The interdependency of relationships and energy flow in ecosystems are crucial biological concepts that students frequently find hard to understand. They are one of the foundations to the survival of living things and the complex processes that balance life on Earth. The ability to interpret food chains and food webs is fundamental in the communication and understanding of relationships between organisms in the domain of biology. I examine the ways elementary-level students read a simple food web diagram and the effect this has on their understanding of the encapsulated biology concepts. Diagram reading approaches are described along with analysis of how meaning making is influenced by students' preconceived ideas. The results indicate the students experienced a range of difficulties in reading the food web diagram. I conclude that food web instruction must address prior knowledge, challenge preconceptions, and involve deep diagram processing. The research provides insights into the difficulties high school students have in comprehending food webs and understanding relationships in ecosystems.

“Plant blindness” is defined as the failure to appreciate the fundamental importance of plants. To address this phenomenon, we created the Pet Plant Project (P³) where students grow an unknown plant from seed, monitor development, and relate lecture concepts to their plant on a daily basis. A qualitative survey was administered and analyzed to evaluate student responses to the experience. Themes in the analysis, identified across 209 student-participants at Tennessee Tech University, included positive reinforcement of lecture material, a new-found appreciation for plants, responsibility and pride related to plant care, a continued desire to grow plants, and more. Statistical results included: 73% of students noticed plants more after the project; 76% planned to grow plants in the future; and 68% made a connection with their own plant that bolstered engagement in course materials.

Biodiversity encompasses the variety within and between species in an environment. Native communities host a diverse array of species and interactions among members. Invasions by non-native species reduce biodiversity and a community's ability to support diverse assemblages, and are among the largest drivers of modern species extinctions. The Keep It Native Demonstration (KIND) Garden demonstrates the differences between invaded and intact plant communities. Utilizing this resource, we developed an inquiry-based activity for grades 5–7 that focused on observational data. Student groups recorded the number of animal and plant species in multiple habitat types. We then compiled data from the separate groups and averaged the number of species observed in each habitat type. The results were graphed to enable students to visualize the differences in species diversity among habitats. This exercise illustrated differences in species richness and diversity between invaded and native plant dominated areas, and allowed students to begin initial data interpretation. We provide methods for this activity, strategies for implementing the activity on other sites, and adaptations to accommodate different grade levels and the associated Next Generation Science Standards.

Role-playing scenarios in science education offer students an active way to engage in learning as well as to discover how their decisions as citizens, voters, or policymakers can affect environmental and public health. In this activity, students take on the role of environmental consultants, helping city planners decide the best location for a new recreation area located on the fictional community's major waterway. The objective of the game is to engage the students in critical thinking to determine the most relevant water tests needed to accept or reject the four proposed locations, given their knowledge of possible pollutants from different land-use activities. Students work in teams to integrate methods used in determining water quality, such as chemical testing, macroinvertebrate surveys, and bacterial monitoring, into a defendable decision for their recommendation. This activity was designed for and tested by high school students enrolled in AP Environmental Sciences and could be modified for undergraduate ecology or biology courses.

Children today do not spend as much time outside as they did in previous generations; consequently, they are not building connectedness to nature and are less likely to engage in pro-environmental behaviors. Environmental education is one way to ameliorate this problem. However, teachers are limited by their access to natural habitats, time, and field expertise. To address both of these issues, I present an inquiry-based activity for both Advanced Placement and general high school biology that requires students to spend time in nature, use authentic field methods for collecting data, and apply their findings to pertinent conservation issues. This four-day activity uses a simplified approach, called the meter stick random sampling method, to measure plant biodiversity of different local habitats. Time-efficient and not reliant on species identification, this method is designed so students can repeat this procedure in their backyards or at a local nature preserve. The data can be used to discuss how human disturbance of habitat affects biodiversity, the importance of biodiversity for the stability of ecosystems, and how to restore biodiversity locally.

Different methods and strategies for teaching scientific knowledge have been proposed and integrated within existing classroom dynamics. These represent opportunities for reinforcing and teaching scientific concepts in the classroom, especially in ways that students can easily understand. In this article, we propose a dynamic classroom activity for teaching ecological interactions between plants and frugivorous birds, as an example. This same model could also be used or adapted to teach diverse ecological concepts to students. This teaching strategy is divided into two parts: (1) a theoretical class, and (2) a group activity that we called The Ecological Interactions Olympiad. We describe this method step-by-step and provide suggestions for applying it to other scientific topics. The aim of using such learning strategies is to increase the attention and interest of young students in scientific topics and to improve their critical thinking skills and awareness of the events and interactions that occur in nature, which could ultimately contribute to the conservation of nature.

We investigated using Mathematica to create an interactive exercise that allows students to explore biological concepts. Exporting these active learning experiences to the Wolfram Computable Document Format (CDF) lets students enter data and modify parameters with only a browser plug-in and without needing to know how to use Mathematica. This exercise enhances student understanding by allowing them to focus on the biological concepts and visualize the data and calculations without the tedium of hand computation. In this article, we will highlight an interactive version of a biodiversity laboratory that explores Simpson's Diversity Index. Students are walked through sample calculations with a small data set, and then analyze a larger data set, which is presented as a set of interactive graphs and automatic calculations so that they can explore the data to answer questions. For our non-major audience, this laboratory leads to a more sophisticated discussion without getting stuck on the calculations. We will present the exercise and assessment results.

The study adapts Anfinsen's Nobel-winning experiment of protein folding into biology investigation for secondary and college students. This experiment is significant for secondary and college science learning not only for its associations with some core concepts in biology, but also for its rich nature of science and science practices. The lab procedure of the original experiment was modified to be accessible to secondary biology teachers and students. A detailed lab manual and task sheet are available.

Biomagnification influences the movement of environmental contaminants and relates to food chains and the transfer of matter in ecosystems, concepts that are found in the Next Generation Science Standards. Consequently, we developed a hands-on, discussion-based activity for the middle school science classroom to demonstrate biomagnification and connect it to food webs and trophic pyramids. Each student represents an aquatic organism, and together students simulate the consumption and excretion processes in an aquatic food chain. This simulation demonstrates how certain environmental contaminants accumulate within organisms and ultimately become concentrated in predators at the top of the food chain.