Life Science Concepts Research Articles

Early Career Scientists are Critical to the FAIR Data Pathway

Biodiversity data that meet the principles of Findability, Accessibility, Interoperability, and Reusability (FAIR) have tremendous potential to facilitate integrative science addressing large-scale biodiversity challenges. In order to increase the amount, breadth, and quality of FAIR biodiversity data, we must look to the individuals responsible for creating, sharing, and publishing their data. An open conversation and collaboration among those generating data and those using, extending, and curating data is critical (Leonelli 2016). Graduate students and other early career scientists often work between these points along the data pathway. As they enter the field of biodiversity science, they are required to have not only knowledge of taxa, ecosystems, and research practices but also a new set of skills to handle data of many types (Monfils et al. 2021). As best practices in biodiversity data science are actively defined and the need for FAIR data and Open Science continues to increase, involvement by early career scientists is most valuable, as they share their cutting-edge skills to integrate and publish biodiversity data. Early career scientists are often more likely and willing to publish the data they collect (Campbell et al. 2019) and can directly benefit through peer-reviewed publications and professional connections. However, safeguards and incentives are necessary, as data publication can carry a heavy burden and pose threats to emerging careers. Early career scientists may spend large amounts of time and effort to publish data without recognition, expose potential faults in their methodologies that would not otherwise be apparent, lose ownership of their data and derivatives, or have their data used unethically or inappropriately (Franz and Sterner 2018). Despite a demonstrated positive attitude among early career scientists toward Open Science and Open Data practices and values (Toribio-Flórez et al. 2021), the responsibility and risks of data sharing cannot be overlooked. In working to improve and expand the FAIR data landscape and support future biodiversity data science careers, there are several potential challenges to consider. First, there are often barriers to acquiring the knowledge and skills needed to utilize, aggregate, and publish data. Teaching of biodiversity data science has not been widely adopted in undergraduate curricula (Ellwood et al. 2019, Emery et al. 2021), so scientists must seek out educational materials on their own during their graduate or postgraduate careers. Integrating biodiversity data science into all stages of science careers is necessary; for example, by introducing incoming college students to the full range of roles in biodiversity science that include data, incorporating data skills early in undergraduate programs and emphasizing the importance and value of biodiversity data alongside established life science concepts, increasing opportunities to gain data expertise in graduate programs regardless of where students' career interest lies along the data continuum, and supporting established professionals who recognize the need for these skills and efforts without their own formal preparation and institutional resources (Barone et al. 2017). Training materials created for biodiversity data science professionals, including those offered by the Carpentries, Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG), and others can be translated to all these levels. Second, sharing FAIR data is not worth the effort or risk for many individuals. If graduate programs and future employers do not place a high value on biodiversity data science and do not train, fund, and promote early career scientists in this area, there is little incentive to pursue this expertise at all. Because early career scientists are often encouraged to publish data without clearly defined pathways or widely available resources, they are vulnerable to mistakes and criticism that could harm their careers. Finally, conversations and initiatives in biodiversity data science may not be accessible to early career scientists; appropriate on-ramps are needed to allow both novices and experts in this field to meaningfully participate. By taking advantage of these connections and opportunities, early career scientists can promote their work and advocate for their needs, and established professionals can gain the perspective necessary to successfully guide the early career workforce toward specific goals relative to FAIR data curation and publication. Here we will present our experience in each of these areas and share the ways in which we can continue to support and advance early career scientists in biodiversity data science.

The Role of Picture Books in Raising Children's Understanding of English Literature and Life Science Concepts: Selected Stories by Eric Carle

Abstract
 The current study is a theoretical study that aims to underline the role of picture books as a serious genre of children's literature in raising children's understanding of English literature and life concepts; especially for non-English speakers. Unfortunately, most Iraqi people have developed a social phobia of learning English since childhood. This phobia is resulted from the heavy traditional reading and writing assignments as well as hard exams. Therefore, this study suggests incorporating more interesting literary material like picture books that would bring pleasure and help in raising children's love and cognition of English Language. More significantly, it calls to replace the old curriculum with a more vital one where children can interact with all their senses; visual, auditory, and kinesthetic (VAK). To make this possible, two of Eric Carle's books The Very Hungry Caterpillar and The Tiny Seed have been carefully selected according to the American and English elementary school teachers' standards for children aged 3-6 years old. Each story element was submitted to a literary analysis, including pictures, life concepts, and language that enhance children's understanding of literature. Based on Piaget's view about the importance of involving sensorimotor actions in learning to help in children's cognition development, some VAK lesson plans and activities were designed using the concept development model and Synectics strategy. The study has concluded that incorporating picture books into the school curriculum and sensorimotor activities like coloring, cutting paper, games, sounds, and music would help in raising children's understanding of English literature and life science more interactively.

