced by sex/gender and how it can contribute to research on epistemic learning, as well as assist teachers in establishing practices that contribute to constructing an equitable environment for epistemic learning.

Habitat Utilization by Long-Tailed Monkeys (Macaca fascicularis) in Gunung Palung National Park as a Biology Learning Resource

One of the most distributed primate species in Gunung Palung National Park is the long-tailed monkey (Macaca fascicularis). This study aims to determine habitat characteristics, daily activities, use of habitat as a source of food by long-tailed monkeys, and potential use of habitat by long-tailed monkeys in Gunung Palung National Park as a source of learning biology. The study was conducted using the observation method with focal animal sampling data collection techniques in two transects. The results show that the habitat characteristics have a position that is not far from the watershed (watershed) and belongs to the alluvial forest area. The vegetation condition is dominated by trees from the Angiospermae sub-division which is divided into 12 families. The result of the frequency of resting activity is the highest daily activity among the 4 types of activity observed, which is 48 times. While the plant species that became the highest source of diet trees was Blumeodendron tokbrai, with a percentage of 55.56%. Judging from the results of 7 respondents who came from high school teachers in North Kayong Regency, Gunung Palung National Park was suitable as a learning resource. The requirements of learning resources, namely clarity of potential, conformity with learning objectives, the accuracy of targets, clarity of exploration guidelines, and clarity of expected gains, the results of the study on Habitat Utilization by Long-Tailed Monkeys in Gunung Palung National Park in achieving basic competencies in the spatial material scope of biology, various levels of biodiversity, plants, and materials ecology can be used as a learning resource for high school biology class X

Including visual representations within senior high school biology assessment: Considerations of grammatical complexity

AbstractThis paper analyses the opportunities for presenting knowledge that are created when assessment allows senior high school biology students to draw on linguistic and visual resources when constructing meaning in response to short‐answer examination‐style questions requiring a sequential explanation. Students within one senior high school biology class were given the opportunity to respond to an examination‐style question through both written and visual representations. Analysis of the student responses for high and middle‐achieving students, from a systemic functional linguistics perspective, indicates that high‐achieving students use a broader range of grammatical forms more often than middle‐achieving students to present key understandings of classification and composition within both written and visual representations. Including opportunities within assessment for students to express knowledge through written and visual representations allows for students to elaborate within their short‐answer responses and to construct the broader range of representations that is valued within the discipline, but explicit guidance is required to support all students to make use of the complex grammatical patterns within written and visual representation. For senior high school biology students to be successful in the final stages of schooling, explicitness about the complex grammars of visual and written representations is required within curriculum and pedagogy.

Attitudes Toward Animal Dissection and Animal-Free Alternatives Among High School Biology Teachers in Switzerland

Animal dissection has been a traditional teaching tool in biology for centuries. However, harmful animal use in education has raised ethical and environmental concerns in the last decades and led to an ongoing debate about the role and importance of animal dissection in teaching across all education levels. To understand the current status of dissection in secondary education and the attitudes toward humane teaching alternatives among the educators, I conducted a survey–for the first time–among high school biology teachers in Switzerland. The specific aims of this study were (i) to explore the extent of animal or animal parts dissection in high school biology classes, (ii) to understand the attitudes and experiences of high school biology teachers toward dissection and animal-free alternatives, and (iii) to gain some insight into the circumstances hindering a wider uptake of alternatives to animal dissection in high school education. In total, 76 teachers participated in the online survey. The vast majority (97%) of the participants reported using animal dissection in their classes. The responses also revealed that a large proportion of the teachers consider animal-free alternatives inferior teaching tools in comparison with dissection. As the obstacles to adopting alternatives were most often listed the lack of time to research other methods, high costs, and peer pressure. In conclusion, the wider uptake of humane teaching methods would require financial support as well as a shift in the attitudes of high school biology teachers.

