Education Commons^™

Insects As Educational Tools: An Online Course Teaching The Use Of Insects As Instructional Tools, Douglas A. Golick, Tiffany M. Heng-Moss

Department of Entomology: Faculty Publications

Publication of the 1996 National Science Education Standards (NSES) initiated a push to transform science education by engaging K-12 students in active learning through inquiry-based teaching (National Research Council, 1996). Students need opportunities to construct knowledge by asking questions, developing hypotheses, collecting and analyzing data, and interpreting and communicating results. Inquiry teaching has been shown to improve students’ attitudes toward science, enhance their performance, and promote scientific literacy (Haury, 1993; Lindberg, 1990: Mattheis and Nakayama, 1988; Rakow, 1986).

Providing both pre- and in-service teachers with courses and professional development programs that promote inquiry teaching are vital to teacher education (National …

Using Web-Based Key Character And Classification Instruction For Teaching Undergraduate Students Insect Identification, Douglas A. Golick, Tiffany M. Heng-Moss, Allen L. Steckelberg, David W. Brooks, Leon G. Higley, David Fowler

Department of Entomology: Faculty Publications

The purpose of the study was to determine whether undergraduate students receiving web-based instruction based on traditional, key character, or classification instruction differed in their performance of insect identification tasks. All groups showed a significant improvement in insect identifications on pre- and post-two-dimensional picture specimen quizzes. The study also determined student performance on insect identification tasks was not as good as for family-level identification as compared to broader insect orders and arthropod classification identification tasks. Finally, students erred significantly more by misidentification than misspelling specimen names on prepared specimen quizzes. Results of this study support that short web-based insect identification …

Using Insects To Promote Science Inquiry In Elementary Classrooms, Douglas A. Golick, Tiffany M. Heng-Moss, Marion D. Ellis

Department of Entomology: Faculty Publications

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Nebraska public schools created Bugs in the Classroom, a professional development initiative with the goal of empowering teachers to use insects in science inquiry instruction in elementary classrooms. The initiative included workshops for elementary educators on science inquiry and teaching with insects. This paper includes a description of the workshop as well as an evaluation of the impact of the workshop on participating teachers' knowledge of scientific inquiry, entomology knowledge, and inquiry practice. Also included are recommendations for similar professional development activities.

Bumble Boosters: Doing Science As A Community Of Learners, Douglas A. Golick, Marion D. Ellis

Department of Entomology: Faculty Publications

Bumble bees are an excellent organism for engaging high school students in research. They are a recognizable insect and an important pollinator, and much remains to be discovered about the biology of many species. Bumble Boosters was a teaching and research project funded by the Nebraska Lottery’s Educational Innovation Fund. The project began in June 1999 and ended in June 2002.