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Many K-16 educators agree that active learning is a key component for student success in life sciences. At the same time, some instructors are frustrated by inconsistent student participation in these activities and may revert to traditional teaching strategies. Horse caregivers face a similar frustration when they lead a horse to water and it will not drink. However, they do not stop offering water. Instead, horse caregivers consider two possibilities: the horse is not thirsty or the water is not good. In this article, we apply horse sense to student engagement. We start by framing common challenges within two larger categories: student mindset ("Are the student's thirsty?") and activity design ("Is the water good?"). For each challenge, we subsequently provide strategies to intentionally increase student learning while also empowering instructors to keep perspective.

Animal behaviour and welfare research are part of a wider endeavour to optimize the health and wellbeing of humans, animals and ecosystems. As such, it is part of the One Health research agenda. This article applies ethical principles described by the One Health High Level Expert Panel to animal behaviour and welfare research. These principles entail that animal behaviour and welfare research should be valued equitably alongside other research in transdisciplinary and multisectoral collaboration. It should include and promote a multiplicity of marginalized voices, including those of animals, and it should apply and describe a harmonious balance between human--animal-environment interactions. Lastly, it should describe how humans need to change behaviour, adopt sustainable solutions and recognize the importance of animal welfare and the integrity of the whole ecosystem.

Course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) are tools used to introduce students to authentic participation in science. Several specific CUREs have been shown to benefit students' interest and retention in the biological sciences. Nevertheless, CUREs vary greatly in terms of their context, methodology, and degree of research authenticity, so different types of CUREs may differently influence student outcomes. This programmatic diversity poses a challenge to educators who want to better understand which course components and features are reliably present in a CURE curriculum. To address these issues, we identified, catalogued, and classified 112 potential features of CUREs across the biosciences. To develop the list, we interviewed instructors experienced with teaching individual and large networked CUREs across a diversity of the biological disciplines, including: Squirrel-Net (field-based animal behavior), SEA-PHAGES (wet lab microbiology and computational microbiology), Tiny Earth (environmental and wet lab microbiology), PARE (environmental microbiology), and the Genomics Education Partnership (eukaryotic computational biology). Twenty-five interviewees contributed expert content in terms of CURE features and classification of those items into an organized list. The resulting list's categories encompasses student experiences with the following: (i) the scientific process; (ii) technical aspects of science; (iii) the professional development associated with research; and (iv) building scientific identity. The most striking insight was that CUREs vary widely in terms of which features they contain, since different CUREs will by necessity have different approaches to science and student involvement. We also identified several features commonly thought to be crucial to CUREs yet have ambiguous definitions. This ambiguity can potentially confound efforts to make CUREs research-authentic and aligned with the central goals of science. We disambiguate these terms and represent their varied meanings throughout the classification. We also provide instructor-friendly supplementary worksheets along with considerations for instructors interested in expanding their CURE course design, instruction, and equity.

Scripture encourages parents to pass on faith to children, and a multitude of studies show that the biggest predictor of the faith of kids is the faith of their parents. However, raising kids in faith is more complicated and nuanced than simple "parent to child" religious transmission. In this paper, animal family models are used to explore the relationship between congregations and families. By engaging instructions from scripture, research on changing household structures, and contemporary perspectives on parenting, this paper offers a new way of thinking about religious transmission within intergenerational family relationships and the uniquely central role for congregations.

Climate change is a contemporary global crisis that necessitates pedagogical innovation for the middle school dance classroom. This article describes an integrated design for a dance and science unit. Building on students' kinesthetic abilities, teachers are able to create a unit comprising a series of lessons on bird migrations effected by climate change, culminating in a final performance. Students engage in research on climate change and its effects on global bird migrations and view past performances reflecting avian formations from Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov's "Swan Lake" (1895) to non-Western influences on dance. Yoga poses such as Swan, Eagle, and Pigeon evolve into dance phrases. The teacher facilitates students' selection of a musical soundtrack for the choreography of an ensemble performance with props and upcycled costumes. An assessment of the dance and science unit is performed through a continuous feedback loop during practice and through a final group interview after the performance.