ISOLASI DAN IDENTIFIKASI JAMUR MIKROSKOPIS PADA AMPAS SAGU (Metroxylon sagu Rottb.) SEBAGAI SUMBER BELAJAR BIOLOGI SMA

This study aims to isolate and identify the microscopic fungi found in sago pulp (Metroxylon sagu Rottb). The results of this study were used as a learning resource for high school biology class X on fungi. This research is a descriptive study that aims to obtain isolates of microscopic fungi isolated from sago pulp (Metroxylon sagu Rottb). After the microscopic fungi isolates were found, the identification process was carried out. The results of the identification of microscopic fungi were used as a source of high school biology learning in the form of LKPD and then tested the validity of the LKPD. The results showed that the type of microscopic fungi found in sago pulp (Metroxylon sagu Rottb) was from the Ascomycetes class, especially the Eurotiales order with the species name Aspergillus sp. and the learning resource is declared valid with a CVI value of 1.00 so it is suitable to be used as a source of learning biology on fungi in class X high school.

Laying the Foundation

When John Freshwater, who taught eighth-grade science in Mount Vernon, Ohio, was fired in 2011, it was in part because he was presenting to his students what he described as evidence for and against evolution—which was, in fact, creationist propaganda. In doing so, he flouted not only the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the Constitution but also the directives of his district administration and the guidance of professional organizations such as the National Association of Biology Teachers (NABT). The NABT rightly describes evolution as “a necessary part of teaching biology” that “should be a major theme throughout the life science curriculum,” while rejecting calls for creationism to be presented as part of the science curriculum.It would be comforting to think that the Mount Vernon situation was a rare aberration—especially because middle school science teachers play a huge, though often unappreciated, role in evolution education. Although typically presented most thoroughly in high school biology classes, evolution usually appears first in middle school life and earth science classes, where it serves as a vital foundation for future learning. Natural selection, adaptation, and evolution itself are mentioned, and multiple lines of evidence for evolution are introduced, at the middle school level in the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and in the state science standards of a majority of states. But what are middle school science teachers in fact teaching about the status of evolution? Are middle schools inundated by Freshwaters?Fortunately, no. According to a new study published in Evolution: Education and Outreach, based on a national representative survey of public school science teachers conducted by researchers at the National Center for Science Education (NCSE) and Penn State University, a solid majority—82%—of middle school science teachers who teach evolution agreed that they emphasize the scientific consensus on evolution, a figure reassuringly comparable to the 86% of high school biology teachers who do the same. Yet the middle school science teachers were substantially less likely than their high school counterparts to conform to NABT’s recommendation of emphasizing the scientific consensus on evolution while not presenting creationism as a scientifically credible alternative, as shown in Figure 1.The disparity is plausibly in part due to a lack of knowledge about the scientific consensus on evolution, for understanding that there is a well-founded and evidence-based scientific consensus on evolution is a prerequisite to presenting it accurately and confidently. The survey asked, “To the best of your knowledge, what proportion of scientists think that humans and other living things have evolved over time?” The actual proportion, according to a 2014 survey of members of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, is 98%. But only 55% of middle school science teachers responding to the survey selected the correct range of 81–100%, as opposed to 71% of high school biology teachers.That lack of knowledge in turn is likely to reflect middle school science teachers’ lack of knowledge about evolution in general. Of course, some are highly knowledgeable, such as Bertha Vazquez, a middle school teacher in Miami who directs the Teacher Institute for Evolutionary Science, a project aimed at equipping middle and elementary teachers to present evolution effectively. Her efforts to promote middle school evolution education won her NABT’s Evolution Education Award in 2017. But teachers like Vazquez are in the minority at the middle school level. Indeed, in the survey, 42% of middle school science teachers reported having no preservice or in-service coursework covering evolution whatsoever, as compared to only 19% of high school biology teachers.Improvements in middle school evolution education are on the horizon, thanks to improvements in the treatment of evolution in state science standards. A previous study by the NCSE / Penn State team found that the adoption of the NGSS was significantly associated with a shift between 2007 and 2019 among high school biology teachers toward conforming to NABT’s recommendation of emphasizing the scientific consensus on evolution without presenting creationism as a scientifically credible alternative. And while earlier data on middle school science teachers are not available, the new study also found that in 2019, middle school science teachers in states that have adopted the NGSS were significantly more likely to conform to NABT’s recommendation.Yet improvements in the treatment of evolution in state science standards are not enough. To realize the potential for improvement in evolution education in the middle school science classroom, these teachers must receive the support they need to teach evolution effectively. That includes appropriate preservice and in-service coursework, both in evolution and in effective evolution pedagogy; instructional material that reflect the scientific consensus on evolution in engaging and effective ways; and the support of their colleagues and their professional organizations. For it is just as true in middle school as it is in high school that nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution.

