High School Biology Curriculum Research Articles

Gaming for the Education of Biology in High Schools

Game-based learning refers to an educational approach where games (digital or analogue) are used in order to engage students in interactive and immersive experiences designed to teach specific concepts, skills or subjects. Gamification refers to the application of game design elements, such as point systems, rewards, narratives, and competition, to non-game contexts. Game elements, mechanics and structures, when incorporated into the learning process, can enhance student understanding and increase engagement, motivation and retention of educational content. Teaching Biology can present challenges mainly due to the complexity of the subject matter, the different scales of biological organisation, and because it often includes challenging and counterintuitive concepts that may contradict students’ preconceived notions. Integrating gaming into the high school Biology curriculum not only tackles the challenges of teaching complex concepts but can also promote student engagement. Customising gaming experiences to Biology intricacies enhances critical thinking and creates a dynamic learning environment tailored to the demands of high school biological education. This entry explores the integration of gaming and gamification in high school Biology education to overcome challenges in sustaining student interest. Additionally, the article highlights the diverse applications of games in education, showcasing their versatility in enriching the educational process. Future research should evaluate specific games, explore design principles, and consider challenges associated with implementation. In conclusion, using games in Biology education promises to enhance engagement, promote active learning, and deepen understanding, contributing to narrowing the gap in biological literacy.

Evaluating the Effectiveness of an Online Professional Development for Rural Middle-School Science Teachers

ABSTRACT In rural, geographically dispersed school districts, access to high-quality face-to-face professional development (PD) is challenging. Our study developed and compared the effectiveness of an online PD for middle-school science teachers working in remote, rural areas of Kansas with an evidence-based traditional face-to-face PD with the goal of supporting change in teachers’ conceptual understanding and self-efficacy in utilizing Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), change in instructional practices, and overall student content learning. Fifteen rural middle-school science teacher participants were randomly selected to participate in the online or traditional PD, then taught the Toward High School Biology curriculum to their 504 middle-school students. Findings aligned with our hypothesis that online PD is as effective as traditional in improving student content knowledge related to the curriculum. Teachers’ instructional practices in using Next Generation Science Standards improved, as did their use of student-centered instruction and making science relevant to the lives of their students. Our study supports the importance of designing PD that effectively and economically brings teachers in isolated and diverse rural communities together.

Seven design principles for teaching complex socioscientific issues: the design of a complex systems agent-based disease epidemic model and the application of epistemic practices in high school biology

Historic challenges in the biological sciences, such as the spread of disease and climate change, have created an unprecedented need for humans to engage with scientific information to address societal problems. However, understanding these socioscientific issues (SSI) can be hard due to the difficulty of comprehending their complex structures and behaviors, the intentional propagation of misinformation, and an insufficient understanding of the epistemic practices that scientists use to develop relevant knowledge. Education researchers have highlighted additional problems in the way science is taught with a focus mainly on concepts rather than practices, competing curricular mandates, and professional development activities that do not provide usable knowledge. The research reported here follows more than a decade of work using agent-based computational models to support the comprehension and analysis of complex biological systems. Our recent work has aimed to build tools and strategies to support students in decision making about complex SSIs. In this paper, we discuss 7 design challenges and principles that underpin this recent focus. Specifically, we combine agent-based modeling with strategies to develop students’ epistemic performance in high school biology curricula. We then provide a detailed case study of how the 7 design principles were used to create a disease epidemic model and unit anchored in the biology topic of the nature of science. Our goal is to offer a comprehensive set of research-derived design principles that can bridge classroom experiences in biology to applications of SSIs.

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.

A Survey on The Effects of Using Videos in Biology Lessons on Student Performance

A compelling and motivating approach should be supported in the information and communication technology-driven 21st century to aid students in learning more effectively. Due to its beneficial effects on the teaching and learning process, the use of multimedia in education has demonstrated its significance. The study investigated an examination of how the use of multimedia in a biology lesson affected students' performance. Three senior high schools' worth of 200 students were chosen at random, and they were divided into three groups at random. The study's quasi-experimental pre-post-control group design was used. While the control group received conventional care, the experimental groups were trained via multimedia presentations. The course of treatment lasted for 12 weeks. As data collection tools, the Biology Achievement Test (BAT), which was also validated, was examined for dependability using the Crombach alpha, which produced a result of 0.92, and the Validated Attitude Towards Biology Scale (ATBS), which produced a Crombach alpha of 0.86. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the acquired data. The findings showed a statistically significant difference between the forms of instruction and the learning outcomes of the students. Students receiving multimedia-assisted instruction performed better than their peers receiving traditional instruction. Therefore, it is advised that multimedia assisted instruction be implemented in the senior high school biology curriculum to enhance students' learning results.

