Storytelling can stimulate learning by delivering scientific content within a narrative that increases comprehension and engagement. In this article I describe the coevolutionary arms race between toxic newts and predatory garter snakes. This engaging story centers on the use of a deadly neurotoxin called tetrodotoxin (TTX) as an antipredator defense. Some species of newts contain TTX in their tissues, but resistance to TTX has developed through convergent evolution in garter snakes and other species. TTX resistance results from mutated voltage-gated sodium channels. These channels, whether TTX resistant or not, are found in all animals and are vital to the function of nervous and muscle tissues. Through reciprocal selection, coevolution has created phenotypic matching between toxic newts and TTX-resistant garter snakes across their range in the western United States. In other words, as newts became more poisonous, garter snakes became more resistant. These results and the scientific process behind them are discussed in detail. This story can be used by educators to provide a unifying and engaging backdrop as students learn multiple aspects of biology, such as protein structure, genetics, phylogenetics, electrical signaling, evolution, and the process of science.

Teachers are eager for professional development on teaching evolution, especially if it includes direct ties to relevant curricula and detailed lesson plans. Howard Hughes Medical Institute's BioInteractive Online Professional Learning: Evolution course was developed to provide educators with free, in-depth, multimedia resources that highlight important scientific concepts and studies in evolution and engage participants through interactive activities that link to student resources. Our goals in the development of the asynchronous, nonfacilitated course were to (1) deepen teachers' content knowledge of evolutionary concepts essential to NGSS and AP Biology courses, (2) increase teachers' confidence and comfort in teaching evolution content to general biology and AP Biology students, (3) have teachers identify major evolutionary concepts in scientific studies, authentic data, or educational media used to teach evolution, and (4) assist teachers in identifying and incorporating relevant BioInteractive resources to illustrate evolutionary content and science practices in their own course(s). Our results from a postcourse survey that included pre-post retrospective confidence questions suggest that the course improved educators' knowledge in evolution and their confidence in teaching evolutionary topics. Overall, this course provides educators the opportunity to deepen their content knowledge and obtain exciting, relevant, and reliable resources to use in their classrooms.

While some have argued that abandoning religious belief is the only way to help religious individuals accept evolution, we strongly contend that highlighting faith-evolution compatibility is much more effective. This article describes a professional development event for science teachers and religious educators highlighting ways to teach human evolution using a science inquiry approach coupled with methods for helping students reconcile science and religion. Since many science teachers in our population face a highly religious student body, are religious themselves, and have religious education integrated into the school system, we asked them to invite the religious educators (i.e., seminary teachers) at their schools to join them at the event. In addition, a group of religious educator faculty members from the local university joined the event. We collected data both before and after intervention. Results showed that the event strengthened understanding of the intersection between evolution and religion for this particular faith group, decreased feelings of conflict in participants themselves, and increased their confidence and comfort level in offering reconciliation to students and designing lesson plans that include human examples of evolution. Differential impacts on each group of participants are discussed in terms of what we can apply to efforts like this going forward.

Understanding the main causes of biodiversity decline is an essential part of the syllabus of any university-level course in conservation biology. A novel computer-based activity is described for introducing students to using the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List database. The specific objectives of this activity are (1) to understand the main causes that threaten species worldwide and, if these causes differ, to try to elucidate the underlying processes that might be responsible for these differences in a given country and (2) to train students how to use digital biological data platforms, such as the IUCN Red List, and how to analyze and interpret biological data. To achieve these goals, students must obtain information from the IUCN Red List to assess why species are threatened globally and in a given country. Based on the total number of threatened species, students calculate the percentage of species affected by each threat within each Red List category and for all categories combined both globally and at the national level. The activity ends with a discussion in the classroom where the students are expected to share their interpretations about the main causes that threaten biodiversity at different scales of analysis and the applications of their findings in a conservation context. The activity is expected to increase the awareness of students regarding environmental issues and to develop different key competencies and basic skills as learning outcomes, including expertise in biological diagnosis, information management, and using the internet as an information source.

