College science courses aim to teach students both disciplinary knowledge and scientific
literacy skills. Several instruments have been developed to assess students' scientific …

To excel in modern science, technology, engineering, and mathematics careers, biology
majors need a range of transferable skills, yet competency development is often a relatively …

A large body of research has examined students' conceptions of evolution and their
relationships to acceptance of evolution. Proficiency in statistical and probabilistic reasoning …

If a new antibiotic is being tested for effectiveness, its effectiveness at curing patients is
compared with the best current antibiotics, and not with treatment by bloodletting. However …

One critical step in the challenging process of curricular reform is determining how closely a
curriculum aligns with national recommendations. Here, we examine the alignment of …

Critical thinking is the process by which people make decisions about what to trust and what
to do. Many undergraduate courses, such as those in biology and physics, include critical …

Graphs are ubiquitous tools in science that allow one to explore data patterns, design
studies, communicate findings, and make claims. This essay is a companion to the online …

Understanding evolution is critical to learning biology, but few college instructors take
advantage of the body of peer-reviewed literature that can inform evolution teaching and …

Quantitative modelling plays an important role as biology increasingly deals with big data
sets, relies on modelling to understand system dynamics, makes predictions about impacts …

Variation is an important concept that underlies experimental design and data analysis.
Incomplete understanding of variation can preclude students from designing experiments …