Instructors from K–16 incorporate current events and contemporary media in their courses in a variety of ways and with different educational objectives. Here, I present strategies for selecting and framing current events in high school and undergraduate biology courses and an example assignment, all explicitly tied to science practice skills and utilizing coursework to advance students' science literacy and participation in the discourse. In this way, current events activities become a core part of the course experience, rather than an “extra” investment of planning and course time requiring trade-offs of instructional time devoted to other topics.

Many K–16 educators agree that active learning is a key component for student success in life sciences. At the same time, some instructors are frustrated by inconsistent student participation in these activities and may revert to traditional teaching strategies. Horse caregivers face a similar frustration when they lead a horse to water and it will not drink. However, they do not stop offering water. Instead, horse caregivers consider two possibilities: the horse is not thirsty or the water is not good. In this article, we apply horse sense to student engagement. We start by framing common challenges within two larger categories: student mindset (“Are the student's thirsty?”) and activity design (“Is the water good?”). For each challenge, we subsequently provide strategies to intentionally increase student learning while also empowering instructors to keep perspective.

A student's middle school science experience strongly impacts their future science, technology, engineering, and mathematics interest. The Japanese lesson study (JLS) model strengthens the student's experience through a research-based, collaborative, multistep, teaching-centered process focused on transforming local instructional practices. The JLS model has seen very limited application to middle school life science classrooms. The six-year-long implementation of JLS to core standards in the seventh-grade life science curriculum at a Los Angeles area school serving a historically underrepresented population found large, gender-independent increases in student mastery of key science standards, increased teacher collaboration in the areas of lesson development and data analysis, and school-site reform yielding district and statewide recognition.

Growing evidence has come to suggest that model-based inquiry can improve student learning outcomes and attitudes toward STEM in the biological sciences and beyond. In our introductory biology laboratory course that focuses on cellular and molecular biology, we introduced model-based inquiry (MBI) labs to create a more student-focused course that provides a robust opportunity for students to learn about the research process itself. Prior to the intervention, our laboratory course was designed as a set of traditional lab classes. From 2019 to 2022, we implemented three iterations of the MBI lab structure. In order to assess learning and changes in attitudes toward science, we implemented a pre-course and post-course test that assessed knowledge of experimental design and graph analysis as well as students' attitudes toward science. Our data indicate that the modifications to the course maintained the level of learning gains seen in the traditional labs. One of the major challenges we encountered was the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic during 2020, in the middle of the data collection period, just after our first iteration of the MBI labs. Upon return to regular room capacity and teaching schedules, we continued with further iterations of the MBI lab approach, however, impacts of COVID-19 to student learning likely persisted (and may continue to persist in the coming years). Despite the challenges to student learning, we did not find evidence of a decrease in learning gains. While further data are needed to fully assess the impact of MBI, our results suggest that the MBI labs may hold promise as a resilient structure on which to build student learning. Interviews with students also showed that feelings were overwhelmingly positive about the labs and the teamwork, but there was added stress when lab activities did not go according to plan. Altogether, our findings suggest that MBI may support laboratory and critical thinking skills while promoting self-efficacy in undergraduate students.

This activity provides students with an introduction to the use of animals in research and activities commonly performed to meet the guidelines for research animal care provided by the U.S. Public Health Service. The lesson includes discussion of animal models in research, explanation of regulations and practice for research animal care, discussion of roles for people in research animal care, a simulated rodent health inquiry activity, and discussion of disease pathways.

The post-00s college students are a group of “internet natives” with distinctive personality and innovative spirit. It is important to explore how to motivate them to actively learn new knowledge. Debate, as a means of learning and communication, can enhance participants' critical thinking skills, boost oral skills, and promote their learning of relevant knowledge. Here, we use the model of classroom debate in a general education biology course to debate scientific controversies. This increases students' enthusiasm for independent learning of relevant knowledge and promotes effective independent inquiry and learning.

The process of photosynthesis is included in Unit 3: Cellular Energetics of the AP Biology Course and Exam Description (CED). Many teachers use the floating leaf disk assay from “AP Biology Investigative Labs: An Inquiry Based Approach” to teach this biochemical process; but often face procedural difficulties, time requirement challenges, inconsistent data, and student confusion pertaining to the overall learning goals of the lab experience. This alternate procedure streamlines the experimental set up and shifts the data collection goal to measuring the volume of oxygen generated by the light reaction. The protocol provides students opportunities to design their own variations of the experiment to analyze environmental conditions that may influence the rate of oxygen generation during the light reaction.

Health education is critical for preventing the spread of infectious diseases and ensuring societal well-being. Children, on the other hand, are rarely actively involved in infectious disease education. Children's literature promotes reasoning and engages students in argumentation and decision-making. Given the importance of active student participation in infectious disease education, we recommend using children's literature to engage school students in role-playing argumentation. This approach not only bridges the gap in student engagement but also promotes argumentation in order to make informed decisions for both individual and public health.

This article delves into an innovative and engaging in-class activity where students harness the power of BuzzFeed-style personality quizzes to unravel the world of biomolecules. Macromolecules, including proteins, nucleic acids, carbohydrates, and lipids, are fundamental components of life, each possessing distinct properties and functions. In this pedagogical approach, students are tasked with associating character traits with macromolecules, creating multiple-choice questions for these character traits, assigning each choice to a macromolecule based on its properties/ functions, and summing up results for each macromolecule. A personality quiz is then made and published on the BuzzFeed platform. Students were engaged in this activity and shared the BuzzFeed quiz with their friends and family, which led to classroom content being further discussed outside of class including on social media. Overall, the in-class activity of creating BuzzFeed personality quizzes based on macromolecules is a fun and engaging way for students to learn about the properties and functions of these essential biomolecules. It allows students to explore the material in a creative and interactive way, while also developing important skills in critical thinking and communication.