Biological interactions and associations underlie life's processes at every level of organization. Here, we present a classroom activity that allows students to visualize and understand the connections within almost any biological system, from cell functions to ecological relationships. We recommend that instructors implement this activity to review course content and enhance students' system-thinking abilities.

We established a tallgrass prairie restoration experiment on a high school campus in Kansas. This easily accessible natural environment provides students and teachers many options including scientific research, artistic ventures, or simply relaxing in nature. Our restoration project has four main objectives: (1) practicing science; (2) increasing prairie habitat; (3) fostering a sense of place by getting students outside; and (4) facilitating community collaboration. Here, we present an overview of our restoration as a general model that is adaptable for a variety of ecosystems and circumstances.

This case study examines students' perception, motivation, and learning gain of a teaching unit featuring wireless sensors as tools to collect scientific data in the classroom. Students analyze data using the corresponding cellphone app, communicate findings to the class, and learn about a changing environment. Wireless sensors are produced for technology-based science lessons and are therefore suitable for our teaching unit to implement into the secondary school curriculum in the context of ecology. We aimed for very simple experimental setups in order to put the focus on handling the modern technical equipment, to make analyzing and learning from the collected data a priority, and to reduce expenses for teachers on busy schooldays. We validated the approach in German school settings with 67 students aged between 16 and 19 years. We found that our practical approach not only leads to high learning gains combined with learning enjoyment, a feeling of competence, and little perceived pressure but also improves students' understanding of scientific data.

Opportunities for research-based learning at the high school level are limited, and with the COVID-19 pandemic, these have been further reduced. Such opportunities are particularly scarce for authentic research experiences (AREs), which allow students to identify as scientists by collecting data that contributes to scientists' research. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we adapted two of our AREs for classroom settings, as remote independent research experiences for students to conduct from home. User guides and protocols from the AREs, Genotype-to-Phenotype Research with Corn and Discover Volvox Development, were adapted to instruct high school students to work on their own with the guidance of scientists and ARE coordinators. These independent authentic research experiences (IAREs) were implemented in the summer of 2020 and have since been available to students. Student responses to reflection questions and the Laboratory Course Assessment Survey indicate that IAREs provide students with significant gains including learning science content and research practices, collaborating with scientists, facing and resolving challenges, and contributing to scientific research.

The announcement of world's first genome-edited babies using CRISPR/Cas 9 has provoked shock around the world. The popular technique has allowed great scientific and medical advances, but it also raises scientific ethical issues. Therefore, we attempted to design a new pattern of class to help students understand both the technical principles of this cutting-edge genome-editing technique and to explore key controversies in its use, so as to cultivate students' concept of scientific ethics. The students' feedback showed that the organization of the class and resulting discussion were very successful. This class session helped students understand both the abstract technical concepts involved in CRISPR-Cas 9 gene editing and about the scientific and medical ethics of its use. Our experiences show a helpful way for the teacher to improve students' interest, namely by connecting new scientific/technical breakthroughs to cultural events and scientific ethics.

Antibiotic resistance has become one of the major public health threats of the 21st century. Bacteria serve as an excellent model organism, allowing scientists to study evolution in a short amount of time. There are many misconceptions among students regarding the emergence of bacterial resistance. Conducting experiments on the selective effects of antibiotics on bacteria in high school biology teaching can provide students with a more intuitive understanding of natural selection. This study designs a set of simulation activities: representing antibiotic resistance genes with letters and simulating the degree of antibiotic resistance with numbers. It simulates bacterial reproduction under no antibiotic pressure, in an antibiotic environment, and in a high-dose antibiotic environment. The simulation activity describes the significance of antibiotic resistance to health care while allowing students to better understand the directional role of natural selection in biological evolution and to dispel common misconceptions surrounding the mechanisms of antibiotic resistance.

Forbidden Botany is a game, modeled after Taboo, that lets students think factually and conceptually about definitions and identify gaps in their botanical vocabulary while building upon the knowledge they have already acquired. Students typically struggle with learning botanical terms because they can be lineage specific and may be novel to students upon introduction. Throughout much of biological education, botanical sections of courses tend to be presented in a much less exciting way than animal counterparts and with relatively less frequency, resulting in less botanical knowledge and appreciation. This interactive game was developed for undergraduate biology to provide greater exposure to botanical terminology, combat plant awareness disparity, and aid in plant identification.