Metaheuristics are optimization algorithms that efficiently solve a variety of complex combinatorial problems. In psychological research, metaheuristics have been applied in short-scale construction and model specification search. In the present study, we propose a bee swarm optimization (BSO) algorithm to explore the structure underlying a psychological measurement instrument. The algorithm assigns items to an unknown number of nested factors in a confirmatory bifactor model, while simultaneously selecting items for the final scale. To achieve this, the algorithm follows the biological template of bees' foraging behavior: Scout bees explore new food sources, whereas onlooker bees search in the vicinity of previously explored, promising food sources. Analogously, scout bees in BSO introduce major changes to a model specification (e.g., adding or removing a specific factor), whereas onlooker bees only make minor changes (e.g., adding an item to a factor or swapping items between specific factors). Through this division of labor in an artificial bee colony, the algorithm aims to strike a balance between two opposing strategies diversification (or exploration) versus intensification (or exploitation). We demonstrate the usefulness of the algorithm to find the underlying structure in two empirical data sets (Holzinger-Swineford and short dark triad questionnaire, SDQ3). Furthermore, we illustrate the influence of relevant hyperparameters such as the number of bees in the hive, the percentage of scouts to onlookers, and the number of top solutions to be followed. Finally, useful applications of the new algorithm are discussed, as well as limitations and possible future research opportunities.

Pervasive avoidance is one of the central symptoms of all anxiety-related disorders. In treatment, avoidance behaviors are typically discouraged because they are assumed to maintain anxiety. Yet, it is not clear if engaging in avoidance is always detrimental. In this study, we used a platform-mediated avoidance task to investigate the influence of avoidance history on extinction learning in male rats. Our results show that having the opportunity to avoid during fear acquisition training does not significantly influence the extinction of auditory-cued fear in rats subjected to this platform-mediated avoidance procedure, which constitutes a realistic approach/avoidance conflict. This holds true irrespective of whether or not avoidance was possible during the extinction phase. This suggests that imposing a realistic cost on avoidance behavior prevents the adverse effects that avoidance has been claimed to have on extinction. However, avoidance does not appear to have clear positive effects on extinction learning nor on retention either.

High-impact experiences, such as service-learning opportunities or hands-on laboratories, have been shown to enhance student learning, course satisfaction, and attitudes and behaviors. Thus, it is essential to incorporate these experiences into psychology curriculums when possible. However, it is also critical to analyze the impact of these experiences. The purpose of this study was to investigate student opinions of a service-learning laboratory experience to determine how impactful it was. Twenty-three psychology master's students who completed an operant conditioning laboratory at a local animal shelter were surveyed about the experience. Although students did have recommendations for improvement, the laboratory was viewed as effective and impactful. Students highlighted many aspects of the laboratory and indicated that it was educational and enjoyable. Service-learning experiences such as these can impact student learning and personal growth while also impacting the community. Instructors should consider offering these experiences but should be aware of challenges in implementing a laboratory such as this one.

Many science departments encourage students to gain experience conducting research. However, finding ecological research projects that allow students to test a hypothesis in the field, over the relatively short time span of a semester, can be challenging. This article describes an inquiry-based research activity examining the influence that urban noise has on the behavior of gray squirrels. One of the consequences of urbanization is increased noise from automobiles and other human activities. This research project allows students to pose hypotheses regarding how squirrel behavior changes in response to human noise and then test those hypotheses. This activity is well suited for students in ecology, animal behavior, or vertebrate biology classes. It allows students flexibility in the hypothesis they test and the methods they use, while giving students a framework that lets them successfully complete a field research project. Students gain experience developing hypotheses, designing a field experiment, writing a research proposal, collecting field data, conducting data analysis, and presenting the results of their project.

I teach an animal behavior course where students conduct independent research projects; however, using live animals for research is challenging at a small university. Often, students choose to conduct a laboratory project over a field project believing that it will be easier to observe animals and control variables, but it can be difficult and expensive to acquire and maintain animals. If students work with vertebrates, there are added complications such as obtaining Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) approval and training. Additionally, following IACUC regulations often involves resources that we do not have. Because of these complications, I suggest to students that they consider an invertebrate species for their projects. In particular, crayfish are a species that are easy to obtain and care for, have low mortality, and exhibit interesting behavior that can be observed over several weeks. This article describes an inquiry-based research activity examining the influence of habitat complexity on crayfish foraging. This activity is well suited for students in ecology, animal behavior, or invertebrate biology classes and gives students flexibility in the hypothesis they test and the methods they use, while providing a framework that lets them successfully complete a behavior project.

