Title: Re-envisioning Biology Curricula to Include Ideological Awareness
Addressing the challenges facing society and the world will require an understanding of the biases and limitations of science. To combat these challenges, here, we advocate for the incorporation of ideologically aware (IA) material into postsecondary biology curricula. IA materials communicate to students how biases, assumptions, and stereotypes inform approaches to and outcomes of science. By engaging with IA materials, student awareness of the impact of science on social problems is expected to increase. In this paper, we situate this IA approach with two other pedagogical approaches that incorporate societally relevant content: culturally relevant pedagogy and socioscientific issues. We then call for research to test ways of supporting instructor implementation of IA material, to evaluate the impact of IA topics on student academic and sociopsychological outcomes, and to explore how to implement IA material in different cultural and social settings. Throughout, we focus on IA topics in the context of postsecondary biology classrooms but encourage the incorporation of IA materials across scientific disciplines and educational settings. Our hope is that greater inclusion of IA materials will create more transparent, scientifically accurate, and inclusive classrooms. more »« less
Wink, Donald J; Lynn, Lisa; Fendt, Carol; Snow, Melanie J; Muhammad, Ray; Todd-Breland, Elizabeth
(, Journal of Chemical Education)
Holme, Thomas A
(Ed.)
A significant challenge to the community of chemistry education is the creation of materials that can be used in nonscience settings, including those of social science and humanities classrooms. As part of a larger effort to engage new communities in understanding how science data can impact such settings, including in the community, an experiment to detect the level of nitrogen oxides (NOx) in the air was implemented in university sociology and history classrooms. The use of an authentic scientific method within these settings generated important data for classroom use in classroom sociological and historical discussions. The impact on student attitudes and learning was also determined.
Zemenick, Ash T.; Turney, Shaun; Webster, Alex J.; Jones, Sarah C.; Weber, Marjorie G.
(, BioScience)
Abstract Sexual and gender minorities face considerable inequities in society, including in science. In biology, course content provides opportunities to challenge harmful preconceptions about what is “natural” while avoiding the notion that anything found in nature is inherently good (the appeal-to-nature fallacy). We provide six principles for instructors to teach sex- and gender-related topics in postsecondary biology in a more inclusive and accurate manner: highlighting biological diversity early, presenting the social and historical context of science, using inclusive language, teaching the iterative process of science, presenting students with a diversity of role models, and developing a classroom culture of respect and inclusion. To illustrate these six principles, we review the many definitions of sex and demonstrate applying the principles to three example topics: sexual reproduction, sex determination or differentiation, and sexual selection. These principles provide a tangible starting place to create more scientifically accurate, engaging, and inclusive classrooms.
Understanding the relationship between science and society is an objective of science education and is included as a core competency in the AAAS Vision and Change guidelines for biology education. However, traditional undergraduate biology instruction emphasizes scientific practice and generally avoids potentially controversial issues at the intersection of biology and society. By including these topics in biology coursework, instructors can challenge damaging ideologies and systemic inequalities that have influenced science, such as biological essentialism and health disparities. Specifically, an ideologically aware curriculum highlights how ideologies and paradigms shape our biological knowledge base and the application of that knowledge. Ideologically aware lessons emphasize the relationship between science and society with an aim to create more transparent, scientifically accurate, and inclusive postsecondary biology classrooms. Here we expand upon our ideologically aware curriculum with a new activity that challenges undergraduate biology students to consider the impacts of healthcare disparities. This lesson allows instructors to directly address systemic inequalities and allows students to connect biomedical sciences to real-world issues. Implementing an ideologically aware curriculum enables students to challenge prevailing worldviews and better address societal problems that lead to exclusion and oppression.
Adams, Paula E.; Granados, Enya; Beatty, Abby E.; Ballen, Cissy J.
(, Biology Methods and Protocols)
Abstract Understanding the relationship between science and society is an objective of science education and is included as a core competency in the AAAS Vision and Change guidelines for biology education. However, traditional undergraduate biology instruction emphasizes scientific practice and generally avoids potentially controversial issues at the intersection of biology and society. By including these topics in biology coursework, instructors can challenge damaging ideologies and systemic inequalities that have influenced science, such as biological essentialism and health disparities. Specifically, an ideologically aware curriculum highlights how ideologies and paradigms shape our biological knowledge base and the application of that knowledge. Ideologically aware lessons emphasize the relationship between science and society with an aim to create more transparent, scientifically accurate, and inclusive postsecondary biology classrooms. Here we expand upon our ideologically aware curriculum with a new activity that challenges undergraduate biology students to consider the impacts of healthcare disparities. This lesson allows instructors to directly address systemic inequalities and allows students to connect biomedical sciences to real-world issues. Implementing an ideologically aware curriculum enables students to challenge prevailing worldviews and better address societal problems that lead to exclusion and oppression.
