The lack of environmental education in many primary and secondary school systems is likely due to overloaded school curricula, lack of funds, large classroom sizes, and other contributing factors. Through the integration of hands-on activities following the training of teachers, we can improve the impact of environmental education. Our goals in this study were to (1) develop a new kit-based, hands-on, experiential wildlife curriculum for grades K–12, focused on wild birds; (2) train educators on the curriculum through a professional development workshop; and (3) evaluate participants on their affinities for, perceptions of, and attitudes toward wildlife and birds. The results suggested that the workshop was minimally effective in influencing positive responses or improvement in perceived knowledge about birds, though in general the educators came into the workshop with positive perceptions and attitudes toward wildlife. Participants emphasized in their responses the importance of outdoor lessons and the potential for integrating citizen science in the classroom. Opportunities such as this can arm teachers with tools for the classroom and create stewards of the environment and conservationists through hands-on activities in field techniques and real-world research.

Instructors at rural, two-year institutions have many insights that can inform biology instruction at other colleges to promote rural students' success in the sciences. We present four principles, derived from three case studies of experienced rural instructors, to consider when teaching rural students. These include connecting to students' lives, being attentive to their needs in and out of the classroom, having a rigorous curriculum, and providing expansive learning opportunities. These principles capitalize on the strengths of rural students rather than their shortcomings.

Biology labs often make use of student teams. However, some students resist working in teams, often based on poor experiences. Although instructors sometimes struggle with student teams, effective teams in biology labs are achievable. We increased student learning and satisfaction when working in research teams by (1) including in the syllabus a teamwork learning objective "to practice effective teamwork and team management, including modeling behaviors of inclusion and ethics, and using leadership skills to foster problem solving, team communication, conflict management, consensus building, and idea generation"; and (2) designing and implementing exercises that teach students the value of working in a team and how to be part of an effective student team (e.g., developing shared expectations, creating norms of behavior and team culture, and building awareness of the importance of team conflict and likely student responses to such conflict). We also used individual and team reflections on team functioning, following formal online team assessment. This article presents details about our curricular innovations as well as pretest and posttest data demonstrating student attitudes and beliefs regarding teamwork. We experienced improved student satisfaction and success in introductory biology lab courses, as well as reduced instructor guesswork and stress regarding student teams.

Zoonotic diseases pass between humans and other animals and are a major global health challenge. Lyme disease, SARS, swine flu, and Ebola are all examples of diseases spilling over to humans from other animals. Students may hear about these outbreaks in the news but learn very little about them in the classroom. We describe an activity designed to teach high school or college students about zoonotic disease outbreaks. This case-based lesson also introduces how habitat disruption can lead to far-reaching impacts on livestock and humans, often indirectly. Collaborative problem solving is used to explore the One Health concept and a real-world spillover event involving Hendra virus. Active learning using a “jigsaw” format to model the value of multiple stakeholders engages students in tracing the path of transmission for a pathogen. The scenario and class activity demonstrate how scientists and health professionals routinely work together to figure out the chain of transmission for a novel pathogen and use this information to limit the spread of disease.

Infectious diseases are a major threat to humans, and finding sources of infection is therefore an important task. We designed a website to help teachers communicate the relevant principles of infectious diseases, deepen students' understanding of disease transmission, and equip students with the ability to trace the origin of infections caused by microorganisms. The website enables multi-person online use, with real-time recording of the exchange process and real-time viewing of infection results. Additionally, the website is able to preserve data permanently by setting multiple infection sources, providing a better simulation of real-world scenarios. Test use of the website by 120 students demonstrated that it has no significant bugs.

This article illustrates how a seventh-grade life science unit connects to the Science and Engineering Practices and Nature of Science in the Next Generation Science Standards and used science fair projects as a context for students to solve problems and understand how authentic science is done. We outline how student interests drive the development and presentation of science fair projects and discuss each component of a science fair project to reflect the practices and nature of science and how we support students along the way. The article includes images of students and of their work for science fair projects.

Molecular biology topics tend to be abstract and hard to visualize, and consequently pupils form many misconceptions about genetics and molecular biology. We describe how to make a hands-on educational set that provides visual and tactile modeling of DNA replication, transcription, polymerase chain reaction (PCR), and random mutations so that students can examine these processes in detail. The set is inexpensive and easy to make, has been used successfully, and allows for modification to fit individual teachers ' needs.

With increasing focus on active learning in college classrooms, many institutions of higher education are redesigning introductory laboratory classes to provide more active-learning opportunities for students and to more authentically recreate the practices of scientists. These classes are primarily taught by graduate teaching assistants (GTAs), who often lack the pedagogical training necessary to plan for and support students' intellectual engagement in rich science tasks that require deep engagement in the practices of science and the core disciplinary ideas. We believe that graduate student discussion groups can provide an opportunity to encourage and equip GTAs with pedagogical knowledge and skills to select and use cognitively demanding instructional tasks. In this article, we describe our planning and facilitation of one such meeting with a group of GTAs about the relative cognitive demands of various laboratory activities. We propose that regularly scheduled meetings of discussion groups like this can help build learning communities among GTAs. We provide strategies to support GTAs' professional development and help them think critically about the tasks they use in their classes. In particular, we highlight the importance of the cognitive demands of tasks for engaging students in active and rigorous opportunities for science learning.