Critical Reflection in Science Teaching and Learning: Crossing Borders into Western Science

Critical reflection enables humans to come to an awareness of how ideologies shape beliefs and practices that justify and maintain global economic and political inequity, explaining how subjugated people get convinced to embrace dominant ideologies as always being in their own best interests. Cultural change and adjustment is imminent in Africa as the waves of globalization sweep through, and science teachers need to develop correct frames of thinking to make sense of science teaching and learning. Serving and prospective teachers need to construct methods and purposes which reflect their own lived experiences and rationales for professionalism. This paper reports on a research study that sought to demystify western science through critical reflection, encouraging developing country cultures to use the science as their own tool for cultural progressiveness. It discusses the value of engagement by science educators and learners from non-western backgrounds in serious intellectual dialogues concerning their classroom practice on one hand, and their own feelings and thoughts about this practice gained from previous learnings and experiences, on the other. The paper draws from a qualitative case study carried out in a high school biology class in Zimbabwe. Insights from this study underscore the gains to science teachers and learners who engage themselves in self-initiated personal and methodological reflection on their pedagogical encounters. The microcosm of learnings from such reflection should promote transferrable learning to address short and long term life goals including personal welfare, ambition, heritage, and destinies of future generations.

Catholic Reader's Bible: The Four Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles, and: Catholic Reader's Bible: The Epistles and Revelation

Reviewed by: Catholic Reader's Bible: The Four Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles, and: Catholic Reader's Bible: The Epistles and Revelation Ryan Patrick Budd Catholic Reader's Bible: The Four Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles Manchester, NH: Sophia Institute Press, 2020 xvii + 346 pages. Hardback. $24.95. Catholic Reader's Bible: The Epistles and Revelation Manchester, NH: Sophia Institute Press, 2020 xvii + 301 pages. Hardback. $24.95. This delightful, durable, finely printed edition of the New Testament offers readers something they almost never experience: the ability to read the Scriptures more or less the way they were written. For perhaps the chapter-and-verse arrangement has become so deeply ingrained in the minds of many that we forget that John did not write the number "16" before he wrote "for God so loved the world." That is to say, these little volumes do not have chapter and verse numbers embedded in the text; instead, the text is arranged in sentences and paragraphs, in the classic and reliable Confraternity translation. Readers can, thereby, encounter Scripture as a living document, rather than something that has been stultified; the difference, for those who will appreciate it, is like that between a living frog versus one diagramed on the board for a high-school biology class. For ease of cross-referencing with a Bible that has the numerical annotations we have come to expect, the top margin contains the chapter-and-verse range of the text on each page. I first became aware of the Bible being presented this way through the magnificent little volume It is Paul Who Writes, where the Acts of the Apostles and the letters of Paul are printed without chapter-and-verse annotation, side-by-side with a commentary.3 The encounter with the text as such did a great deal to enflame my love of Scripture, as I had thus encountered it in a whole new way. Not only does this present a unique opportunity for the pious reader who perhaps finds it hard to read through a New Testament book because of the meticulous division of the text into verses; it [End Page 153] also presents an opportunity for more careful readers to discern the structure and the deeper message of the text. For the original copies—writing at the time being an expensive operation, and space on the page being at a premium—were without punctuation and even without paragraph breaks. And yet, if John Breck's conclusions are correct, the authors of ancient texts accomplished the same effect as modern punctuation and paragraph breaks by means of verbal cues, chief among which were inclusio and chiasm.4 Hence, in answer to the question how to break the epistles of Paul down into modern paragraphs, one looks to the text itself. Happily—to this reader of God's holy word—the paragraph choices seem to have been made with this in mind. While more learned readers might be able to quibble with some if not many of the choices (I leave this for them to do), I was able to derive great profit from them. Take, as one brief example, Romans 6:1–11 (Epistles and Revelation, 16–17). A careful reading will recognize both an inclusio and indeed a full chiasm at work, thus framing the paragraph precisely the way the original hearers of the epistle-homily would have heard it. A book review is not the place to show the work leading to such a conclusion; it is enough to note that the resultant chiasmus, if recognized, allows one to easily understand the notoriously difficult verse 7 (ὁ γὰρ ἀποθανὼν δεδικαίωται ἀπὸ τῆς ἁμαρτίας, translated "for he who is dead is acquitted of sin"), which is near the heart of the chiasm. This verse is shown to be part two of a parallelism, part one of which is the beginning of verse 6 (τοῦτο γινώσκοντες, ὅτι ὁ παλαιὸς ἡμῶν ἄνθρωπος συνεσταυρώθη, translated "for we know that our old self has been crucified with him"). Hence, according to Breck's exposition of biblical language, and especially what he terms the "what's more" principle of parallelism, verse 7 is a heightened repetition of those words from verse 6: "he who is dead" thus seems to...