UniBioDicts: Unified access to Biological Dictionaries.

SummaryWe present a set of software packages that provide uniform access to diverse biological vocabulary resources that are instrumental for current biocuration efforts and tools. The Unified Biological Dictionaries (UniBioDicts or UBDs) provide a single query-interface for accessing the online API services of leading biological data providers. Given a search string, UBDs return a list of matching term, identifier and metadata units from databases (e.g. UniProt), controlled vocabularies (e.g. PSI-MI) and ontologies (e.g. GO, via BioPortal). This functionality can be connected to input fields (user-interface components) that offer autocomplete lookup for these dictionaries. UBDs create a unified gateway for accessing life science concepts, helping curators find annotation terms across resources (based on descriptive metadata and unambiguous identifiers), and helping data users search and retrieve the right query terms.Availability and implementationThe UBDs are available through npm and the code is available in the GitHub organisation UniBioDicts (https://github.com/UniBioDicts) under the Affero GPL license.Supplementary information Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

Okul Öncesi Dönem Çocuklarının Ebeveynlerinin Uyguladıkları Anne-Baba Tutumları İle Bilim Öğrenme Becerileri Arasındaki İlişkinin İncelenmesi

Bu araştırmanın temel amacı, okul öncesi eğitim kurumuna devam eden 60-72 aylık okul öncesi dönem çocuklarının bilim öğrenme becerileri ile ebeveynlerinin uyguladıkları anne-baba tutumları arasındaki ilişkinin sınanmasıdır. Araştırma nicel desende olup, genel tarama modellerinden ilişkisel tarama modeli kullanılmıştır. Araştırmanın bağımsız değişkenleri, ebeveynlerinin uyguladıkları anne baba tutumları iken; bağımlı değişkenleri, çocukların bilim öğrenme becerileridir. Çalışma grubunu, okul öncesi eğitimi alan 395 çocuk ve onların ebeveynleri oluşturmaktadır. Verilerin toplanması amacıyla, “Kişisel Bilgi Formu”, “Anne-Babalık Stilleri ve Boyutları Ölçeği” ve “Bilim Öğrenmeyi Değerlendirme Testi” kullanılmıştır. Okul öncesi dönem çocuklarının ebeveynlerinin uyguladıkları anne-baba tutumları ile bilim öğrenme becerileri arasındaki ilişkinin incelenmesinde ise korelasyon analizi yapılmıştır. Neticesinde, okul öncesi eğitim kurumuna devam eden 60-72 aylık çocukların bilim öğrenme becerileri ile annelerin çocuklarına uygulamış oldukları tutumlar arasında istatiksel olarak anlamlı bir ilişkinin olmadığı sonucuna ulaşılmıştır. Okul öncesi dönem çocuklarının ebeveynlerinin uyguladıkları anne-baba tutumları ile annenin sahip olduğu sosyo-demografik özelliklerin, çocuklarının bilim öğrenme becerilerini yordamasında ise Hiyerarşik Çoklu Regresyon analizi kullanılmıştır. Sonuç olarak, annelerin sahip olduğu sosyo-demografik özelliklerin ve tutumların, çocuklarının Bilim Öğrenmeyi Değerlendirme Testi’nden elde ettikleri toplam puanı ve Bilimsel Araştırma Süreçleri alt boyutunu istatiksel olarak anlamlı şekilde açıklarken, Yaşam Bilimi Kavramları alt boyutunu istatiksel olarak anlamlı bir şekilde açıklamadığı görülmüştür.

