EDUA 5335 Teaching Tough Topics in Biology
TEACHING TOUGH TOPICS IN BIOLOGY
Many students struggle to learn core concepts in biology, including proteins and genes, cellular respiration, and ecosystem stability. Because new discoveries are continually being made, biology teachers have to constantly familiarize themselves with new concepts and figure out how to effectively teach these ideas to their students while building their critical thinking skills. Additionally, many states are adopting the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), which are the most recent science educational standards, aimed at improving science learning and engagement in the 21st century. These new science standards offer an opportunity to improve science instruction, but with that opportunity comes the challenge of planning and implementing NGSS-aligned lesson.
This course is designed to provide teachers with practical, research-based methods for teaching biology concepts that have traditionally been hard to teach. In this course, teachers will be introduced to a research-based instructional framework they can use to plan and implement effective biology units, and learn how to select instructional strategies that support student understanding of fundamental biology concepts.