Bioinformatics-Based Activities in High School: Fostering Students' Literacy, Interest, and Attitudes on Gene Regulation, Genomics, and Evolution.

The key role of bioinformatics in explaining biological phenomena calls for the need to rethink didactic approaches at high school aligned with a new scientific reality. Despite several initiatives to introduce bioinformatics in the classroom, there is still a lack of knowledge on their impact on students’ learning gains, engagement, and motivation. In this study, we detail the effects of four bioinformatics laboratories tailored for high school biology classes named “Mining the Genome: Using Bioinformatics Tools in the Classroom to Support Student Discovery of Genes” on literacy, interest, and attitudes on 387 high school students. By exploring these laboratories, students get acquainted with bioinformatics and acknowledge that many bioinformatics tools can be intuitive for beginners. Furthermore, introducing comparative genomics in their learning practices contributed for a better understanding of curricular contents regarding the identification of genes, their regulation, and how to make evolutionary assumptions. Following the intervention, students were able to pinpoint bioinformatics tools required to identify genes in a genomics sequence, and most importantly, they were able to solve genomics-related misconceptions. Overall, students revealed a positive attitude regarding the integration of bioinformatics-based approaches in their learning practices, reinforcing their added value in educational approaches.

Análise das imagens de história da vida em livros didáticos de biologia do ensino médio

O curso de Licenciatura em Ciências Biológicas deve possibilitar aos licenciandos a compreensão de como a vida se organizou durante o tempo, implicando na compreensão dos mecanismos evolutivos como eixo integrador da formação inicial docente. Diante disso, a história mostra que desde que o homem começou a se questionar acerca da origem dos primeiros seres vivos, ideias de cunho mitológico, filosófico, religioso e científico foram esboçadas e ganharam enorme espaço nas discussões acerca da História da Vida (HV). Essas discussões estão presentes nas aulas de Biologia do Ensino Médio, muitas vezes reverberando em explicações miscigenadas que dificultam a apropriação do conhecimento biológico. Em nossa investigação, consideramos a HV como um tópico de ensino da Evolução Biológica (EB), por dizer respeito aos processos macroevolutivos responsáveis pelo surgimento dos grandes grupos de seres vivos. Diante do exposto, o objetivo desta pesquisa é verificar o papel didático das imagens relacionadas à HV presentes nos LD de Biologia do Ensino Médio aprovados na edição de 2018 do Programa Nacional do Livro Didático (PNLD-2018). Nessa perspectiva optamos pelo uso de um instrumento analítico, construído a partir de referenciais de análise semiótica, para compreender os aspectos imagéticos acerca do assunto HV no material investigado. Dessa forma, verificamos que a maioria das imagens analisadas pode ser classificada como inoperante, ou seja, sem nenhuma funcionalidade além da pura observação. Nesse aspecto, pesa o fato de que as imagens têm sido cada vez mais utilizadas nos LD a fim de melhorar a compreensão dos conteúdos conceituais da Biologia. Assim, para que os conteúdos imagéticos consigam atender às demandas esperadas por eles no processo de ensino-aprendizagem, novas investigações neste âmbito precisam ser realizadas.

