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Full-Text Articles in Biology

The Effect Of An Historical Geology Course On Students’ Attitudes Towards Science And Their Knowledge Of Deep Time As A Threshold To Their Knowledge Of Evolution, Allan Nolan Aug 2018

The Effect Of An Historical Geology Course On Students’ Attitudes Towards Science And Their Knowledge Of Deep Time As A Threshold To Their Knowledge Of Evolution, Allan Nolan

Dissertations

In America there exists a conflict between a small group of its citizens and the concept of evolution. Researchers have studied this conflict and the ways in which teachers might approach educational methodologies that not only address evolution in a sensitive manner, but also remain legally acceptable.

This research was designed to address teaching evolution in the context of deep time – the concept that time is vast and that geology and biology operate in a timescale of hundreds of millions to billions of years. In previous peer-reviewed works, it has been stated that deep time acts as a threshold …


Eight-Legged Encounters—Arachnids, Volunteers, And Art Help To Bridge The Gap Between Informal And Formal Science Learning, Eileen Hebets, Melissa Welch-Lazoritz, Pawl Tisdale, Patricia Wonch Hill Feb 2018

Eight-Legged Encounters—Arachnids, Volunteers, And Art Help To Bridge The Gap Between Informal And Formal Science Learning, Eileen Hebets, Melissa Welch-Lazoritz, Pawl Tisdale, Patricia Wonch Hill

Eileen Hebets Publications

Increased integration and synergy between formal and informal learning environments is proposed to provide multiple benefits to science learners. In an effort to better bridge these two learning contexts, we developed an educational model that employs the charismatic nature of arachnids to engage the public of all ages in science learning; learning that aligns with the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS Disciplinary Core Ideas associated with Biodiversity and Evolution). We created, implemented, and evaluated a family-focused, interactive science event—Eight-Legged Encounters (ELE)—which encompasses more than twenty modular activities. Volunteers facilitated participant involvement at each activity station and original …


The Positive Effect Of Role Models In Evolution Instruction, Emily A. Holt, T. Heath Ogden, Susan L. Durham Dec 2017

The Positive Effect Of Role Models In Evolution Instruction, Emily A. Holt, T. Heath Ogden, Susan L. Durham

T. Heath Ogden

 Background: Previous research has identified numerous factors to explain why students have difficulty learning
about evolution. Some of these factors include a student’s background (including their religion and major of study),
the type of evolution instruction, and the inclusion of the nature of science (NOS) instruction. Sparse but more recent
work has investigated the impact of a religious-scientist role model to help dampen perceptions of conflict between
evolutionary science and worldview. We had two research goals: (1) to identify which of these factors influence
students’ learning of evolution in post-secondary education; and (2) to describe the relationships among incoming
biology …