Case studies are valuable tools for instruction but are often limited to a single topic and a single class period. Courses such as evolution that synthesize multiple concepts around a common theme, however, can use a single case study type project that extends over the entire semester to develop and link core concepts. A central theme in evolutionary biology is determining if complex biological traits represent adaptations that arose by natural selection. The instructional model presented here engages students in a step-by-step process to answer this question of adaptation for a trait of their choosing. In this process, the instructor first introduces the major concepts required to address adaptation. As each major concept is developed in class, students apply this concept to their particular trait, using information gathered from published studies. Students then report their research back to the class. At the end of the semester, each group synthesizes their evidence into a paper developing an argument as to whether or not their trait fits the criteria of being an adaptation. This project provides students with ownership of course material, gets students to act as practicing scientists, and helps them integrate and apply theoretical material to real questions.

In the information age, the acquisition of data literacy skills has become increasingly important for undergraduate student success, yet these skills are not emphasized in the lecture setting. Here we present a study to inspire educators to scaffold graph knowledge and interpretation into their classrooms. Specifically, we sought to understand how frequent use of published graphing materials (Angra & Gardner 2016, 2018) and freely available primary literature and data repositories, complemented by active-learning instructional approaches, in an upper-level animal behavior lecture course affect student graph knowledge and interpretation skills. The effectiveness of graphing materials and students' graphing abilities were evaluated by three exams over the course of the semester. Findings revealed overall improvement with graph choice and interpretation abilities, particularly in interpreting the purpose of the graph, the nature of the data, and the relationships between independent and dependent variables and take-home messages. These findings support and extend the utility of the graphing materials to undergraduate lecture courses and illustrate the progression of student learning with graph choice and interpretation.

Children's storybooks often contain fantasy elements, from dragons and wizards to anthropomorphic animals that wear clothes, talk, and behave like humans. These elements can impact children's learning from storybooks both positively and negatively, perhaps due in part to their ability to capture children's interest and attention. Prior research has found that children prefer realistic to make-believe stories, but little is known about children's preferences for anthropomorphic characters. The present study examines U.S. children's preferences for fantasy and anthropomorphism in storybooks. Seventy-two 4- to 6-year-old children (M = 65.74 months, SD = 10.84 months) were presented with 10 pairs of books (fantasy/anthropomorphic vs. realistic) and asked to select which book they liked better and why. Children chose fantasy but not anthropomorphic animal stories significantly more often than expected by chance. Children's preferences were not related to age or gender, and they most often justified their choices with references to the storyline. Implications for creating and selecting media are discussed, since children learn best when learning materials align with their interests.

Ethanol (EtOH) is among the most consumed drugs in the world. The behavior of humans after ingestion of this drug is characteristic: At low doses it may be excitatory and at higher doses, it may induce depressant/sedative effects. Similar effects are observed in the zebrafish experimental model ("Danio rerio"), which has about 70% genetic similarity with humans and has been widely used in numerous research. With the objective of improving the learning of biochemistry students, this work aimed to develop a practical exercise in the laboratory for students to observe the behavioral repertoire of zebrafish under the effects of exposure to ethanol. Through this practical class, the students were able to observe the similarity of the behavior of the animal model with that of humans, showing its importance for the consolidation of knowledge, awakening in the students an interest in science and its applications in everyday life.

The application of 360° videos raised the attention of educators and researchers, as it appears to be an approachable option to mediate complete environments in educational settings. However, challenges emerge from the perspective of educational psychology. Learning irrelevant cognitive strains might be imposed because it is necessary to navigate through spherical material. However, these potential downsides could be compensated for using signaling techniques. In a two (macrolevel vs. no macrolevel signaling) x two (microlevel vs. no microlevel signaling) factorial between-subjects design plus control group, 215 fifth-and sixth-grade students will watch a 360° video about visual and behavioral characteristics of animals. Learning outcomes, cognitive load, disorientation, and presence will be investigated. It is expected that macrolevel signaling will enhance learning and presence and reduce cognitive load and disorientation. Microlevel signaling will have comparable advantages, but these effects will be more pronounced when macrolevel signaling is implemented.