Concept Status Analysis of Pre-Service Science Teachers on Life Science Concepts Related to Disease

Concept Status Analysis of Pre-Service Science Teachers on Life Science Concepts Related to Disease

Model-based teaching and learning about inheritance in third-grade science

ABSTRACTResearch suggests that it is challenging for elementary students to develop conceptual understanding of trait variation, inheritance of traits, and life cycles. In this study, we report on an effort to promote elementary students’ learning of hereditary-related concepts through scientific modelling, which affords opportunities for elementary students to generate visual representations of structure and function associated with heredity. This study is part of a four-year design-based research project aimed at supporting students’ learning about life science concepts using corn as a model organism. Study data were collected during the implementation of a project-developed, multi-week, model-based curriculum module in eight third-grade classrooms located in the Midwestern United States. Through mixed methods research, we analysed video recorded observations of curriculum implementation, student artefacts, and student interviews. Results illustrate epistemic dimensions of model-based explanations (MBEs) for heredity that students prioritised, as well as significant variation in students’ MBEs in 2 of the 8 classrooms. While findings show neither students’ content knowledge nor model-based instruction associated with their MBEs, qualitative differences in teachers’ curriculum enactment, and more general approaches to science instruction, may help explain observed differences. Implications are discussed for curriculum and instruction in support of students’ MBE for heredity-related concepts.

The effects of life science activities on young children's recognitions of respect for life and life science concepts.

The effects of life science activities on young children's recognitions of respect for life and life science concepts.

Beads and beadwork as cultural artifacts used in mediating learners’ agentic constructs in science classrooms: a case for place-based learning

This paper explores the ways learners respond to and express themselves while interacting with cultural artifacts or cultural realia, beads and beadwork, used to mediate the teaching and learning of life science concepts in a science classroom. South African policies, enacted in the National Curriculum Statement (NCS) and the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS), mandate that a culturally responsive pedagogy be used to teach indigenous learners in order to assist them in learning science concepts. Hence, the choice of beads and beadwork, which are cultural artifacts found in learners lived world as realia, creating an enabling context accessible to teachers and learners. This study was conducted in periurban Black township schools near a metropolitan city in South Africa. In order to achieve a thick description (Geertz in The interpretation of cultures, Basic Books Publishers, New York, 1973) of class interactions between the teacher and her learners in using cultural artifacts, beads and beadwork, as instructional models to mediate the teaching and learning of abstract structures of organic compounds, such as glucose, fructose, lipids and proteins, were enacted and video-recorded. Video analysis of class interactions and teachers’ professional development was employed. We also engaged open-ended questionnaires to extract learners’ basic views of the use of beads and beadwork as instructional models. Findings indicated that the use of beads and beadwork as instructional models afforded learners a context that enabled them to express and expand their cognitive constructs of what learning science from cultural perspectives looks and feels like. It also showed that learners’ capitals, namely cultural, social and symbolic capitals, enhance the development of cognitive capital leading to the emergence of more knowledgeable other(s) within indigenous science classrooms. Findings also showed that cultural artifacts enabled the restructuring of the teachers’ pedagogical practices toward enhancing learner’s know-how of science concepts in the classroom. Recommendations necessitate the use of cultural artifacts or cultural realia as culturally related instructional models—CRIMs—to teach and learn abstract science concepts. This approach tends to bring science closer to the indigenous learners’ consciousness, thereby enabling more familiarity with concrete or abstract science concepts. Eventually, the goal of helping learners to learn science concepts effectively stems from the standpoint of learners being active rather than being passive participants in the teaching and learning process.

공업계 특성화고 학생의 진화 및 유전 개념 분석

This study was carried out to explore the un-derstanding of evolution and genetic concepts of 596 male students attending at technical high school. These students did not take any more class about the life science concepts such as genetic and evolutionary concepts in junior high school. In order to measure the level of genetics and evolu-tion concept, we used 20 test items developed by AAAS. In order to confirm the validity and reliability of the items used, Rasch model analysis and internal consistency reliability analysis were conducted. In order to identify the change of conceptual understanding score between grades, independent test t-test, Mann-Whitney U test were used. A paired sam-ple t-test was used for comparison with previous research data for high school students. The results of this study confirm that the AAAS evolution and genetic concept assessment items are valid for measuring the conceptual understanding of technical high school students. It was confirmed that there is a degeneration of the concept understanding at a meaningful level when moving from the first grade to the second grade of technical high school. In particular, there is more con-ceptual degeneration in the genetic concept. Compared with the scores of the students in the high school, which were identified in the previous research, the concept of the first grade of the technical high school students was maintained, but it was confirmed that the conceptual degeneration pro-ceeded in the second grade. Based on the results of this study, the necessity of education on basic biology concept in tech-nical high school and concept change theory are discussed.

