Developing Science Literacy in Students and Society: Theory, Research, and Practice.

The subject of scientific literacy has never been more critical to the scientific community as well as society in general. As opportunities to spread misinformation increase with the rise of new technologies, it is critical for society to have at its disposal the means for ensuring that its citizens possess the basic scientific literacy necessary to make critical decisions on topics like climate change, biotechnology, and other science-based issues. As the Guest Editors of this themed issue of the Journal of Microbiology and Biology Education, we present a wide array of techniques that the scientific community is using to promote scientific literacy in both academic and nonacademic settings. The diversity of the techniques presented here give us confidence that the scientific community will rise to the challenge of ensuring that our society will be prepared to make fact-based and wise decisions that will preserve and improve our quality of life.

A Multistep Science Literacy Training Framework in an Introductory Biology Classroom: Teaching How to Find, Evaluate, Comprehend, and Cite Scientific Evidence.

Today's undergraduates are tomorrow's decision makers. Many of these decisions in biological sciences can influence whether the vaccines for the next pandemic will be effective, whether the mitigation efforts will have any impact on climate change, or whether we can produce enough food for the rapidly increasing human population while fighting the next pest outbreak. These informed decisions will need to be made by scientifically literate humans, including health professionals, politicians, and media personalities, who are currently undergraduates in our courses. Students in introductory biology classes can build a strong science literacy foundation by learning how to find, evaluate, read, discuss, and cite scientific evidence. An interconnected, multistep framework that uses library guides, active learning methods, group discussions, and collaborative learning is being used for nearly a decade in Investigative Biology and has been shown to significantly improve students' perceived science literacy and science communication skills. In this article, we share basic guidelines about how to implement this framework in one long laboratory session or in consecutive lectures. The flow of the proposed exercises has been tested and adjusted based on students' feedback and the authors' experiences, and a wide variety of resources are being shared to help the successful implementation of this framework in courses that would like to train the next generation of science-literate biologists.

Undergraduates' Experiences with Online and in-Person Courses Provide Opportunities for Improving Student-Centered Biology Laboratory Instruction.

Biology laboratory courses with hands-on activities faced many challenges when switched to online instruction during the COVID-19 pandemic. The transition back to in-person instruction presents an opportunity to redesign courses with greater student input. Undergraduates in an ∼350-student laboratory course were surveyed about their preferences for online or in-person instruction of specific laboratory course components. We predicted that students who have taken a virtual laboratory course prefer keeping some of the components online. We also hypothesized that their preferences are affected by their experience with online-only or with both online and in-person instruction. The results showed that students would like to move the laboratory component and group meetings back to in-person instruction, even if they never experienced college-level in-person courses. Also, many components, including the lectures, exams, assignment submission, and office hours are preferred to be held online. Surprisingly, students who have only taken online courses would rather give group presentations in person, while those who experienced both online and in-person instruction were undecided. Group presentations were the only component where the preference of the two groups significantly differed. Self-assessed learning gains showed that students performed very well in both the online semesters and the in-person semesters. Therefore, the preferences measured in this study were likely developed based on students' future expectations and personal gains, and not only on their metacognitive decisions and academic performances. This study provides considerations for redesigning components of laboratory courses to be more student-centered after the pandemic.

Why students do not turn on their video cameras during online classes and an equitable and inclusive plan to encourage them to do so.

Enrollment in courses taught remotely in higher education has been on the rise, with a recent surge in response to a global pandemic. While adapting this form of teaching, instructors familiar with traditional face-to-face methods are now met with a new set of challenges, including students not turning on their cameras during synchronous class meetings held via videoconferencing. After transitioning to emergency remote instruction in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, our introductory biology course shifted all in-person laboratory sections into synchronous class meetings held via the Zoom videoconferencing program. Out of consideration for students, we established a policy that video camera use during class was optional, but encouraged. However, by the end of the semester, several of our instructors and students reported lower than desired camera use that diminished the educational experience. We surveyed students to better understand why they did not turn on their cameras. We confirmed several predicted reasons including the most frequently reported: being concerned about personal appearance. Other reasons included being concerned about other people and the physical location being seen in the background and having a weak internet connection, all of which our exploratory analyses suggest may disproportionately influence underrepresented minorities. Additionally, some students revealed to us that social norms also play a role in camera use. This information was used to develop strategies to encourage-without requiring-camera use while promoting equity and inclusion. Broadly, these strategies are to not require camera use, explicitly encourage usage while establishing norms, address potential distractions, engage students with active learning, and understand your students' challenges through surveys. While the demographics and needs of students vary by course and institution, our recommendations will likely be directly helpful to many instructors and also serve as a model for gathering data to develop strategies more tailored for other student populations.

The Benefits of a Real-Time Web-Based Response System for Enhancing Engaged Learning in Classrooms and Public Science Events.

