High School Biology Classrooms Research Articles

(Re)Searching Critical Thinking in a Hong Kong Classroom: A Postfoundational Reflection on Ignorant Modernity

Purpose This article takes a postfoundational lens to reflect upon my ethnographic (re)searching experience in a Hong Kong high school biology classroom to expose ignorant theoretical–methodological assumptions of researchers and teachers on critical thinking for new realizations. Design/Approach/Methods Using an encountered embodied thinking moment as a trigger, this article examines the texts/discourses collected from teachers/teaching and students/learning to unpack underlying philosophical–theoretical–methodological traps and ignorance. Findings The analysis exposes three ignorant assumptions. First is a mind–body dualism that has historically disembodied thinking as an abstract and invisible mind/cognitive activity. Second is a knowledge–skill/thinking divide that upgrades critical thinking as a transferrable higher-order skill above and external to knowledge. Third is a naturalized assumption that didactic instructions in Asian classrooms are not as conducive to thinking cultivation as (Western) student-centered pedagogies. Originality/Value My postfoundational reflections interrogate and expand these philosophical–theoretical–methodological grounds to reconstruct effective thinking curricula and classrooms.

Design and implementation of an AI‐enabled visual report tool as formative assessment to promote learning achievement and self‐regulated learning: An experimental study

AbstractFormative assessment is essential for improving teaching and learning, and AI and visualization techniques provide great potential for its design and delivery. Using NLP, cognitive diagnostic and visualization techniques designed to analyse and present students' monthly exam data, we developed an AI‐enabled visual report tool comprising six modules and conducted an empirical study of its effectiveness in a high school biology classroom. A total of 125 students in a ninth‐grade biology course were assigned to a treatment group (n = 63) receiving AI‐enabled visual reports as the intervention and a control group (n = 62) receiving overall oral feedback from the teacher. We present the main statistical results of the within‐subjects design and the between‐subjects design respectively, to better capture the main findings. Repeated measures ANOVA revealed a significant interaction effect of intervention and time on learning achievement, and the paired‐sample Wilcoxon test indicated that the treatment group had experienced increasing learning anxiety (Cohen's d = 0.203, p = 0.046) and self‐efficacy (Cohen's d = 1.793, p = 0.000) over time. Moreover, we conducted a series of non‐parametric tests to compare the effects of AI‐enabled visual reports and teacher feedback, but found no significant differences except for an increased self‐efficacy (Cohen's d = 0.312, p = 0.046). Additionally, we had the students in the treatment group rate their favourable modules in the AI‐enabled visual report and provide evaluative feedback. The study results provide important insights into the design and implementation of effective formative assessment supported by artificial AI and visualization techniques. Practitioner notesWhat is already known about this topic Formative assessment is essential for improving teaching and learning. Traditional formative assessment tools lack accurate data‐oriented assessment and usability. AI and visualization techniques have great potential for formative assessment. What this paper adds This study designs and implements an AI‐enabled visual report tool that generates data‐driven, user‐friendly reports. The AI‐enabled visual report can not only enhance students' learning achievement and self‐regulated learning over time but also increase their test anxiety. The AI‐enabled visual report has a comparable effect with teacher feedback but leads to increased self‐efficacy. Implications for practice and/or policy We recommend using the AI‐enabled visual report in large‐size classes for its overall positive effects on both learning achievement and self‐regulated learning. We recommend using the AI‐enabled visual report over teacher feedback for its capacity to enhance students' self‐efficacy. We recommend prioritizing the modules of Performance Ranking, Personal Mastery and Knowledge Alert when designing the AI‐enabled visual report.

Exploration of the Occurrence and Practice Path of Deep Learning in High School Biology Classroom—Taking “Gene-Guided Protein Synthesis” as an Example

Exploration of the Occurrence and Practice Path of Deep Learning in High School Biology Classroom—Taking “Gene-Guided Protein Synthesis” as an Example

Exploration on the Effectiveness of “Life-Oriented” Teaching in High School Biology Classroom

Exploration on the Effectiveness of “Life-Oriented” Teaching in High School Biology Classroom

A study on the challenges and strategies of cultivating students' core literacy in high school biology classroom

A study on the challenges and strategies of cultivating students' core literacy in high school biology classroom

‘But, is it supposed to be a straight line?’ Scaffolding students’ experiences with pressure sensors and material resistance in a high school biology classroom

