An indispensable tool for biology teacher educators, researchers, graduate students, and practising teachers, this book presents up-to-date research, addresses common misconceptions, and discusses the pedagogical content knowledge necessary for effective teaching of key topics in biology. Chapters cover core subjects such as molecular biology, genetics, ecology, and biotechnology, and tackle broader issues that cut across topics, such as learning environments, worldviews, and the nature of scientific inquiry and explanation. Written by leading experts on their respective topics from a range of countries across the world, this international book transcends national curricula and highlights global issues, problems, and trends in biology literacy.

Biology is where many of science's most exciting and relevant advances are taking place. Yet, many students leave school without having learned basic biology principles, and few are excited enough to continue in the sciences. Why is biology education failing? How can reform be accomplished? This book presents information and expert views from curriculum developers, teachers, and others, offering suggestions about major issues in biology education: what should we teach in biology and how should it be taught? How can we measure results? How should teachers be educated and certified? What obstacles are blocking reform?

The vital resource for grading all assignments from the Master's Class Biology course, which includes:Instruction in biology with labs that provide comprehensive lists for required materials, detailed procedures, and lab journaling pages.A strong Christian worldview that clearly reveals God's wondrous creation of life and His sustaining power.This is an introductory high school level course covering the basic concepts and applications of biology. This 36-week study of biology begins with an overview of chemistry while opening a deeper understanding of living things that God created. The course moves through the nature of cells, ecosystems, biomes, the genetic code, plant and animal taxonomies, and more. Designed by a university science professor, this course provides the solid foundation students will need if taking biology in college.FEATURES: The calendar provides daily lessons with clear objectives, and the worksheets, quizzes, and tests are all based on the readings. Labs are included as an integral part of the course.

The Sourcebook for Teaching Science is a unique, comprehensive resource designed to give middle and high school science teachers a wealth of information that will enhance any science curriculum. Filled with innovative tools, dynamic activities, and practical lesson plans that are grounded in theory, research, and national standards, the book offers both new and experienced science teachers powerful strategies and original ideas that will enhance the teaching of physics, chemistry, biology, and the earth and space sciences.

This well-researched book provides a valuable instructional framework for high school biology teachers as they tackle five particularly challenging concepts in their classrooms, meiosis, photosynthesis, natural selection, proteins and genes, and environmental systems and human impact. The author counsels educators first to identify students' prior conceptions, especially misconceptions, related to the concept being taught, then to select teaching strategies that best dispel the misunderstandings and promote the greatest student learning. The book is not a prescribred set of lesson plans. Rather it presents a framework for lesson planning, shares appropriate approaches for developing student understanding, and provides opportunities to reflect and apply those approached to the five hard-to-teach topics. More than 300 teacher resources are listed.

Biology Inquiries offers educators a handbook for teaching middle and high school students engaging lessons in the life sciences. Inspired by the National Science Education Standards, the book bridges the gap between theory and practice. With exciting twists on standard biology instruction the author emphasizes active inquiry instead of rote memorization. Biology Inquiries contains many innovative ideas developed by biology teacher Martin Shields. This dynamic resource helps teachers introduce standards-based inquiry and constructivist lessons into their classrooms. Some of the book's classroom-tested lessons are inquiry modifications of traditional "cookbook" labs that biology teachers will recognize. Biology Inquiries provides a pool of active learning lessons to choose from with valuable tips on how to implement them.

The American Association for the Advancement of Science's report on Vision and Change in Undergraduate Biology Education suggests that instructors "can no longer rely solely on trying to cover a syllabus packed with topics" but rather should "introduce fewer concepts but present them in greater depth." They further suggest that the principles embodied in a set of core concepts and competencies should be the basis for all undergraduate biology courses, including those designed for nonmajors. The theme of Tools for Critical Thinking in Biology will be the first and most fundamental of these competencies: the ability to apply the process of science. Biology courses and curricula must engage students in how scientific inquiry is conducted, including evaluating and interpreting scientific explanations of the natural world. The book uses diverse examples to illustrate how experiments work, how hypotheses can be tested by systematic and comparative observations when experiments aren't possible, how models are useful in science, and how sound decisions can be based on the weight of evidence even when uncertainty remains. These are fundamental issues in the process of science that are important for everyone to understand, whether they pursue careers in science or not. Where other introductory biology textbooks are organized by scientific concepts, Tools for Critical Thinking in Biology will instead show how methods can be used to test hypotheses in fields as different as ecology and medicine, using contemporary case studies. The book will provide students with a deeper understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of such methods for answering new questions, and will thereby change the way they think about the fundamentals of biology.