In response to growing concern about the increased disconnect between youth and their outdoor environment, this study examines how nature-based citizen science experiences with a local animal (American eels) influence urban adolescents' (high-school students) sense of place in a US city. The juvenile American eel is a unique animal due to its see-through body, small size, lengthy migratory pathway, high periodic population density, and conservation concern. Interview, written, and observational data were collected through a case study of ten high-school students during a citizen science project that lasted three months. Analyses of these data indicate that students developed greater ­ecological place meaning and place attachment. Students developed greater ecological place meaning by learning more about the ecology of the river and the eels, and developed greater place attachment by developing pride and empathy. Based on these findings, we argue that nature-based citizen science programs can help environmental educators in the US foster more equitable access to nature by providing urban youth with much-needed opportunities to deeply experience local places and develop a closer and more meaningful relationship with their local environment.

In this article we discuss, as a proof of concept, how a network model can be used to analyse gaze tracking data coming from a preliminary experiment carried out in a biodiversity education research project. We discuss the network model, a simple directed graph, used to represent the gaze tracking data in a way that is meaningful for the study of students' biodiversity observations. Our network model can be thought of as a scanning signature of how a subject visually scans a scene. We provide a couple of examples of how it can be used to investigate the personal identification processes of a biologist and non-biologist when they are carrying out a task concerning the observation of species-specific characteristics of two bird species in the context of biology education research. We suggest that a scanning signature can be effectively used to compare the competencies of different persons and groups of people when they are making observations on specific areas of interests.

Researchers of team behavior have long been interested in the essential components of effective teamwork. Much existing research focuses on examining correlations between team member traits, team processes, and team outcomes, such as collective intelligence or team performance. However, these approaches are insufficient for providing insight into the dynamic, causal mechanisms through which the components of teamwork interact with one another and impact the emergence of team outcomes. Advances in the field of animal behavior have enabled a precise understanding of the behavioral mechanisms that enable groups to perform feats that surpass the capabilities of the individuals that comprise them. In this manuscript, we highlight how studies of animal swarm intelligence can inform research on collective intelligence in human teams. By improving the ability to obtain precise, time-varying measurements of team behaviors and outcomes and building upon approaches used in studies of swarm intelligence to analyze and model individual and group-level behaviors, researchers can gain insight into the mechanisms underlying the emergence of collective intelligence. Such understanding could inspire targeted interventions to improve team effectiveness and support the development of a comparative framework of group-level intelligence in animal and human groups.

Using the comparative approach, researchers draw inferences about the evolution of cognition. Psychologists have postulated several hypotheses to explain why certain species are cognitively more flexible than others, and these hypotheses assume that certain cognitive skills are linked together to create a generally "smart" species. However, empirical findings suggest that several animal species are highly specialized, showing exceptional skills in single cognitive domains while performing poorly in others. Although some cognitive skills may indeed overlap, we cannot a priori assume that they do across species. We argue that the term "cognition" has often been used by applying an anthropocentric viewpoint rather than a biocentric one. As a result, researchers tend to overrate cognitive skills that are human-like and assume that certain skills cluster together in other animals as they do in our own species. In this paper, we emphasize that specific physical and social environments create selection pressures that lead to the evolution of certain cognitive adaptations. Skills such as following the pointing gesture, tool-use, perspective-taking, or the ability to cooperate evolve "independently" from each other as a concrete result of specific selection pressures, and thus have appeared in distantly related species. Thus, there is not "one cognition". Our argument is founded upon traditional Darwinian thinking, which--although always at the forefront of biology--has sometimes been neglected in animal cognition research. In accordance with the biocentric approach, we advocate a broader empirical perspective as we are convinced that to better understand animal minds, comparative researchers should focus much more on questions and experiments that are ecologically valid. We should investigate nonhuman cognition for its own sake, not only in comparison to the human model.

Recently it has been proposed that impairments related to autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may reflect a more fundamental disruption in time perception. Here, we examined whether in utero exposure to valproic acid (VPA) can generate specific behavioral deficits related to ASD and time perception. Pups from control and VPA groups were tested using fixed-interval (FI) temporal bisection, peak interval, and intertemporal choice tasks. In addition, the rats were assessed on motor function, perseverative and exploratory behavior, anxiety, and memory. The VPA group displayed a leftward shift in timing functions. VPA rats displayed no deficits on the motor and memory tasks, but were significantly different from controls on measures of perseveration and anxiety.