ABSTRACT This case study examines how material resistance (limitations posed by the physical world) and graph interpretation intersected during a high school biology investigation using digital sensors. We use an extended episode from a small group to illustrate how, in an inquiry-based unit, measuring near the resolution limit of a sensor caused scaling issues in graphs. Qualitative videotape analysis focuses on both the students’ attempts to make sense of a perceived lack of variation in the collected data and the teacher's and classroom researchers’ misinterpretation of the students’ difficulties with graph interpretation. We suggest that these educators, though experienced, could have benefited from additional strategies to help them recognise and respond to graph interpretation issues introduced by digital representations of real-world data, and that the students could have benefited from explicit prompts to discuss the limitations of their equipment. We describe several implications for researchers, teachers, and curriculum developers interested in implementing inquiry-based biology investigations using sensor data. We argue that students should be supported to recognise that encountering unexpected results from their investigations and working to understand what these results have to say about the real world is an important and valid part of the practice of real science.

Introducing high school biology students to biochemistry with a short, content-oriented module.

Many STEM disciplines are underrepresented to High School students. This is problematic as many students' decisions for college are shaped by their experiences and achievements in high school. Short content-oriented modules have been shown to encourage science identity and otherwise benefit the students' learning. Following the ASBMB's outreach protocol, we developed a short content-oriented module aimed at a high school biology classroom. Students interacted with 3D models of DNA and transcription factors while exploring structure-function relationships and introductory biochemistry topics. The high school teacher was impressed with the students' response to the module, specifically the ease with which students learned, their enthusiasm, and their recall of the experience. We provide all materials necessary to use this module, including student worksheet and printable model coordinates. We encourage both high school instructors and professional biochemists to consider similar module using physical models.

Integrating Authentic Neuroscience Research into the High School Biology Curriculum

BrainWaves is a Next Generation Science Standards-aligned neuroscience curriculum that allows high school students to develop and test original research questions related to how their brain helps them learn and form new memories. This article discusses the benefits and challenges associated with conducting authentic research in the high school biology classroom. This program was found to strengthen students’ content knowledge and self-efficacy in research, particularly among female and minority students who are often underrepresented in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Such positive student outcomes may be emulated in similarly designed curricula that prioritize student-centered anchoring phenomena and authentic research. The BrainWaves curriculum is available at https://brainwaves.education.uconn.edu.

The Application Status, Principles and Strategies of Situation Creation in High School Biology

The "General High School Biology Curriculum Standards (2017 Edition, 2020 Revision)" requires teachers to learn to use real-life materials for teaching, to present the curriculum content in a situational manner, and to lay a solid foundation for students’ lifelong development. By investigating the current application of scenario creation in high school biology classroom teaching, it was found that teachers have a one-sided understanding of scenario creation and there are misconceptions in their teaching use. Students’ learning methods are not flexible enough, their autonomous learning ability is weak, and classroom learning efficiency is low. Therefore, teachers should follow the principles of objectivity, authenticity, emotion, and development when creating situations. Teachers can use pictures, videos, life phenomena, explore practice, and create scenarios through research cases. This article analyzes the current application status of scenario creation and develops a set of principles and strategies for scenario creation, which can provide reference and inspiration for biology teachers in frontline high schools.

Blood Sugar Balance

Blood Sugar Balance (BSB) is an accessible web-based game, created as an extension of our federally funded type 2 diabetes curriculum for high school biology classrooms. Modeling of complex systems and diseases, like metabolism and type 2 diabetes (T2D), is especially difficult and deeply impactful when executed in an engaging way. Blood Sugar Balance integrates environmental factors, biological factors, and personal choices to model glucose metabolism and understand the impact and risk factors for type 2 diabetes. Players earn points during gameplay by ensuring their game character maintains healthy blood glucose levels throughout the play period by regulating them. Players must make choices about food, exercise, and the release of hormones from the pancreas to manage blood glucose levels. Game settings can model the stages of type 2 diabetes as well as environmental factors that limit access to food, exercise, and health care options. Gameplay is fast and engaging, allowing exploration of factors that impact the final score. For example, how might accessibility to insulin impact the final score while playing at the type 2 diabetes setting? Here we describe the development of Blood Sugar Balance and the integration of data analysis into the accompanying NGSS-aligned lesson plan.

