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Recent Posts
- Teaching the process of science: A simple, no-frills approach
- Phone-based review quizzes enhanced with AI
- Anatomy teachers: Do you know where your bones are from?
- When Projects Replace Exams: A True Story of Success and Failure
- Teaching the “process of science”? This site can help.
- Jamboard: A great tool for collecting student questions and ideas
- Inhabiting the Anthropocene: Art Meets Biology
- Binary or not? Teaching the biology of sex
- Don’t Just Talk About Microplastics — Make Them Visible
- Using Google Forms for biology class: A free tool with many uses
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Category Archives: Engaging students
Teaching the process of science: A simple, no-frills approach
By Mariëlle Hoefnagels and Matt Taylor It’s been quite a while since I wrote about how students in my class conducted experiments on condoms. The activity was part of our lab covering the process of scientific inquiry, the metric system, … Continue reading
Posted in Active learning, Engaging students, Experimental design, Laboratory activities
Tagged active learning, Active learning, collaboration, color, condoms, education, engaging students, Experimental design, Graphing, HHMI Biointeractive, introductory biology, Learning, metric system, Process of Science, Teaching, toothpicks
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Phone-based review quizzes enhanced with AI
Guest post by Matt Taylor The impact of artificial intelligence on education has mushroomed in the last few months. I admit, I’ve mostly ignored these changes. Today, however, I learned one small way to use AI to enhance learning in … Continue reading
Anatomy teachers: Do you know where your bones are from?
I recently read a surprising and disturbing article called Bone Keepers in the September/October 2023 issue of Discover magazine. The article has implications for anyone who uses real human bones (as opposed to plastic models) in anatomy classes. I don’t … Continue reading
Jamboard: A great tool for collecting student questions and ideas
I am back in the nonmajors biology classroom after a long departure. COVID-19, a sabbatical, and some unexpected administrative duties took their toll, but it’s good to be back. I have been trying to reduce the amount of superfluous content … Continue reading
Inhabiting the Anthropocene: Art Meets Biology
This week I had to opportunity to contribute to a great blog called Inhabiting the Anthropocene. My friend and colleague Zev Trachtenberg hosts the blog site, which is “dedicated to exploring the intellectual and ethical challenges raised by the Anthropocene” … Continue reading
Binary or not? Teaching the biology of sex
For the most part, the world divides people into two categories: male and female. Public bathrooms, clothing catalogs, baby accessories, kids’ toys, fairy tales, marriage laws, sports, music videos, and the marketing of personal care items ranging from deodorant to … Continue reading
Posted in Engaging students, Equity and inclusion
Tagged Ari Berkowitz, binary, debate, female, gender, HHMI Biointeractive, intersex, male, sex, University of Oklahoma
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Don’t Just Talk About Microplastics — Make Them Visible
As a biology teacher, I hope you’re aware of, and deeply disturbed by, the enormous volume of plastics that we all discard, day after day. We can see cups, bags, and other plastic trash by the roadside and in waterways, … Continue reading
Mindset Matters for Teachers, Too
Mindset has been a recurring theme throughout my blog posts. (If you need a quick primer on the difference between fixed and growth mindset, you can find a good summary here.) In a nutshell, people with a fixed mindset believe … Continue reading
Does Comedy Add Interest, or Does It Distract from Scientific Rigor?
[A guest post by Matt Taylor] The COVID-19 pandemic got me thinking about how difficult it can be to engage biology students, especially nonmajors learning in an online environment. An especially challenging area for me to teach is animal diversity. … Continue reading
Posted in Engaging students, Videos
Tagged animal diversity, biodiversity, Deep Look videos, KQED, True Facts videos, YouTube, zefrank1
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Teaching nonmajors biology 