Sheets, Michael; Atkinson, Joshua
(, Engineering Biology Research Consortium)
About the slide set The slides are divided into sections (“Concepts”) including: What is engineering/synthetic biology? (Concept 1-1); the “Design, Build, Test, & Learn” cycle (Concept 1-2), Core Tools for engineering biology (Concepts 1-3 and 1-4), and finally exploring Impacts & Applications of engineering biology (Concept 1-5). The slides can be used as a complete lecture, or any concept topic can be used to supplement existing material. For example, Concept 1-1 could be used to introduce synthetic biology to professionals outside the field, or the Concept 1-5 Data Science section could be modified to show the intersections of the field in a computer science course. The slides are available to use under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-SA. The goal of these slides is to provide free, accessible, and modular explanations of key Engineering Biology topics. EBRC provides this curricular module under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 license, which allows free use in noncommercial settings with credit for the material given to EBRC and the content authors. By downloading these resources, you agree to these terms. If you are interested in using EBRC material in a commercial setting or have other usage questions, please contact us at education@ebrc.org. The slides were created by Michael Sheets (Boston University) and Joshua Atkinson (Univ. of Southern California), with support from the EBRC Education Working Group. Audience These lecture slides are designed for educators looking to incorporate current synthetic & engineering biology practices into their teaching material. These slides were designed with a target audience of undergraduate and graduate students, but could be adapted for high school students (and coupled with BioBuilder material, for a great experience). Recommended student knowledge: “biology 101” level, generally how DNA & cells work Learning Objectives You will be able to answer: - What is synthetic/engineering biology? - How can I Design, Build, Test, and Learn from biological systems? - What are the Core Tools of engineering biology? - How and where can engineering biology be applied to positively impact society? You will have: Planned a design cycle to approach a current problem Learned about engineering biology tools that can help you develop your idea Discovered the many sectors that engineering biology can positively impact
Costello, Robin A., Beatty, Abby E., Dunk, Ryan D., Ewell, Sharday N., Pruett, Jenna E., and Ballen, Cissy J. Re-envisioning Biology Curricula to Include Ideological Awareness. Retrieved from https://par.nsf.gov/biblio/10464348. Research in Science Education . Web. doi:10.1007/s11165-023-10101-0.
Costello, Robin A., Beatty, Abby E., Dunk, Ryan D., Ewell, Sharday N., Pruett, Jenna E., & Ballen, Cissy J. Re-envisioning Biology Curricula to Include Ideological Awareness. Research in Science Education, (). Retrieved from https://par.nsf.gov/biblio/10464348. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11165-023-10101-0
Costello, Robin A., Beatty, Abby E., Dunk, Ryan D., Ewell, Sharday N., Pruett, Jenna E., and Ballen, Cissy J.
"Re-envisioning Biology Curricula to Include Ideological Awareness". Research in Science Education (). Country unknown/Code not available. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11165-023-10101-0.https://par.nsf.gov/biblio/10464348.
@article{osti_10464348,
place = {Country unknown/Code not available},
title = {Re-envisioning Biology Curricula to Include Ideological Awareness},
url = {https://par.nsf.gov/biblio/10464348},
DOI = {10.1007/s11165-023-10101-0},
abstractNote = {Addressing the challenges facing society and the world will require an understanding of the biases and limitations of science. To combat these challenges, here, we advocate for the incorporation of ideologically aware (IA) material into postsecondary biology curricula. IA materials communicate to students how biases, assumptions, and stereotypes inform approaches to and outcomes of science. By engaging with IA materials, student awareness of the impact of science on social problems is expected to increase. In this paper, we situate this IA approach with two other pedagogical approaches that incorporate societally relevant content: culturally relevant pedagogy and socioscientific issues. We then call for research to test ways of supporting instructor implementation of IA material, to evaluate the impact of IA topics on student academic and sociopsychological outcomes, and to explore how to implement IA material in different cultural and social settings. Throughout, we focus on IA topics in the context of postsecondary biology classrooms but encourage the incorporation of IA materials across scientific disciplines and educational settings. Our hope is that greater inclusion of IA materials will create more transparent, scientifically accurate, and inclusive classrooms.},
journal = {Research in Science Education},
author = {Costello, Robin A. and Beatty, Abby E. and Dunk, Ryan D. and Ewell, Sharday N. and Pruett, Jenna E. and Ballen, Cissy J.},
editor = {Georgiou, H.}
}
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