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Biology faculty at San José State University developed, piloted, implemented, and assessed a freshmen course sequence based on the macro-to micro-teaching approach that was team-taught, and organized around unifying themes. Content learning assessment drove the conceptual framework of our course sequence. Content student learning increased significantly in 12 of the categories examined using pre and post assessment instruments. Focus and individual student interviews revealed that students experienced a sense of ownership after completing two, five-week guided inquiry projects. Pass rate for the second semester class increased significantly from 55% to 85%. The percentage of underrepresented students passing the new sequence was higher than 72%, and was 86% at the end of the second year of full course sequence implementation.

YouTube makes it possible for teachers to capitalize on children's insatiable appetite for visually stimulating learning. Some of these videos attain "viral" status, getting passed on from person to person and by links on other sites. Not only are these popular videos viral, but developing one's own content and posting it for the world's access is infectious, even for latecomers to the educational technology scene. Also, incorporating YouTube into science lessons can energize your teaching and motivate students, too. In this article, the author shares some experiences and ideas for using this dynamic tool in the science classroom. (Contains 8 online resources.)

The article reports on the importance of incorporating YouTube in science lessons in the U.S. It states that YouTube can energize the teaching process, can help motivate the students and enhanced lessons work better as units of study. It mentions that the assessment in YouTube-enhanced units is driven by instructional objectives in which teachers assess students on their ability to complete the unit's several tasks and how students respond to it. Aside from enhancing units with content clips, YouTube can also be used for creating own videos, learning science history and virtual field trips. In addition, YouTube encourages interactive participation to students and encourages viewers to rate and comment to a particular video.