Science Inquiry into Local Animals: Structure and Function Explored through Model Making

ABSTRACTThis article describes an arts- and spatial thinking skill–integrated inquiry project applied to life science concepts from the Next Generation Science Standards for fourth grade students that focuses on two unifying or crosscutting themes: (1) structure (or “form”) and function and (2) use of models. Students made observations and photographs of common wild mammals that lived near their homes, such as squirrels, rabbits, deer, groundhogs, and opossums. They then created a three-dimensional diorama to showcase models of the various structures and functions that help the animals survive. These models included a papier-mâché model of the animal's home with explanations of its form and functions, acrylic polymer clay models of the animal, a student-drawn computer generated fold-up model of the animal in a natural history scene, models of the animal's dentition, and models of its skull made from recycled plastic bottles. Student comments, photographs of example finished products, a chart of spatial thinking skills addressed by the project, and a rubric for scoring this successful project are included.

Promoting Prospective Elementary Teachers’ Learning to Use Formative Assessment for Life Science Instruction

To support elementary students’ learning of core, standards-based life science concepts highlighted in the Next Generation Science Standards, prospective elementary teachers should develop an understanding of life science concepts and learn to apply their content knowledge in instructional practice to craft elementary science learning environments grounded in students’ thinking. To do so, teachers must learn to use high-leverage instructional practices, such as formative assessment, to engage students in scientific practices and connect instruction to students’ ideas. However, teachers may not understand formative assessment or possess sufficient science content knowledge to effectively engage in related instructional practices. To address these needs, we developed and conducted research within an innovative course for preservice elementary teachers built upon two pillars—life science concepts and formative assessment. An embedded mixed methods study was used to evaluate the effect of the intervention on preservice teachers’ (n = 49) content knowledge and ability to engage in formative assessment practices for science. Findings showed that increased life content knowledge over the semester helped preservice teachers engage more productively in anticipating and evaluating students’ ideas, but not in identifying effective instructional strategies to respond to those ideas.

From Pipe Cleaners and Pony Beads to Apps and 3D Glasses: Teaching Protein Structure.

Students often self-identify as visual learners and prefer to engage with a topic in an active, hands-on way. Indeed, much research has shown that students who actively engage with the material and are engrossed in the topics retain concepts better than students who are passive receivers of information. However, much of learning life science concepts is still driven by books and static pictures. One concept students have a hard time grasping is how a linear chain of amino acids folds to becomes a 3D protein structure. Adding three dimensional activities to the topic of protein structure and function should allow for a deeper understanding of the primary, secondary, tertiary, and quaternary structure of proteins and how proteins function in a cell. Here, I review protein folding activities and describe using Apps and 3D visualization to enhance student understanding of protein structure.

Improving Climate Change Communication Starting with Environmental Educators

ABSTRACT This study examined students' knowledge, perceptions, and capability to communicate about climate change before and after taking a graduate-level global climate change education course. The 15 students in this study, as typical of many environmental education students in the master's program, had diverse backgrounds, often with weak academic preparation in science. This course was not only designed to help these students understand climate change education, but also to review fundamental Earth, life, and physical science concepts. Students' knowledge of climate change increased significantly after completing the course. Students' perceptions about climate change became significantly more aligned to those of climate scientists. Students' postcourse questionnaires and science journals were analyzed for insights into the effectiveness of the curriculum and instructional approach of the course. Because these students will pursue informal and formal environmental education careers, this study has important implications for the communication of science, and climate change in particular, in the context of public environmental education and formal school settings.

