Biology CCTTs

What is a Core Concept Teaching Tool?

Biology Core Concept Teaching Tools (CCTTs) are scaffolded instructional materials that teach the core concepts by guiding students through the cognitive processes involved in knowledge transfer (recognition, recall, and application; Kaminske et.al., 2020). Each CCTT has a brief (300-400 word) narrative describing a complex biological phenomenon in ways that engage, but do not explicitly name the core concepts or the conceptual elements (CEs; see below, Cary and Branchaw, 2017). Questions about the narrative are organized into three sections that guide students to first recognize the core concepts and CEs, then recall their prior knowledge of the core concepts and CEs, and finally apply that prior knowledge to understand the novel biological phenomenon presented in the narrative. Learning objectives for each CCTT are based on the CEs to allow biology educators to sort and select multiple CCTTs that address the same core concepts and elements at different biological scales and in various sub-disciplines. In addition, the three tenets of Scientific Teaching (active learning approaches, assessment of student learning, and fostering inclusive learning environments) are integrated into CCTTs to ensure they are evidence-based and support learning for students from diverse backgrounds.

What are the Conceptual Elements? (Cary & Branchaw, 2017)

Pathways and transformations of energy and matter (PTEM)

PTEM1: Energy is neither created nor destroyed, but can be transformed from one form to another to generate biological activity.
PTEM2: Input of energy, which can be from different sources, is needed to build and maintain biological entities, thereby lowering entropy in the system.
PTEM3: Biological entities harness potential energy stored in electrochemical gradients and released from chemical reactions.
PTEM4: Matter is recycled through the rearrangement of chemical bonds in biological entities.
PTEM5: Biological entities regulate the synthesis, storage, and mobilization of biological compounds to meet energy demands.
PTEM6: Many chemical elements can serve as electron donors and acceptors to drive biological processes.
PTEM7: Matter can transfer between the abiotic and biotic components of biological systems.

Information flow, exchange, and storage (IFES)

IFES1: Information exists in many forms and is relayed within and across biological molecules, cells, tissues, organisms, populations, and ecosystems.
IFES2: Genetic information is stored in nucleic acids (DNA and RNA); epigenetic information is stored in proteins that associate with DNA and in reversible DNA modifications.
IFES3: The process of protein synthesis results from the flow of genetic information through various pathways.
IFES4: Information from the environment regulates protein synthesis and activity, which control cellular processes and thereby organismal and population-level activity.
IFES5: Organisms transmit genes and epigenetic information to their offspring.

Structure and function (SF)

SF1: Biological structures from the molecular to the ecosystem scale, and their interactions are determined by chemical and physical properties that both enable and constrain function.
SF2: Individual structures can be arranged into organized units that enable more complex functions.
SF3: Structural features of biological entities undergo changes during development that are determined by the regulation of gene expression.
SF4: Structural features are dynamic and modifications can be made in response to environmental changes that are compensatory to restore lost function or noncompensatory to eliminate functions that are no longer needed.
SF5: Comparable changes in structure can have small or large effects on function, depending on the spatial location.

Evolution (E)

E1: All living organisms share common ancestors at some time in the past.
E2: The phenotypes of living organisms result from the gain and loss of traits along their lineage.
E3: Genetic variation within a population can be generated by mutation, which results in the generation of novel traits, and by sexual recombination, endosymbiosis, and horizontal gene transfer.
E4: Phenotypes, based upon underlying genotypes and environmental factors, can be subject to selective pressure.
E5: Organisms have greater fitness if they have a phenotype that increases their ability to survive and reproduce in a particular environment.
E6: Populations are composed of individual organisms that vary in their fitness, leading to differential rates of survival and reproduction and therefore changes in allele frequency over time.
E7: Evolution in a population may be due to events not related to fitness, including genetic drift and gene flow.
E8: The rate of evolutionary change varies and is influenced by many factors, including mutation rate, generation time, and environmental variation.
E9: Speciation occurs when subpopulations can no longer exchange genetic material, allowing them to diverge over time in their physiological and ecological traits.

Systems (S)

S1: Biological entities interact through chemical and physical signals that can be transient, depend on spatial organization, and are influenced by environmental factors.
S2: Changes in one component of a biological system can affect or be regulated by other components of the same system.
S3. Biological systems can be defined at different scales, interact within and across scales, and together form complex networks.
S4: Biological systems include and are affected by biotic and abiotic factors in the environment.
S5: Interactions between and among biological entities can generate new system properties.

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