Basic biology education in high school and acceptance of genetically modified food in Japan.

While many types of genetically modified (GM) food have become more available worldwide, the acceptance of GM food continues to be low. To increase this acceptance, various educational interventions have been conducted; however, conflicts remain about the safety and acceptability of GM food among laypeople, experts, and policymakers in several countries. Thus, this study aimed to clarify whether basic biology education influences Japanese people's acceptance of GM food. We examined this idea by comparing individual experiences of high school biology education based on curriculum and proficiency level. We distributed online questionnaires to 1,594 people in Japan; 1,122 valid responses (70.4%) were obtained. Results showed that the acceptance rates of GM vegetables, fish, and meat were 33.6%, 29.0%, and 29.1%, respectively. Comparing the biology knowledge test scores according to different high school biology education levels (i.e., non-learners, basic, and advanced levels) showed no significant differences between the three age groups (20s, 30s, and 40s), which corresponded to different curricula (p = 0.90); however, there were significant differences between the high school biology education levels (p<0.01). Using logistic regression analysis, we then examined the effect of high school biology education on acceptance of GM food. The results showed no significant differences between different high school biology education levels but significantly lower acceptance by the 30s and 40s groups compared with the 20s group (p<0.05). This suggests that basic biology education alone is not sufficient to change people's attitudes toward GM foods. These generational differences suggest factors other than high school biology curriculum affect different generations' acceptance of GM foods. Overall, high school biology education did not directly affect acceptance of GM foods, although those who received a higher level of education had an increased knowledge of GM foods.

Alignment between biology curriculum standards and five textbook editions: a content analysis

ABSTRACT This study investigates the alignment between curriculum standards and textbooks, based on a standards-based science education context. The analysis sample includes the High School Biology Curriculum Standards and five editions of biology textbooks in China. Porter's alignment model is used to construct a two-dimensional (content areas and cognitive levels) matrix of curriculum standards and textbooks to calculate alignment indices and marginal discrepancies between the two dimensions. The results show that 1) alignment between curriculum standards and textbooks has not been achieved; 2) textbooks are highly consistent and statistically significant, but independent of curriculum standards; 3) the distribution of curriculum standards and textbooks across various core concepts and cognitive levels is unbalanced; 4) both curriculum standards and textbooks overemphasise the cognitive levels of remembering and understanding, while minimally representing the applying, analysing, evaluating, and creating levels. This study examines the development of curriculum alignment in the context of current worldwide standards-based science education reforms and provides a framework for alignment research based on content analysis.

The Control, Systems and Stability Course of 8 Lectures in Middle and High School's Biology Curriculum: Design and Practice

Control issues in different advance research fields are now blossoming and making their irreplaceable contribution for modern society. But our next generation's cognition of control related knowledge is not enough. To help students open the door of “control”, this research designs a control, systems and stability course of 8 lectures in middle and high school's biology curriculum. In practice, this control-focused course has a good impact on students, attracting many of them choose further elective control-related courses/lectures provided by school itself and university control program entry-level MOOCs.

ĐÁNH GIÁ NHẬN THỨC CHUNG VỀ PHẦN DI TRUYỀN HỌC CỦA HỌC SINH TRUNG HỌC PHỔ THÔNG

Genetics is one of the important topics in the high school biology curriculum. Genetics has been taught in the subject of biology at grade 9 and grade 12. To investigate the general understanding of genetics of high school students, a survey was carried out and got responses from participants of 901 high school students across the country. The data for the average score was 3.3; median 3.0; scores ranging from 0.33 to 8.33. The data analyses showed that there was no significant difference in the results between urban and rural regions. The general knowledge of genetics of high school students was low. In general, scores of students in gifted schools were higher than in non-gifted schools. In the group of gifted schools, the biological group gave higher results than others. In general, the students tend to choose the subject Biology and have high average scores, also got survey scores higher than those of other groups. Those results contribute to clarifying the reality of learning Biology in general and Genetics in particular of high school students, contributing to the basis for educational administrators to provide more appropriate educational policies.

