Title: Transforming undergraduate biology education with 5CC’s teaching practices

Abstract

The 5 core concepts (5CCs) of biology presented in Vision and Change provide a comprehensive, concept-based description of the knowledge of biology, summarized in five main biological scales and five overarching principles that dictate natural biological phenomena and processes. To bring the 5CC’s in the biology classroom, we designed the 5CC’s matrix table with five rows, each containing a core concept and three columns, containing the biological scales of molecular/cellular, organismal, and population/ecology, respectively. We have developed a lesson plan that bridges the gap between student understanding of content knowledge and their ability to connect this knowledge to larger biological principles through the integration of Primary Scientific Literature (PSL) and the 5CCs. Through the use of a matrix table detailing each one of the 5CCs and their related organizational levels, students learn how to integrate PSL and the 5CCs by connecting biological facts contained within PSL to a related biological core concept. Additionally, we have implemented the matrix table in typical introductory biology courses where students (n=77) provide short responses of how each of the 5CCs related to the given class topic (Aquaporins, Aerobic respiration, and DNA transcription). An inductive coding analysis of student responses was performed to reveal the main connections students made between each of the three topics and the 5CCs. Results showed that for some core concepts it was easier for students to draw connections to a simple topic, such as aquaporins, while for other core concepts it was easier to draw connections to a multistep phenomenon, such as aerobic respiration. Although further researcher is needed, teaching practices that integrate the 5CC’s seem promising and could advance student conceptual understanding and integration of biological knowledge.

Biography

Kyriaki Chatzikyriakidou has a PhD in Food Science and a Master’s in Curriculum and Instruction by the University of Wisconsin – Madison. She has served as teaching instructor in various undergraduate biology courses for the past decade and her passion is to help students learn biology effortlessly. While teaching undergraduate students, Kyriaki realized the challenges freshmen had in learning scientific principles and the major reforms required in the current undergraduate teaching practices. Kyriaki’s major research interest is the integration of the Five Core Concepts (5CC’s) for biology in active learning practices, as a way to provide more effective teaching and help biology students improve their conceptual understanding of biology.