Addressing Sustainability in the High School Biology Classroom through Socioscientific Issues

The Science Education Program for Public Understanding System (SEPUP) at the Lawrence Hall of Science at the University of California, Berkeley, recently redesigned its high school biology program, Science and Global Issues, which is centered around sustainability-related socioscientific issues. The goal of this work was to fill a gap in standards-based, sustainability-themed high school biology curricula. Curriculum developers began the redesign process by asking the question: What does it look like for students to think about sustainability/sustainable development in the context of operationalized goals for sustainability (such as the UN Sustainable Development Goals) while also allowing them to be successful in meeting rigorous science standards (in this case, the US Next Generation Science Standards)? The process used by the developers is described, from conceptualizing the program and units to enacting the program in student-facing materials. The framework for presenting sustainability to students is described, as are the specific contexts that allow students to develop a deep understanding of scientific concepts while addressing current and important socioscientific issues. A selection of feedback from teachers and students gathered during the field test of the curriculum is shared, as is feedback from teachers who used the published program. The developers concluded that sustainability provides a powerful framework for allowing students to learn biological concepts and apply them to real-world issues.

A Brief Discussion on the Construction of Life Teaching Mode in Junior High School Biology Classroom

A Brief Discussion on the Construction of Life Teaching Mode in Junior High School Biology Classroom

Developing tasks to assess phenomenon‐based science learning: Challenges and lessons learned from building proximal transfer tasks

AbstractThe vision for science proficiency presented in A Framework for K‐12 Science Education calls for significant shifts in both teaching and assessment. In this paper, we describe an effort to develop and validate a set of proximal transfer tasks for high school biology classrooms where teachers were implementing a problem‐based curriculum. The proximal transfer tasks presented students with phenomena related to but distinct from the phenomena they had studied in class and asked students to apply their understanding of disciplinary core ideas, practices, and crosscutting concepts targeted in curriculum. We tested these tasks with a sample of 733 students from 11 teachers’ classes. Each of these students completed two tasks before beginning the unit and two tasks after they had finished the unit. We found that nearly all pretest and posttest task pairs were aligned to written opportunities to learn in the curriculum, that is, students showed significant growth over the course of a unit. In addition, task pairs revealed differences across teachers. However, the relative growth of students depended on which tasks students completed, indicating wide variation in task difficulty. Our findings point to the potential of developing three‐dimensional proximal transfer tasks and to the difficulty of constructing equivalent tasks.

Development of an Online Experiment Platform for High School Biology.

We developed a novel online platform, Rex (Real experiments) that immerses students in a scientific investigative process. Rex is a virtual web-based biological science experiment platform, hosted by real scientists, and uses actual lab experiments that generate real data for students to collect, analyze, and interpret. Seven neuroscience experiments use zebrafish and rats as model systems to study the effects of drugs such as tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), caffeine, alcohol, and cigarette smoke, which are of interest to high school students. We carried out a small field-test of Rex in a variety of high school biology classrooms (e.g., standard, honors, AP, anatomy/physiology) to obtain student and teacher feedback about the implementation and usability of the program. We also assessed student situational interest (SI) to determine whether the Rex experiment captured students' attention, and whether it was an enjoyable and meaningful experience. Overall, students reported a moderate level of SI after participating in the Rex experiments. Situational interest did not differ across teachers, class section, class level, or the type of experiment. In addition, we present details of the technical issues encountered in the classroom, and we provide guidance to readers who may want to use the resource in their classrooms.

Acknowledging students\u2019 concerns about evolution: a proactive teaching strategy

BackgroundThe religious or cultural objections by many people to the teaching of evolution in high school biology classrooms can impact both students’ willingness to explore a scientific understanding of evolutionary theory and teachers’ willingness to provide sound instruction on the topic. Pedagogical approaches designed to address this tension in the public or private US high school classroom during regular biology classroom instruction on evolution are needed. We developed a Cultural and Religious Sensitivity (CRS) Teaching Strategies Resource to aid teachers in acknowledging students’ religious and cultural concerns about evolution, introducing the variety of possible relationships between science and religion, and focusing on the nature of science. The resource provides both background information for the teacher and activities to engage students in two 50–75 min directed classroom discussions. The CRS resource is part of a designed-based study, the Teaching Evolution through Human Examples (TEtHE) project that created and field tested four curriculum units for advanced placement high school biology classes that use human examples to teach evolution (Pobiner et al. Evol Educ Outreach. 2018;11:3 2018). Here we describe the design of the CRS resource and qualitative results of student focus groups that explore the extent to which the CRS resource activities helped to create a supportive classroom environment as well as more generally what benefits, if any, students derived from participating in these activities.ResultsFocus groups were conducted with students from five classes of four different teachers in both public and private US high schools. Focus group transcripts were analyzed to identify common themes expressed in relation to the students’ experience of one of the two CRS activities. Benefits of participating in these activities noted by students included reduced tension around the topic of evolution, a recognition that evolution is not necessarily in conflict with religious belief, and an increased understanding of the cultural context of modern and historical views about evolution.ConclusionsThe themes identified through qualitative analyses of focus group transcripts support the conclusion that acknowledging students’ concerns about evolution is a promising pedagogical approach to teaching evolution in conjunction with lessons designed to teach the content of evolutionary theory. The approach merits further research with general introductory high school biology classes.