This classroom activity highlights how evolution by natural selection is nonteleological—that is, not guided by need, by organismal intent, by inherent progress, by an external ideal, or by any observable purposive agent. Rather, it is driven by chance opportunity, environmental context, and historical happenstance. Students simulate the evolution of a population of tin cans, based on temperature retention/loss in either arctic or hot desert habitats. Chance and necessity interact in separate lab groups (as isolated populations), based on similar starting organisms. The process demonstrates not only selection but also how even organisms in similar environments may not evolve with identical traits, depending on available mutations. It shows that even when selection occurs, it may not do so consistently or uniformly with each generation. It shows both divergence based on different contexts of selection and variability based on the vagaries of history.

Teaching evolution is one of the most difficult tasks in biology education since there are a great variety of obstacles to its understanding. The inclusion of the nature of science and scientific inquiry, the connection with aspects of daily life, work based on scientific argumentation, and the use of empirical studies from current research have been identified as important aspects to include in teaching evolution. In this work, we present a series of three activities, which were developed after considering all the recommendations of the literature described above. The sequence begins with the example of the evolution of one of the species most loved by students: dogs. Through argumentation, students make their preconceptions explicit. After this, a long-term experiment about artificial selection in the silver fox (Vulpes vulpes) is presented (see Glaze, 2018) as part of the reflection on the experimental evidence that supports evolution. Finally, students are asked to generate a hypothesis about how they think the domestication process of wolves occurred, eventually resulting in dogs. The outcomes of implementation in high school classrooms and biology teacher education are discussed.

This classroom exercise utilizes a free mobile virtual reality app to introduce students to (1) the process by which paleoanthropologists find and interpret fossils, (2) the importance of two recent hominin fossil finds in the Cradle of Humankind of South Africa, and (3) the variety of science careers that contribute to paleoanthropological research. Before their virtual field trip, learners are introduced to the Homo naledi and Australopithecus sediba discoveries and to some of the researchers from the team through a collection of online resources. In the app, learners explore and find fossils in the Dinaledi Chamber of Rising Star Cave in South Africa, where the first fossils of H. naledi were found. Postexploration analysis and reflection prompts encourage learners to consider how researchers decide how and where to excavate, which skills are needed to study our human origins, and why this research is important.

Homework is an integral component of most science courses but can have an impact on student learning only when students actually complete the assignment. Low completion rate of homework, then, is an impediment to student success in science courses, and a source of frustration for instructor and students alike. Here, we outline a set of design principles supported by research in how students learn, intended to streamline outside-of-class assignments to address course goals, improve student buy-in and motivation, and provide instructors better formative assessment data. We also share examples of outside-of-class assignments aligned to these principles to aid instructors in shortening and focusing the homework they choose to assign in their courses.

Virtual Reality (VR) is an emerging technology that provides K–12 students with unique experiences for robust science learning by transporting them to a virtual world where they may engage directly with scientific phenomena. This is because VR creates lifelike three-dimensional spaces where students can manipulate objects; hear, see, and sometimes feel the environment; and explore places that mimic attributes of the real world. VR holds great utility in science education by engaging students in science topics that may be otherwise inaccessible to them in the real world. This inaccessibility may stem from the content (being too small, large, or abstract), safety issues (too hazardous or dangerous), not having access to the materials in their context, possessing physical or cognitive disabilities where they need to do the activity repeatedly or differently, or having cultural, religious, or ethical concerns related to conducting specific science experiments. This commentary discusses how three key types of VR hardware (VR viewers, desktop VR systems, and head-mounted displays) can be incorporated into science standards, curriculum, and instruction by delineating the pros and cons of each. The commentary concludes with specific, stepwise guidance in ideating, designing, and implementing VR-based experiences for K–12 students in the science classroom.