This paper describes visitor interaction with an interactive tabletop game on the topic of evolutionary adaptations of social insects that we designed in collaboration with a large American museum. We observed visitors playing the game and talked to them about the experience. The game explores the emergent phenomena of ant behavior. Research has shown that such emergent behavior is difficult for people to understand, and that there are different emergent schemas that work best for understanding these phenomena. We tested the visitors pre- and post-gameplay and counted the prevalence of visitors expressing direct and emergent schemas of complex processes. We then considered four hypotheses measuring changes between these schemas and found that two groups shifted their schemas. To better understand this change we provide a qualitative overview of the visitors' interactions. Our exhibit, called "Ant Adaptation", takes the form of an agent-based modeling game that integrates complex system learning with gameplay. We video recorded 38 groups (114 participants) playing the game and conducted pre- and post-gameplay interviews. We coded the groups that contained children for this analysis: 9 groups (27 participants). Our results show that visitors held both emergent and direct schemas before and after play, and three people changed from direct schemas before play to emergent schemas after play. We then examine the process of how one of these groups shifted their schemas.

This study aimed to develop secondary school seventh-grade students' awareness of natural habitats and the interactions among living things, as well as reveal their views on the problems encountered. The study was designed as a case study, a qualitative perspective and conducted with 64 students from a private school during the 2017-2018 academic year. Three open-ended questions were posed in semi-structured interviews and the students' responses were analyzed using the content analysis technique. The results revealed that the students developed an awareness of natural habitats and the interaction among living things. The students proposed the protection of living things, protection and reproduction of habitats, transportation of living things to more suitable habitats, and protection of the natural balance, as solutions to the problems that might arise in natural habitats.

Storytelling can stimulate learning by delivering scientific content within a narrative that increases comprehension and engagement. In this article I describe the coevolutionary arms race between toxic newts and predatory garter snakes. This engaging story centers on the use of a deadly neurotoxin called tetrodotoxin (TTX) as an antipredator defense. Some species of newts contain TTX in their tissues, but resistance to TTX has developed through convergent evolution in garter snakes and other species. TTX resistance results from mutated voltage-gated sodium channels. These channels, whether TTX resistant or not, are found in all animals and are vital to the function of nervous and muscle tissues. Through reciprocal selection, coevolution has created phenotypic matching between toxic newts and TTX-resistant garter snakes across their range in the western United States. In other words, as newts became more poisonous, garter snakes became more resistant. These results and the scientific process behind them are discussed in detail. This story can be used by educators to provide a unifying and engaging backdrop as students learn multiple aspects of biology, such as protein structure, genetics, phylogenetics, electrical signaling, evolution, and the process of science.

An important part of promoting scientific literacy is developing disciplinary literacy practices, such as obtaining information from text and sharing investigation results through talk and writing. To support students to develop disciplinary literacy practices in science, educators must provide opportunities for them to work with multiple modes--resources for meaning-making--such as informational texts, photographs, videos, and physical materials. In this article, the authors share how teachers can support students as they investigate questions about the natural world, such as, "How do animals change their environments?"

Visual data--or visual sources of information--are a crucial part of helping students understand STEM concepts, improve their reading skills, and engage in science and engineering practices (Finson and Pedersen 2011). Indeed, many science and engineering practices require students to make meaning from visual data. When students are developing and using models; analyzing and interpreting data; or obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information, they are often working with visual data. Although students in the early grades often receive a great deal of instruction on literacy skills, much less time is devoted to teaching students the skills necessary to understand visual data that often accompanies text. In this article the authors describe a kindergarten 5E lesson (partially addressing K-ESS3-1) where they scaffold students using visual data to build understanding and model relationships between living things and the places they live. This 5E is part of a bigger unit about plants, animals, and the environment. Prior to this 5E lesson, students have learned about the difference between living and nonliving as well as plants and animal needs. With this background knowledge, the students were ready to learn about living things and habitats.