생명과학 오개념 교정 소책자를 이용한 강좌가 초등 예비교사들의 과학 교수효능감과 오개념에 미치는 효과

과학교육에서 오개념은 오래된 주제이지만, 아직도 학교현장에서는 오개념으로 인한 문제들이 제기되고 있다. 본 연구에서는 초등예비교사들과 초등현장교사들을 위해 초등과학 교과의 내용과 직접적으로 관련된 오개념을 조사 분석하고 이의 교정을 위한 오개념 교정 소책자를 개발하였으며, 이를 초등예비교사들을 위한 생명영역 교재연구 강좌에 적용하여 과학 교수 효능감과 생명영역 오개념의 교정 효과를 검증하였다. 소책자의 개발을 위해 선행연구결과를 수집하고, 초등예비교사들의 오개념을 조사하였으며, 이를 2007 개정 과학과 교육과정의 초등과학 생명영역 단원의 내용을 분석틀로 하여 분석하였고, 그 결과를 현장에서 쉽게 사용할 수 있도록 작은 소책자 형태로 제작하였다. 제작한 소책자의 효과 검증을 위해 연구에 참여한 초등예비교사는 총 107명으로 소책자를 활용하여 교재연구강좌를 수강한 실험집단이 46명, 소책자를 사용하지 않고 교재연구강좌를 수강한 비교반이 61명이었다. 두 집단을 대상으로 일원변량분석과 공변량분석, 대응표본 t검정, 상관분석을 실시하였다. 연구 결과 본 연구에서 개발한 소책자를 사용한 실험 집단은 과학교수효능감과 생명영역 오개념 교정에 있어서 통계적으로 매우 유의한 수준에서 비교반보다 높은 점수를 얻었다. 따라서 본 연구에서 개발한 소책자는 초등예비교사들의 과학 교수효능감을 증진하고 오개념을 교정하는데 효과가 있음이 검증되었다. 본 연구를 통해서 초등예비교사들의 생명과학 영역 오개념 교정을 돕고, 궁극적으로 초등학생들의 올바른 생명영역 개념 형성을 도울 수 있으며, 초등예비교사들의 고양된 교수효능감은 초등학생들의 과학 수업에 긍정적인 영향을 줄 수 있을 것으로 기대한다. Misconceptions are one of the most important and long-lasting studied themes on science education. It is because their nature is obstinate and settled as well as they corrupt students' understanding of science concepts. This study examines whether preservice elementary school teachers enrolled in biology teaching material research course changed positively on science teaching efficacy and correcting life science misconceptions when they used the handbook developed for this study. The handbook comprises 203 life science concepts surveyed among preservice teachers holding from advanced researches and arranged by 2007 Revised Science Curriculum. 107 preservice elementary school teachers participated in the study. Forty-six (46) of them were assigned to the experimental group and the other 61 to the control group. ANOVA was conducted for analyzing data. Science Teaching Efficacy Belief Instrument (STEBI) and the life science misconception test which was developed for this study, were administrated as assessing instruments for pretest and posttest. The experimental group, using the handbook, acquired higher scores in both tests on statistical significance level than the control group who were not using the handbook. The results indicate the handbook developed for correcting life science misconceptions for this study is effective in enhancing science teaching efficacy and correcting life science misconceptions.

The Analysis on the Changes of the Life Science Concepts of Middle School Students with Intellectual Disabilities through Program based on Learning Cycle Model

The Analysis on the Changes of the Life Science Concepts of Middle School Students with Intellectual Disabilities through Program based on Learning Cycle Model

I Walk the Line: A Popular Termite Activity Revisited

Since 1968, biologists have known that termites line up and follow some ballpoint ink lines but not others. Suggestions for class lessons based on this observation have become widespread. However, many of these are incomplete, superficial, conflicting, and/or occasionally inaccurate, and most provide only simple demonstrations or cookbook-style confirmations. Here, we provide added background for this activity to update, clarify, and expand it. Some ways to use termite trail-following to teach fundamental life and physical science concepts through hands-on inquiry are presented, based on our experience with university students and teachers. These activities, adaptable to many instructional levels, range in scope from a single laboratory session to extended investigation.