Rethinking the High School Biology Curriculum

Rethinking the High School Biology Curriculum

Challenges of Teaching Akans (Ghana) Culturally-Specific Environmental Ethics in Senior High Schools: Voices of Akans and Biology Teachers

Indigenous cultural groups have lived sustainably with their natural resources (land, water bodies, forests, wildlife animals and plants) by employing particular culturallyspecific environmental ethics. These include spiritual perceptions about natural environmental resources, totemic beliefs and taboos. Consequently, many scholars in the country have recommended the integration of these culturally-specific environmental ethics in environmental policies and formal school curricula. The purpose of this research was to explore the views of Akan indigenous knowledge (IK) holders and senior high school Biology teachers on challenges they predicted could confront the teaching of Akan culturally-specific environmental ethics in the senior high school Biology curriculum. An interpretivist paradigm with an ethnographic, naturalistic research style, using in-depth conversational interviews was employed to explore the views of research participants. The perceived challenges included stigma attached to culturally-specific environmental ethics; requirement of proof and experimentation; the use of a foreign language in schools; formal education; loss of the fear for the gods and spirits in nature; centralised curriculum; democracy and political biases. The research concluded that being aware of the possible challenges to the teaching of the Akan culturally-specific environmental ethics can influence policies related to these ethics as well as guide Biology curriculum developers and stakeholders.&#x0D; Keywords: culturally-specific environmental ethics; Akan cultural group; Akan nature conservation; Ghana Biology curriculum

A High School Level Health and Disease-Focused Biology Curriculum Promotes Higher Level Skills in Nutrition Literacy.

To determine the efficacy of a high school biology curriculum focused on promoting nutrition literacy skills. High school students participated in a six-week biology curriculum focused on the three subdomains of nutrition literacy: functional use of factual knowledge (FNL); interactive skills in seeking out information (INL); critical interpretation and analysis (CNL). We used a mixed-methods, change-over-time model that leverages longitudinal aspects of instructor practice and students' development. Pre- and posttest measures of FNL, INL and CNL were administered. Students were also given a retrospective pre-post online survey to measure interactive nutrition literacy and self-efficacy towards learning about nutrition topics. A total of 111 high school 11th and 12th grade students from four sections of a Biology II course participated. Students' overall NL scores improved (P<0.0001) and they also showed gains in each subdomain (FNL, INL and CNL, P<0.0001). Self-efficacy toward learning about nutrition also increased (P<0.0001). Students reported increased communication about the topics with family and peers who were neither classmates or friends (P<0.0001). Participation improved nutrition literacy in each of the subdomains, as well as self-efficacy. Self-efficacy was strongly related to increased communication.

Integrating a space for teacher interaction into an educative curriculum: design principles and teachers’ use of the iPlan tool

ABSTRACTImplementation of reform curricula requires teachers to adopt new approaches to teaching. Research has provided promising results about the influence of educative curriculum on teachers’ learning and instruction. However, this approach generally focuses on teachers as isolated learners. Using a design-based research approach, the authors developed a web-based tool, iPlan, which provides access to educative curriculum materials in an online interactive learning platform. iPlan encourages social interaction among teachers, in particular their modifications and reflections on teaching with the curriculum materials. The authors describe design principles, assessing successful and unsuccessful aspects of the resulting platform through semi-structured interviews with teachers within the context of implementation of a high school biology curriculum. Analysis of the interviews revealed which structures of this online platform were used by the teachers, as well as why and how they were used. The study provides implications for designing educative and online systems for teacher learning.

A case for project based learning to enact semantic waves: towards cumulative knowledge building

ABSTRACT First-year undergraduate curricula and their delivery should assist students in the transition from previous learning experiences to learning in higher education. However, the so-called articulation gap or discontinuity between secondary and higher education has been identified as a key structural curriculum problem for first-year success in South Africa and abroad. Valuable insights into this problem came from a recent study that drew on Legitimation Code Theory (LCT). Findings revealed an unexpectedly wide gap between the high school and the university biology curricula. The high school biology curriculum displays minimal movement between context-dependent, simpler meaning and relatively decontextualized, condensed meaning common in first-year biology. LCT Semantics was also found to be a valuable tool for restructuring curricula and pedagogy to intentionally enact semantic movement and thereby a more gradual transition for students from high school to university. This paper reports on an integrative first-year biology project aimed intentionally at taking students’ concept knowledge through a wide contextual range, and repeatedly between less and more complex meaning. I reflect on how the project design steers students towards creating semantic movement during their presentations, thereby contributing to cumulative knowledge building and a more gradual transition towards first-year epistemological access.