Large introduction to neuroscience classes and small science cafés have the same goal: bridging the gap between the presenter and the audience to convey the information while being engaging. Early classroom response systems became the cornerstone of flipped and engaged learning. These "clickers" helped turn lectures into dialogues, allowing the presenter to become a facilitator rather than a "sage on the stage." Rapid technological developments, especially the increase of computing power opened up new opportunities, moving these systems from a clicker device onto cellphones and laptops. This allowed students to use their own devices, and instructors to use new question types, such as clicking on a picture or ranking concepts. A variety of question types makes the learning environment more engaging, allows better examples for creative and critical thinking, and facilitates assessment. Online access makes these response systems scalable, bringing the strength of formative assessments and surveys to public science communication events, neuroscience journal clubs and distance learning. In addition to the new opportunities, online polling systems also create new challenges for the presenters. For example, allowing mobile devices in the classroom can be distracting. Here, a web-based, real-time response system called Poll Everywhere was compared to iClickers, highlighting the benefits and the pitfalls of both systems. In conclusion, the authors observe that the benefits of web-based response systems outweigh the challenges, and this form of digital pedagogy can help create a rich dialogue with the audience in large classrooms as well as in public science events.

Student Performance along Axes of Scenario Novelty and Complexity in Introductory Biology: Lessons from a Unique Factorial Approach to Assessment.

In an undergraduate introductory biology laboratory course, we used a summative assessment to directly test the learning objective that students will be able to apply course material to increasingly novel and complex situations. Using a factorial framework, we developed multiple true-false questions to fall along axes of novelty and complexity, which resulted in four categories of questions: familiar content and low complexity (category A); novel content and low complexity (category B); familiar content and high complexity (category C); and novel content and high complexity (category D). On average, students scored more than 70% on all questions, indicating that the course largely met this learning objective. However, students scored highest on questions in category A, likely because they were most similar to course content, and lowest on questions in categories C and D. While we anticipated students would score equally on questions for which either novelty or complexity was altered (but not both), we observed that student scores in category C were lower than in category B. Furthermore, students performed equally poorly on all questions for which complexity was higher (categories C and D), even those containing familiar content, suggesting that application of course material to increasingly complex situations is particularly challenging to students.

Identification of factors influencing flight performance of field-collected and laboratory-reared, overwintered, and nonoverwintered cactus moths fed with field-collected host plants.

Environmental conditions during egg and larval development may influence the dispersal ability of insect pests, thus requiring seasonal adjustment of control strategies. We studied the longest single flight, total distance flown, and the number of flights initiated by wild Cactoblastis cactorum (Berg) (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae) to determine whether the flight performance of overwintered cactus moths with a prolonged feeding phase during development differs from nonoverwintered cactus moths. Pupae of field-collected and laboratory-reared moths were transported together from the United States to Switzerland, and flight mills were used to characterize the flight capacity of 24- to 48-h-old adults during their most active period of the diel cycle. The lack of seasonal variation in flight performance of those moths that developed under controlled environment but were fed with field-collected Opuntia cacti showed that seasonal changes in host plant quality did not affect flight. This consistent flight performance in the mass-reared laboratory population throughout the year is beneficial for sterile insect technique programs, which aim to limit the dispersal of this pest. For field-collected C. cactorum, the larger overwintered females performed similarly to nonoverwintered females, indicating that longer feeding time at lower temperature increases body size but does not influence female flight capacity. Young mated females had a similar flight capacity to unmated ones, suggesting that gravid females may play an important role in invading new habitats. For males, overwintering increased the proportion of long-distance flyers, suggesting that they are well-adapted to locate the more sparsely dispersed females in the spring.

Diel flight pattern and flight performance of Cactoblastis cactorum (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae) measured on a flight mill: influence of age, gender, mating status, and body size.

Cactoblastis cactorum (Berg) (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae) is an invasive herbivore that poses a serious risk to Opuntia cacti in North America. Knowledge of the flight behavior of the cactus moth is crucial for a better understanding of natural dispersal, and for both monitoring and control. We used computer-linked flight mills to investigate diel flight activity and flight performance in relation to gender, age, mating status, and body size. Maximal flight activity for both mated and unmated moths occurred during twilight, whereas flight activity was low during photophase. The total distance flown and the number of initiated flights within a diel cycle were higher in both unmated and mated females than in males, but the longest single flight was similar in both genders. These findings suggest that pheromone trap captures of males likely indicate the simultaneous presence of females and that mated females might even be in areas where males are not detected yet. Flight performance heterogeneity was large, with a small portion of the population (both males and females) performing long unbroken flights, whereas the majority made short flights. Females had higher pupal and adult body size and shorter longevity than males. A few individuals, particularly young mated females, flying long distances may be important for active spread of a population and the colonization of new habitats. Implications of this study in the control of the cactus moth by using the sterile insect technique are discussed.