The articulation of the development of teacher knowledge during the implementation of new teaching procedures to enhance student understanding of molecular biological concepts

This paper is based on the first author’s extensive examination of her teaching and her students’ learning in a senior high school Biology classroom at a coeducational K-12 independent college in Victoria, Australia, over a five-year period. Research was guided by the following questions: (1) How can students become more aware of the specific biological terminology that they will need to use to communicate their understanding of biological concepts? (2) How can student familiarity with new biological terminology be enhanced? (3) Which teaching strategies might be most effective across the diverse range of abilities and learning styles within a senior Biology classroom? Three key data-sets ([1] Development of specific teaching procedures; [2] Student responses to using the teaching procedures; [3] Teacher journal entries and reflections) were analysed supported by Korthagen’s ALACT model. Findings support the notion that genuine educational change is linked to teacher change, driven by teachers themselves, drawing new insights into students’ learning.

High school biology students use of visual molecular dynamics as an authentic tool for learning about modeling as a professional scientific practice

Modeling is a practice of science that is underemphasized in biology classrooms in comparison to its central focus in the physical sciences. Visualizations of the submicroscopic world of molecules are becoming increasingly sophisticated with the evolution of new technologies. With this in mind, we introduced high school biology classrooms to a professional molecular modeling software program used by research biochemists to visualize proteins and other macromolecules. Analysis of surveys completed before and after the use of the program revealed significant student gains in their understandings of the nature of models. Student and teacher perceptions of the program showed an appreciation for the real/authentic nature of the program, and its affordances when utilizing the three-dimensional rendering of proteins. The teachers did report a general level of frustration regarding their lack of experience with the program and their inability to unlock its full potential due to not being able to access all of the program's features. However, we believe that the evidence at hand indicates that the value of introducing students to authentic molecular modeling tools in high school science classrooms outweighs the potential limitations. © 2018 by The International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, 46(3):230-236, 2018.

A Captive Breeding Program for the Giant Amazonian Whip Spider: Making Educational Connections to a Charismatic Arachnid and the Ongoing Sixth Mass Extinction

Heterophrynus batesii (the Giant Amazonian Whip Spider) are often referred to as “whip scorpions” or “whip spiders” because of their very long antenniform legs (i.e., whips), but they are neither scorpions nor spiders. They are amblypygids, a type of harmless charismatic arachnid with an alien-like appearance that students are drawn to. I have developed care and breeding techniques that are effective at getting H. batesii to live and reproduce in captivity. I developed these techniques with other science teachers in mind. These techniques are simple, time efficient, utilize the least expensive materials, and require minimal space—important characteristics since most high school biology teachers are limited by time, money, and space. This article instructs high school biology students (under the guidance of their teacher) how to properly care for and develop a captive breeding program for H. batesii in their high school biology classroom. Topics, resources, and activities are also suggested that allow teachers to make educational connections between the H. batesii captive breeding program, the ongoing sixth mass extinction, and the destruction of the Amazon rainforest.

Using Pre-Assessments to Make Decisions about Differentiation in a Detracked High School Biology Classroom

This article describes how one teacher used practitioner research to study the role that pre-assessment played when making decisions about student grouping and differentiated instruction within a detracked, honors biology classroom. Much detail is provided in this article describing the study design around a unit on protein synthesis and the steps taken in data analyses to contextualize this study within a practitioner research methodology. The teacher discusses her findings using a claim, evidence, and reasoning framework common in scientific inquiry to illustrate the effectiveness of using pre-assessment to group students for tiered instruction.

Creating a Reliable, Cost-Effective ELISA Simulation.

The enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) is a fundamental laboratory technique with direct applications across scientific research and clinical diagnostics as well as everyday life. Unfortunately, many challenges exist that inhibit both its introduction and implementation in the high school biology classroom. We present a reliable yet inexpensive way of effectively simulating this assay, allowing student exposure to several advanced topics, including immunodetection, clinical diagnostics, and qualitative and quantitative colorimetric analysis.