Gateway science courses are an ongoing obstacle to recruitment into STEM fields (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics). Students come to these courses with a high cognitive load, making success in the course challenging. Instructional design can be used to reduce cognitive load. Here we demonstrate that leveraging pre- and post-lecture quizzes has the capacity to reduce cognitive load. Over three semesters, we assessed 164 students taking SCB201 (General Biology I). Students in the treatment and control groups were given surveys to gauge the experiment's effectiveness. These surveys were given at the beginning, midterm, and end of the semester. The surveys collected student feedback concerning attendance habits, reading for knowledge, and course difficulty each semester. The treatment group findings showed favorable increases in attendance and reading for knowledge. Additionally, students in the treatment group found the quizzes to help them better understand core concepts as the semester progressed. We determined that these quizzes helped focus learning by causing a decrease in cognitive load for students. This methodology has universal application to any type of course needing to reduce cognitive load.

Evidence-based pedagogies to improve STEM student success are now recognized, but their successful incorporation can be hampered by STEM faculty wariness of novel pedagogical research. To support these pedagogies’ effective implementation, a research team at a southeastern Historically Black College and University (HBCU) provided its STEM faculty with long-term (2013-2020), incentivized professional development (PD), focused on faculty teaching development (TD). Over six years, PD/TD experts provided faculty participants with theoretical underpinnings and student outcome data, demonstrated hands-on strategies for under-prepared and differential learners, and addressed concerns that novel pedagogies could erode STEM standards. Participants reflected on their teaching and learning foundations, examined their approaches and assumptions, and implemented new strategies. Interview and survey findings showed long-term PD can help change STEM faculty teaching views, even among those initially resistant. Although beyond our study window, ICFAIM collaborations yielded two DOE-funded faculty-developed interventions and team cohesiveness during COVID’s shift to online instruction. ICFAIM evidence supports PD/TD that is: 1) designed to build on shared standards and knowledge; 2) provided incrementally over time; 3) focused on topics of concern to faculty alongside new ones; and 4) fairly incentivized.

Critical thinking is essential in academia and the workforce. Although writing can be used as a pedagogical tool for fostering deeper subject matter understanding, increased retention, and critical thinking, relatively few science courses are writing based. This writing-based introductory science course provided an opportunity for students to learn biology content through writing while also developing critical thinking skills. In this undergraduate introductory biology course, a learning progression framework was applied to writing assignments in order to promote critical thinking. Early course assignments focused on lower-order critical thinking, including information gathering and concept connecting activities, and served as the foundation for writing an evaluative research paper (REP) that required the application and analysis of biology content knowledge within different contexts. Based on the analysis of REP assignments using standardized criteria for assessing critical thinking, students were found to significantly increase their ability to demonstrate critical thinking. Students also became more aware of their critical thinking development, made stronger connections between concepts and applications in other contexts, and displayed measurable increases in critical thinking from their first to final drafts of their papers.

As introductory college science courses transition from large, passive lectures to more student-centered active learning environments, additional instructional support may be needed. Peer Learning Assistants (PLAs) can aid course transformations by helping facilitate active learning and peer engagement among students in the classroom. Pedagogical training prepares PLAs to guide student learning through a variety of evidence-based strategies. However, little is known about how PLAs enact these pedagogical strategies to promote learning during student interactions. In this qualitative study, we sought to understand the ways in which PLAs support student learning in introductory college biology courses. Thematic analysis of interviews with PLAs revealed they use both relational and cognitive strategies while interacting with students. Relational strategies included making students comfortable and attending to student differences to create an inclusive learning environment. Cognitive strategies related to building students’ understanding by asking guiding questions, eliciting student thinking, and providing alternative explanations. By engaging in these actions with PLAs, students may learn to adopt similar practices. Therefore, PLAs facilitate student-centered instruction by guiding student thinking and fostering student development of learning strategies.

Although public attitudes towards K-12 education are relatively positive, there are still fundamental misunderstandings about what effective science teaching entails, which could hinder public support for science education. This article describes a promising model that supports future STEM professionals in learning more about effective science education: the Science Partnership Program (SPP). In the SPP, STEM graduate students (GSs) teach science content to elementary teacher candidates (TCs) and receive a semester-long introduction to lesson planning and general instructional theories. Based on a variety of data sources from 28 STEM GSs over five semesters, the data show these GSs came to appreciate that: 1) planning an effective lesson is difficult; 2) content and teaching expertise are not the same; 3) teaching is a skill that requires time and practice; and 4) there are meaningful ways the GSs may support science education in their future roles as STEM professionals. The results of this study indicate that purposeful interventions that involve future STEM professionals engaging in teaching may provide some clarity around the complexities involved in effective science teaching and encourage STEM professionals to support K-12 science education.

A study was done at a mid-sized public university in the Midwest of the United States. At this university, there are three large classes taught in Student-Centered Active Learning Environment with Upside-down Pedagogies (SCALE-UP) classrooms: algebra-based introductory physics, calculus-based introductory physics, and introductory statistics. Twenty students, each taking at least one of these classes, were interviewed about their experiences working with their peers. Male students had more positive things to say about their group work experiences than female students did. Students in the algebra-based physics course had more positive things to say about their group work experiences than students in the calculus-based physics or statistics courses did. Students in calculus-based physics were the only students to describe experiencing a negative classroom environment, and students in statistics had the most to say about equal contributions to group work. Student quotes highlight their experiences.

From the Editor's Desk, November/December 2024

While hands-on activities are important in science, students must have the opportunity to process the ideas and information that stem from those activities. Minds-on science activities, such as literacy integration, support making connections between prior and new knowledge by encouraging students to read, speak, and write like scientists. Literacy integration in science has been widely studied, but effective literacy integration remains elusive. In response, this article addresses ways that a teacher can use a combination of text genres (the traditional science textbook, popular science articles, and Adapted Primary Literature) to scaffold the understanding of scientific practices while using minds-on activities. Teachers will gain a sense of what literacy integration entails, see a concrete plan for integration literacy in the science classroom, and find the resources they need to accomplish this goal.

This three-day unit engages students in the exploration of light behavior and makes connections to the advanced idea of the wave-particle duality of light. Students begin by exploring the behaviors of marbles (particles) as they interact with different materials through reflection (Bouncing off), absorption (getting stuck), and transmission (rolling through them). Then students investigate slinkys (waves) and how they go through similar interactions. Students draw connections between slinky (waves) and marble (particle) movement to build an understanding of reflection, absorption, and transmission. Finally, students observe light interacting with a variety of materials and draw connections between the way the light interacts with various materials and the interactions of the marble and slinky. By building on concrete experiences we help students consider the abstract idea that light behaves both like a particle (marble) and a wave (slinky) while at the same time drawing their attention to how their learning relates to the work of scientists studying these fields.

This phenomenon-driven unit focuses on students making sense of the mutually beneficial species interactions between legumes and rhizobia. Many science classes spend less time studying the nitrogen cycle due to time constraints and more focus on other cycles, such as the carbon cycle. However, the nitrogen cycle plays a vital role in the air we breathe, the creation of our DNA, and the ability of plants to grow. This phenomenon-driven, sensemaking approach enhances student curiosity and makes the learning experience more relevant, leading to deeper student buy-in. Throughout the unit, students have the chance to explore and explain what plants need to grow inside and/or outside, depending on your school’s resources and space.