Introduction to Biology - The Secret of Life: Pedagogical
This web seminar took place on October 7, 2013 from 7:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. eastern
daylight time. The presenters were Dr. David Evans, Executive
Director of NSTA; Dr. Eric Lander, Founding Director
of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard; Susan Koba,
author of the NSTA Press book Hard-to-Teach Biology Concepts; and
Anne Tweed, coauthor of Hard-to-Teach Biology Concepts.
The presentation began with a conversation on the future of science education and
research. Dr. Evans discussed the impact of the Next Generation Science Standards
(NGSS) on how science will be taught in K-12 classrooms and at the college
level. Dr. Lander spoke about research being conducted to further explore human
genomics. Both Dr. Evans and Dr. Lander commented on the emerging role of MOOCs
(massive open online courses) in developing science literacy among broad audiences.
The second part of the presentation featured pedagogical strategies for teaching
challenging biology concepts. Dr. Koba and Ms. Tweed provided an overview of instructional
strategies from Hard-to-Teach Biology Concepts and discussed how participants
of the MIT course can translate that content to the classroom. The presenters also
discussed NGSS and talked about ways to teach life science performance
View the web seminar archive.
To view the web seminar archive, presentation slides, and other related resources,
visit the resource collection. Continue discussing this topic in the community forums.
A certificate of attendance was deposited into participants' My PD Record and Certificate area in the NSTA Learning Center
for completing the evaluation form at the end of the program.
Here are some comments provided by the participants at the end of the Web Seminar:
- "This was very beneficial. It has given me some great ideas. It will allow me to
build on allowing the students to be better critical thinkers."
- "I liked how the presenters gave strategies to help implement biology concepts that
are hard to teach at the middle school level."
Thanks to the participants and the presenter for the learning opportunity, the interactions,
and a job well done!
For more information contact firstname.lastname@example.org
Underwritten by the GE Foundation