Evaluating the Effectiveness of Integrating Food Science Lessons in High School Biology Curriculum in Comparison to High School Chemistry Curriculum

AbstractHistorically, high school chemistry has been the predominate venue for the introduction of food science curriculum to students. With the current decline in chemistry as a required course for graduation, the possibility of exposure to food science in high school could equally decline. The purpose of this research was to determine if high school students in a biology class without a chemistry background could comprehend eight basic food science principles equally as well as students in a chemistry class that were taught the same principles. This study assessed baseline knowledge of high school students, determined the effect of food science‐based lessons on baseline knowledge and level of understanding, and determined the effect of food science‐based lessons on students’ awareness of and interest in food science. Baseline knowledge and awareness of food science was low. Food science‐based instruction resulted in higher posttest scores. Results indicated no differences in students’ knowledge base and level of understanding between biology and chemistry classes and supported the idea of further incorporating a food science curriculum into high school biology.

Legitimation code theory to facilitate transition from high school to first-year biology

Institutions of Higher Education have grappled with the predicament of first-year success and epistemological access for years. Recently, a study employed Legitimation Code Theory (LCT) to elucidate why students who performed relatively well in high school biology struggled with the subject in first-year. This study shed valuable light on this problem by revealing that the high school biology curriculum is at a completely different level to the university curriculum. In terms of LCT’s Semantics dimension, the high school curriculum displayed little movement from context dependent simpler meanings towards the relatively decontextualised complex meanings, frequently encountered in first-year biology. We argue that the Semantics dimension of LCT also offers a useful tool for restructuring first-year biology curricula to intentionally facilitate a more gradual transition for first-year students. Thus, by explicitly planning teaching activities to gradually increase the range between context dependent simpler meanings and relatively decontextualized complex meanings, the potential of cumulative learning can be optimised. This paper reflects on the process of revising a first-year biology curriculum to contribute to greater epistemological access and cumulative knowledge building.

Turkish High School Students’ Awareness about Carbon Footprint and the Effects of Teaching on Fostering Awareness

Carbon emissions, which are one of the most significant human sourced causes of global climate change, continue to rise rapidly despite all efforts. Carbon footprint (CF) education is significant in terms of turning this situation of the opposite. The aim of this study is to determine the awareness of high school students about CF which is included in High School Biology Curriculum and the effects of teaching on this awareness. For this reason, a study based on mixed design was conducted with a total of 140 high school students. As the results, despite the fact that the students' awareness related to the domains of households and transportation are higher than the awareness related to the problems in the domain of lifestyle, it has been determined that the students do not have a holistic approach about CF and global climate change. When the situation is evaluated, in spite of taking place in High School Biology Curriculum, it has been seen that teaching of CF concept and the objective in the program has not been achieved. Hence, it is necessary to evaluate the teaching program and its teacher dimension again. Also, the test used in this study can be utilized as a teaching material in CF instruction besides CF calculations or as an alternative material.

HIGH SCHOOL SCIENCE STUDENTS’ IDEAS ABOUT MICROORGANISMS AND THEIR PLACE IN THE CURRICULUM

This study aims to determine high school students’ knowledge and thoughts about microorganisms and to identify the extent to which microorganisms are covered in the high school biology curricula in Turkey. The study sample consisted of 160 secondary students at a science high school in Kars, Turkey. The researcher used the descriptive survey model, applied the Microorganisms Knowledge Test (MKT) to the sample group and did a review of their biology curriculum. It was found that the students are knowledgeable about microorganisms, and that they have generally positive thoughts due to microorganisms' benefits, although microorganisms are not a significant component of their biology lessons.

Addressing Health Literacy Challenges With a Cutting-Edge Infectious Disease Curriculum for the High School Biology Classroom

This study reports the secondary analysis of evaluation data from an innovative high school biology curriculum focused on infectious disease (ID) to examine the health literacy implications of teaching claims evaluation, data interpretation, and risk assessment skills in the context of 21st-Century health science. The curriculum was implemented between 2010 and 2013 in Biology II classes held in four public high schools (three in Massachusetts and one in Ohio), plus a private school in Virginia. A quasi-experimental design was used in which student participants (n = 273) were compared to an age-matched, nonparticipant, peer group (N = 125). Participants in each school setting demonstrated increases in conceptual content knowledge (Cohen's d > 1.89) as well as in understanding how to apply scientific principles to health claims evaluation and risk assessment (Cohen's d > 1.76) and in self-efficacy toward learning about ID (Cohen's d > 2.27). Participants also displayed enhanced communication about ID within their social networks relative to the comparison group (p < .05). The data show that integrating the claims evaluation, data interpretation, and risk assessment skills critical for 21st-century health literacy health into high school biology classrooms is effective at fostering both the skills and self-efficacy pertinent to health literacy learning in diverse populations.