\n<\/p>\n
When I was in sixth grade, my homeroom teacher brought monarch caterpillars into our classroom. One of our homework assignments was to walk around our backyard and find milkweed (the only kind of plant monarch caterpillars eat) to feed our caterpillars. Now, over 25 years later, I still clearly remember the excitement of hunting around in my backyard to find milkweed and checking every day to see the metamorphosis from caterpillar to butterfly.<\/p>\n
You might say that raising monarch caterpillars gave me the bug<\/em> to want to be a biologist.<\/p>\n As the years went by, my interest in biology didn\u2019t wane. In college, molecular biology became my primary focus area. During graduate school and beyond, I trained in both molecular biology and the learning sciences, settling into a career in biology education. I taught Non-Majors and Majors Biology while running a research lab dedicated to understanding how people learn biology.<\/p>\n When I taught Non-Majors Biology, I noticed a concerning trend among my students: All in all, they didn\u2019t like biology.<\/p>\n That may be too gentle. The comments from an \u201cintroduce yourself\u201d activity that I use in the first week of class revealed that most of my students were either afraid to take a biology<\/a> class, thought the subject was boring, or didn\u2019t think they could succeed at it. Some people even flat-out admitted they hated<\/em> the subject.<\/p>\n Now, as a self-professed biology nerd, those comments took me aback. As a learning sciences researcher, I wanted to know why there were such pervasive negative feelings about biology. As a biology educator, I wanted to know what to do about it.<\/p>\n Negative perceptions around biology are common, driving people away from engaging with the big biology issues we face today. Lack of knowledge around scientific topics can make it easier to be duped by misinformation<\/a>, leading one to potentially make decisions against their own best interests. We see this with issues ranging from climate change to vaccines.<\/p>\n Acknowledging that biology is all around us is important not only because it enriches our lives, but because it\u2019s also important to the health and welfare of our society. Biology is everywhere, and engagement starts with reimagining how we think about biology\u2019s role in our lives. It\u2019s about reigniting wonder and emphasizing \u00a0relevance. It\u2019s about giving students the chance to learn biological material in a way that makes sense to them. When we start to make connections between the classroom and the real world, \u00a0it becomes easier to engage with bigger concepts and ideas.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s look at hand washing, as an example of how to relate lipid biochemistry to our everyday routines.<\/p>\n Okay, fine, we all know we\u2019re supposed<\/em> to do it, and yet nasty microorganisms like norovirus (transmitted mainly by the fecal-oral route, ahem) still tend to spread rampantly. Isn\u2019t hand sanitizer sufficient? Or Lysol? The soap dispenser is out again \u2014 does it matter?<\/p>\n According to the Centers for Disease Control<\/a>, hand sanitizer doesn\u2019t work well against norovirus. Think of norovirus as wearing a protective coat \u2014 hand sanitizer doesn\u2019t penetrate, and since the virus doesn\u2019t readily dry out on surfaces, it remains ready to infect on the surface of the skin. In order to effectively remove the virus, you have to use soap and water and rub your hands together. Why?<\/p>\n Soap particles have water-repellant and water-loving components. Those water-repellant portions, combined with rubbing your hands back in forth, causes the virus to break apart. The soap particles surround the bits of virus, and water washes it away.<\/p>\n If I talked about the structure of soap as a fatty acid with a carboxylic acid functional group<\/a>, sodium ion, and fatty acid tail, and how with other fatty acids, it forms a micelle in water, students\u2019 eyes would glaze over. On the contrast, breaking down the basics of why hand-washing works to illustrate the biochemistry proves far more interesting.<\/p>\n When biological principles are applied to our daily lives, they become inherently interesting. When students realize they can understand the biological principles behind their daily experiences, it becomes accessible. By viewing biology through a personal lens, students learn to appreciate rather than hate the subject.<\/p>\n When students see biology everywhere, as an integral part of their lives, they are more likely to engage. As they engage, they realize they can understand biology, and that it\u2019s actually interesting.<\/p>\n Think back to the opening example \u2014 my homework was looking in my backyard for milkweed to feed to the classroom caterpillars. Biology was relatable and accessible and that made it exciting. That\u2019s the driving framework behind my biology education practice<\/a>. I always consider the relevancy in students\u2019 lives as the main touchstone in my teaching practice.<\/p>\n What is something that you can do in your classroom to bring your own excitement about the material in? What kind of real-world examples can you bring into your classroom? Come tell me about it on social media!<\/p>\n LinkedIn<\/a><\/p>\n Facebook<\/a><\/p>\n Instagram<\/a><\/p>\n Written by<\/em> Dr. Melanie Peffer<\/em><\/a>,<\/em> T<\/em>eaching Assistant Professor and Research Scientist Level II at the University of Colorado Boulder, and author of \u201cBiology for Life: A Guide to Our Living World,\u201d 1e.<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \n <\/div>\nAn early interest in biology sparks a lifelong dedication<\/h2>\n
A lack of enthusiasm from students<\/h2>\n
A common point of view<\/h2>\n
Connecting biology to the everyday<\/h2>\n
Impacting student perceptions<\/h2>\n
Interested in this first edition text for your biology<\/a> course? Look for Peffer\u2019s first edition text, \u201cBiology for Life: A Guide to Our Living World,\u201d 1e<\/a> <\/span><\/strong>coming spring, 2025, and check out other available biology titles on the discipline page.\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n