Whereas previous studies show that children are able to make meaning about evolutionary concepts within read-aloud contexts, little is known about how semiotic resources and interaction influence children's meaning making about evolution. This study investigates children's meaning making about evolutionary concepts during a modelling activity conducted after an interactive storybook read-aloud describing the evolution of a foraging trait of a fictitious mammal (the "pilose"). Forty children (13 groups) were videotaped as they produced a clay pilose model, while explaining how they thought their pilose would appear after inhabiting a 'future' environment (mountainous, snowy or forest). A multimodal analysis focused on how children demonstrated their meanings of seven evolutionary concepts described in the book. An eighth concept, 'adaptation to environment', was also often discussed. While all eight concepts emerged, the most frequent concerned survival and adaptation. The eighth concept appeared to serve as a synthesis of children's interpretation of the storybook that highlighted the visible consequences of evolution. The children engaged five interactional resources, dominated by the interactional resource of communicating the concepts in direct relation to their produced pilose models. The findings shed light on how children's representational and relational practices impact making meaning about evolution.

Animal vocal behaviour represents a certain meaning, which is the explicit expression of animal emotions, needs and communication. Different from human language, animal vocal behaviour is very abstract, and the learning material of animal vocal behaviour is also more difficult to obtain. It is hard for college students to recognize vocal behaviours of animals accurately. Using virtual reality (VR) to describe them is an innovation in outdoor practice. Zoology teaching can be further enhanced by VR online application. However, current online VR application is mostly restricted as visualization tools, and the application in virtual sound environment is rarely supported. An online VR demonstrator tool was developed by integrating affordable visualization and auralization components. The tool could be published in mainstream web browsers with users' own devices. Sichuan golden monkey (Rhinopithecus roxellana) of Shennongjia Nature Reserve in Hubei province, China was used as the case site to create the virtual environment. A participatory evaluation was performed to test and evaluate the effect of the online VR tool. The result was analysed and discussed on the usability and potential of the VR tool in animal vocal behaviours.

As researchers, teachers, and practitioners we often encounter young professionals and lay adults who do not understand basics of mammalian body temperature regulation. Often their single solid piece of knowledge is that some vertebrates (mammals and birds) are warm-blooded and some (fish, amphibians, and reptile) are cold-blooded, which is incorrect. There are many thermal capabilities and regulatory strategies. We provide basics of body temperature regulation, including definitions, its evolution, examples of body temperature variability, unique examples of hibernation and torpor, and we explain how a better understanding benefits individuals in personal and professional lives. We suggest a simple replacement of the warm-blooded paradigm that can be used to inform even young students. As a starting point, students young and old are familiar with species of mammals (e.g., platypus and opossums) that do not maintain as constant or as warm of a body temperature as humans and dogs. Students also know that humans do not maintain a constant body temperature over time (they have a "temperature" when sick) or all part of their body (they have cold hands and feet outside in winter).

This study provides an opportunity for young children to express their thoughts about all matters affecting them based on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). Accordingly, 20 five-year-old children attending a preschool in Korea participated in this study, reading picture books, including animal matters. I recorded and transcribed our book reading process, analyzing educational meaning focusing on young children's stories. The participants in this study were responsive and attentive to the text in the picture books about animal matters. While reading these picture books, the children talked about life and extinction, confronted human-centered thinking, connected text with social issues surrounding them, identified problems, and suggested solutions. This reveals a flaw in the notion of human exceptionalism, opens up avenues for a new narrative regarding the coexistence with other species, and provides children living in the Anthropocene Epoch an opportunity to discuss coexistence and ethics.

Children have a basic knowledge of birds that they observe during their everyday life either in their garden, other gardens, round the house, walking in the local area or in the yard on school gardens. A total of 515 children, aged 3 to 16 (249 girls and 266 boys) enrolled in southern Brazilian public preschools, primary school and secondary schools, were invited to participate in this exploratory study. A semi-structured interview was conducted with 206 pupils asking to name which birds they knew, where they had seen these birds, which ones live around home, which they had seen further away. Additionally, they were asked which birds they knew from a list and the source of this knowledge where they had learned about the birds. They were asked to draw on a sheet of paper a representation of what the word "bird" meant to them. Results show the importance of everyday observations rather than beyond formal education in the children knowledge. Children from the earliest years notice birds in their everyday lives and build a bank of knowledge, gradually acquiring an understanding of adaptation to a variety of habitats. Children notice birds in their lives to differing extent and sources according to the culture in which they are immersed. Experiences of seeing or finding out about birds are encapsulated for many children in the form of narratives and contribute to their mental models of birds and their habitats on which they will drew in formal science later (Biology and Environmental Education). Educational implications are discussed.

