We describe the implementation of “APPLE for the Teacher,” an alternative education outreach program that augments teacher efforts in presenting specific AP Biology laboratory exercises and at the same time involves the community in the educational process. The program is 5 years old and is staffed primarily by volunteers. We discuss the experiences of participants and lessons learned during the program's implementation and growth.

In a time when electronic devices dominate students' free time, students often stop learning in the summer and instead focus on sedentary indoor activities, like video games and television programs. Sociologists have documented that, for some students, summers result in little learning and contribute to an achievement gap. To help combat “summer learning loss,” teachers should implement a summer biology project to provide students with hands-on, inquiry experiences promoting science learning. Assigning longterm activities to be completed dating the summer months compels students to explore the outdoors, the learning-loss flow is slowed, and students are better prepared for the start of the next school term.

Analytical and quantitative thinking skills are core components of science but can be challenging to teach in introductory biology courses. To address this issue, modest curriculum modifications, including methods of hypothesis testing, data collection, and statistical analysis, were introduced into existing exercises in an introductory biology laboratory course. After completing the updated course, students demonstrated improved ability to understand and interpret statistical analyses. Furthermore, students were more likely to understand that hypothesis development and quantitative data analysis are important parts of biology. This study indicates that small changes to laboratory curricula can effect important changes in student learning and attitudes.

National science standards require an understanding of animal behavior, diversity, and adaptations of organisms, as well as the concept of science as inquiry. We have developed a hands-on classroom activity that addresses these standards through teaching about herbivory and diet breadth, using locally abundant caterpillars and plants. This activity provides students with opportunities for careful observation, data collection and analysis, and development of testable hypotheses for further experimentation. The lesson can be adapted to different grade levels, with students taking on varied levels of responsibility for formulation of hypotheses, experimental design, data collection, and data analysis.

We describe the use of Euglena gracilis for student-designed investigations of environmental factors that affect population growth of this unicellular flagellate. Each group of students can choose a topic of interest to them, but within the confines of a simple cell culture system that requires little space for each student group, and at a fairly low cost. Students are provided with stock cultures of E. gracilis, along with detailed instructions on preparing control medium and counting cells using a hemocytometer. Students then design their own experiments to test factors that possibly affect population growth over several weeks.

The accumulation of plastic in the oceans is an ever-growing environmental concern. Plastic debris is a choking and entanglement hazard for wildlife; plastics also leach toxic compounds into organisms and ecosystems. Educating students about the marine debris problem introduces fundamental concepts in toxicology, ecology, and oceanography. Students will learn about the toxicity of plastics, collect and analyze data on plastic debris, and put their new knowledge to work by writing a congressional bill that addresses the problem of marine debris.

Understanding basic chemical concepts, including bonding, polar and nonpolar molecules, and hydrogen bonds is difficult for many biology students, who often have minimal chemistry backgrounds. The concept of electronegativity is introduced at the beginning of the chemical foundations part of a biology course as a central integrative concept. By using the electronegativity concept and an associated line graph, students gain an understanding of why ionic and covalent bonds form and which atoms form them, why atoms form polar and nonpolar covalent bonds, and what chemical groups can form hydrogen bonds. Positive student reviews indicate that this is an effective method for introducing chemical principles.

The purpose of this article is to introduce and develop a teaching method and process that incorporates quick response (QR) codes and smartphones into field trips for biology classes. The teaching process using QR codes and smartphones consisted of four steps. The first step was the selection of a suitable field study site and identification of species at the site. For this study, a tidal mudflat in Korea was selected and 24 species were identified at the field site. The second step was the generation by the instructor of QR codes for the 24 species, construction of QR code sheets for the species, and installation of a “QR code decoding app” on students' smartphones. In step 3, students explored and identified species at the field study site using the QR code sheets and shared their results with classmates via a social network system (SNS). The final step was the presentation and discussion of results in follow-up classes. The teaching method developed for this study led to active classroom discussion via smartphone social-networking services. Besides detailing the “scan and learn” teaching method and process, the paper offers a quick checklist for teachers and simplified specifics for the creation of a customized and illustrative field-study guidebook that motivates students.