Energy Flow through an Ecosystem: Conceptions of In-service Elementary and Middle School Teachers

This descriptive study investigated 53 in-service elementary and middle school teachers’ understanding of basic concepts regarding energy flow through an ecosystem they likely are expected to teach. A multiple-choice instrument assessing selected standards-based life science concepts (i.e., essential needs of plants, photosynthesis and respiration, natural selection, energy flow through an ecosystem) with non-scientific conceptions embedded as distracter options was used in the study. Findings from five tasks regarding energy flow through an ecosystem suggest that the teachers sampled had conceptual difficulty with key standards-based energy flow concepts, particularly concerning the original energy source for a forest ecosystem, decomposers as nutrient recyclers rather than energy recyclers, and differentiating between primary and secondary consumers. Findings support the need for professional development regarding energy flow through an ecosystem for these teachers to address their non-scientific conceptions. Additionally, recommendations are provided for strengthening pre-service teacher education.

The Development and Validation of the Science Learning Assessment (SLA): A Measure of Kindergarten Science Learning

The Science Learning Assessment (SLA) is an individually administered, instructionally sensitive science assessment for kindergarten students. The SLA is a 24-item objective test, broken down into two subtests. The Scientific Inquiry Processes subtest consists of 9 items designed to measure young children's functional understanding of the nature and processes of scientific inquiry. The Life Science Concepts subtest consists of 15 items designed to measure children's understanding of specific science concepts related to living things and the physical world. Our results on SLA items that assess life science concepts indicate that kindergarten children are able to develop a rich knowledge base about living things. The results of the SLA indicate that even young children can begin to develop an understanding of scientific inquiry with appropriate instructional support. Our findings are consistent with recent work by researchers such as Metz (2004), who argue for a richer conception of children's developmental capacities in the context of science instruction. As educators develop new science curricula and programs to address the lack of rich and challenging science instruction in the early grades, there is a need to document what children learn from such efforts. In order to develop research-based and pedagogically effective science curricula, we need assessments with clearly described theoretical and psychometric characteristics. The SLA is one example of such an assessment that can be used to aggregate and compare learning outcomes, as well as to provide empirical information on kindergarten children's capacities for science learning.

Inservice Elementary and Middle School Teachers’ Conceptions of Photosynthesis and Respiration

The purpose of this descriptive study was to investigate inservice elementary and middle school teachers’ conceptions of photosynthesis and respiration, basic concepts they are expected to teach. A forced-choice instrument assessing selected standards-based life science concepts with non-scientific conceptions embedded in distracter options was utilized to assess 76 inservice elementary and middle school teachers from the central Appalachian region. Outcomes from four tasks assessing photosynthesis and respiration concepts are discussed. Findings revealed similarities between non-scientific conceptions the teachers demonstrated and non-scientific conceptions reported in the research literature on elementary and middle school students’ understanding of the concepts. Findings also informed subsequent inservice teacher professional development efforts in life science and the development of a biology course for preservice elementary teachers.

Teaching mode efficiency and learning preferences of first year nursing students

The student population in universities is very diverse: ranging ages, experiences, culture, level of preparedness and learning styles. This diversity presents academics with increasing challenges to motivate and promote student understanding. The aim of the current study was to develop knowledge of different learning styles among first year health science students and determine the benefits that students obtain from each teaching strategy. A questionnaire was designed for quantitative data collection, consisting of two sections. The first section sought student feedback on their experiences of lectures, tutorials and practical classes; the second section, consists of the 'VARK test', Visual, Aural, Read/write, Kinesthetic sensory modalities determines the different ways of receiving information [Fleming, N.D., 1995. I'm different; not dumb. Modes of presentation (VARK) in the tertiary classroom. In: Zelmer, A. (Ed.), Annual Conference of the Higher Education and Research Development Society of Australasia. J.]. The study identified that the majority of students found the lectures, tutorials and practical sessions to be beneficial to their learning and the combination reiterates and emphasises various life science concepts. The most favoured strategy was practical sessions, while tutorials were seen as least useful. The sensory mode the majority of students preferred to receive information was kinesthetic, the hands on approach to learning. Students are diverse creatures with differing abilities and mode for learning. There is no single right way to present material but by providing several different approaches the differing learning styles of students can be accommodated.