Protein kinase M[zeta] (PKM[zeta]) maintains long-term potentiation (LTP) and long-term memory through persistent increases in kinase expression. Early-life adversity is a precursor to adult mood and anxiety disorders, in part, through persistent disruption of emotional memory throughout life. Here we subjected 10- to 16-wk-old male bonnet macaques to adversity by a maternal variable-foraging demand paradigm. We then examined PKM[zeta] expression in their ventral hippocampi as 7- to 12-yr-old adults. Quantitative immunohistochemistry reveals decreased PKM[zeta] in dentate gyrus, CA1, and subiculum of subjects who had experienced early-life adversity due to the unpredictability of maternal care. Adult animals with persistent decrements of PKM[zeta] in ventral hippocampus express timid rather than confrontational responses to a human intruder. Persistent down-regulation of PKM[zeta] in the ventral hippocampus might reduce the capacity for emotional memory maintenance and contribute to the long-lasting emotional effects of early-life adversity.

Strong evidence supports a role for protein degradation in fear memory formation. However, these data have been largely done in only male animals. Here, we found that following contextual fear conditioning, females, but not males, had increased levels of proteasome activity and K48 polyubiquitin protein targeting in the dorsal hippocampus, the latter of which occurred at chaperones or RNA processing proteins. In vivo CRISPR--dCas9-mediated repression of protein degradation in the dorsal hippocampus impaired contextual fear memory in females, but not males. These results suggest a sex-specific role for protein degradation in the hippocampus during the consolidation of a contextual fear memory.

Evolutionary anthropologists commonly describe humans as a highly cooperative species, based on our evolved socio-cognitive capacities. However, students and the general public may not necessarily share this view about our species. At the same time, fostering our ability to cooperate is considered a key foundation for achieving sustainable development, and students' understanding of the conditions that enable or hinder cooperation is therefore an important learning goal in sustainability education. In this article, we describe a small classroom activity that explored students' and preservice biology teachers' preconceptions about the human capacity to cooperate around shared resources in comparison to the capacity of our closest relative, the chimpanzee. Results indicate that students and teachers had limited knowledge about the evolved human capacity for cooperation around shared resources in small groups, most often viewing chimpanzees as more capable of cooperation and sustainable resource use. Based on the results of this classroom intervention, we highlight important learning opportunities for educators in biology on teaching human evolution and human behavior, particularly as related to current challenges of sustainable development.

This case study examined a team of instructors' use of social presence, teaching presence, and attitudinal dissonance in a Massive Online Open Course (MOOC) on Animal Behaviour and Welfare (ABW), designed to facilitate attitudinal learning. The study reviewed a team of six instructors' use of social presence and teaching presence by applying the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework, as well as the establishment of attitudinal dissonance within the announcements and discussion forums. The instructors entered the MOOC as a collaborative facilitation team and created a highly balanced manner of communication and positive atmosphere within the course. The instructional design focused on creating an informative and knowledgeable network of global learners that would agree that animal welfare was a critical social issue in today's society. These course goals and facilitation intentions were demonstrated through a high number of social and teaching presence indicators, with a significant use of all social presence, teaching presence, and attitudinal dissonance categories in evidence. The results present a review of an instructional team's facilitation that focused on shaping attitudes about the topic of animal behaviour and welfare within a MOOC. We conclude by providing insights into instructional design and facilitation of MOOCs in general or attitudinal learning specifically.

Adequate mental representations of animals are important for children's personal development, because they result in their appropriate treatment of such animals, which would not, for example, compromise either animals' or children's safety. By using a convenient sample of 101 six- to seven-year old children, this research examined these representations regarding animals' names, feeding habits, body coverings, and dangerousness. The representations were assessed using a questionnaire referring to 18 animals, and the research focused on the frequency of correct responses and gender differences in these responses for each animal. It was found that whereas the naming of animals was very successful, the mental representations of animals' feeding habits and body coverings were less mature, including some misconceptions not found in previous studies. In addition, the participants' explanations about why animals are dangerous or harmless revealed that their mental representations about different animals were correct to a moderate degree. Finally, gender differences in the mental representations were almost missing. Some implications for school or kindergarten work with children are given (e.g., reducing misconceptions about and fear of some animals).