Inventory Of Spermatophyta Of Tanjung Setia Krui Beach Vegetation As A Source Of Biological Learning

The objectives of the study were: 1) to determine the types of high-level plants that make up the coastal vegetation in Tanjung Setia Krui Beach, 2) to determine the diversity and dominance of high-level plants at Tanjung Setia Krui Beach, 3) to determine the results of research on the inventory of high-level vegetation on Tanjung Setia Krui Beach to be used as a source of learning biology in high school in the form of an encyclopedia. This research method is sampling using purposive sampling method with a plots. The higher plants that were found were then identified in that place. The results showed that 20 species from 12 families. Family Hydrocaritaceae, Family Potamogetonaceae, Family Convolvulaceae, Family Poaceae, Family Arecaceae, Family Pandanaceae, Family Combretaceae, Family Asteraceae, Family Malvaceae, Family Portulaceae, Family Leguminosae, Family Lecythidaceae. The three stations have a value of 1≤H'≤3 which means that they show moderate diversity. The conclusion of this study is that the inventory of high-level plants that makes up coastal vegetation at Tanjung Setia Krui Beach was used as a learning resources for high school biology class X on Biodiversity material in the form of an Encyclopedia.

First person profile: Dennis J. Slamon, MD, PhD: Dr. Slamon's pioneering work helped lead to the breakthrough breast cancer drug trastuzumab, which has saved and extended the lives of millions of patients.

First person profile: Dennis J. Slamon, MD, PhD: Dr. Slamon's pioneering work helped lead to the breakthrough breast cancer drug trastuzumab, which has saved and extended the lives of millions of patients.

Review: Bird of Prey

Normally, showing a full-length film is no substitute for instruction, but the new film Bird of Prey showcases so many environmental science themes within an interesting and captivating context that it can be highly recommended for upper-level high school biology or environmental science classes as a case study of concepts. It covers such themes as conservation, evolution, extinction, and environmental justice. These ideas are somewhat complex, so younger students might not understand their importance.Showcasing footage from award-winning cinematographer Neil Rettig (best known for his work on Nature, The Living Planet, and National Geographic Explorer), “Bird of Prey” promotes the plight of the Philippine Eagle – the most highly endangered eagle species in the world. Impacted by habitat loss and increased human interactions, the Philippine Eagle is so adorable that students can't help but be captivated by its comical expressions. In addition, footage of cityscapes, classrooms, and village life provide an interesting glimpse into the Philippine culture.Furthermore, because the film was produced by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, it aligns with the lab's long-standing devotion to protection and conservation of bird species. Bird of Prey chronicles conservation efforts, such as the successful hatching of an eaglet in a captive breeding program, and also attempts to locate and document a hatchling in the wild. This could serve as a great starting point for discussions related to habitat vs. species-centric conservation, benefits and drawbacks of captive breeding programs, or conservation of K- versus r-selected species.Using Bird of Prey as a case study of environmental justice was overlooked in the film's promotional materials and is never overtly mentioned in the film. Nevertheless, it is a perfect kickstarter for a discussion about demographic transition, stewardship, and sustainability. Sharing the historical context of slash-and-burn farming and the impact of innovation on commercial forestry, the film does an excellent job of describing the interplay between society, policy, and the environment.Bird of Prey is available to rent ($4.99) or buy ($12.99) on Amazon, iTunes, and Vimeo. All proceeds will be used by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology to support continued avian conservation efforts. Teachers will be happy to know that a few educator resources can be found in the lab's K–12 Education library at http://www.birds.cornell.edu/k12/an-eagles-feather/.

A Project-Based Biology Unit: Star Athlete Collapses on the Football Field

Students in a high school biology class were introduced to the case of “Marcus” (a pseudonym), a high school football player who collapsed on the football field during a game and was rushed to the emergency room with various symptoms. Throughout the two-week, project-based unit, students worked in cooperative groups to diagnose Marcus, learning about various inherited diseases and heat-related ailments that might impact young athletes. This unit integrates ultrasound technology into the classroom as a teaching and diagnostic technique and introduces students to health science careers. Student groups work to produce a final product that is presented to a public audience (e.g., parents, teachers, coaches) to increase their awareness of the science content underlying the causes of sudden collapses in young athletes. This learning experience ended with students individually writing a letter to Marcus's family explaining his diagnosis and the related biology concepts.