The author considers the biological basis of the arts in human evolution, which she holds to be grounded in ethology and interpersonal neurobiology. In the arts, she argues, ordinary reality becomes extraordinary by attention-getting, emotionally salient devices that also appear in ritualized animal behaviors, many kinds of play, and the playful interactions of human mothers with their infants. She hypothesizes that these interactions evolved in humans as a behavioral adaptation to a reduced gestation period, promoting emotional bonding between human mothers and their especially helpless infants. She notes that the secretion of opioids, including oxytocin, that accompany birth, lactation, and care giving in all mammals is amplified in human mothers by these devices, producing feelings of intimacy and trust that engender better child care. The same devices, exapted and acquired culturally as arts, she argues, became prominent features of group ritual ceremonies that reduced anxiety and unified participants, which also offered evolutionary advantages.

The dopamine system has been implicated in decision-making particularly when associated with effortful behavior. We examined acute optogenetic stimulation of dopamine cells in the ventral tegmental area (VTA) as mice engaged in an effort-based decision-making task. Tyrosine hydroxylase-Cre mice were injected with Cre-dependent ChR2 or eYFP control virus in the VTA. While eYFP control mice showed effortful discounting, stimulation of dopamine cells in ChR2 mice disrupted effort-based decision-making by reducing choice toward the lever associated with a preferred outcome and greater effort. Surprisingly, disruptions in effortful discounting were observed in subsequent test sessions conducted in the absence of optogenetic stimulation, however during these sessions ChR2 mice displayed enhanced high choice responding across trial blocks. These findings suggest increases in VTA dopamine cell activity can disrupt effort-based decision-making in distinct ways dependent on the timing of optogenetic stimulation.

Discrimination of sensory signals is essential for an organism to form and retrieve memories of relevance in a given behavioral context. Sensory representations are modified dynamically by changes in behavioral state, facilitating context-dependent selection of behavior, through signals carried by noradrenergic input in mammals, or octopamine (OA) in insects. To understand the circuit mechanisms of this signaling, we characterized the function of two OA neurons, sVUM1 neurons, that originate in the subesophageal zone (SEZ) and target the input region of the memory center, the mushroom body (MB) calyx, in larval "Drosophila." We found that sVUM1 neurons target multiple neurons, including olfactory projection neurons (PNs), the inhibitory neuron APL, and a pair of extrinsic output neurons, but relatively few mushroom body intrinsic neurons, Kenyon cells. PN terminals carried the OA receptor Oamb, a "Drosophila" [alpha]1-adrenergic receptor ortholog. Using an odor discrimination learning paradigm, we showed that optogenetic activation of OA neurons compromised discrimination of similar odors but not learning ability. Our results suggest that sVUM1 neurons modify odor representations via multiple extrinsic inputs at the sensory input area to the MB olfactory learning circuit.

Using an ecofeminist theoretical frame along with critical content analysis of visual images, this article examines the environmental discourse of the picturebook, "Heartbeat," written and illustrated by Evan Turk (2018). In this picturebook, Turk uses the heartbeat, the history, and the song of a whale to draw the reader into a sense of cosmic interconnectivity with nature. This critical content analysis of Heartbeat seeks to extend the research on evaluating environmental children's literature by taking a deeper look at the specific ways the images and text in Heartbeat provide a unique and much needed counter-narrative to the devaluation and domination of nature.

Biodiversity education is widely considered a necessary component of protecting global biodiversity by helping to change harmful attitudes and actions. BioBlitz events, rapid surveys of all living things in a defined area over a set period, are becoming a widely used practice for biodiversity education. The aim of this study was to evaluate the use of a campus BioBlitz as a place-based experiential learning experience for early undergraduate science students by having students work alongside naturalist experts to build skills in species observation and identification using the iNaturalist app. We surveyed students about their perceptions of the BioBlitz experience. Eighty two percent of students agreed that the BioBlitz provided valuable hands-on learning, they valued learning outside of a traditional classroom, and felt they learned new knowledge about species identification. Many students reported a heightened sense of environmental stewardship and a positive sense of place on campus. We conclude with a discussion of the benefits of a campus BioBlitz in overcoming many of the emerging challenges associated with outdoor field-based education.

Early life stress (ELS) experiences can cause changes in cognitive and affective functioning. This study examined the persistent effects of a single traumatic event in infancy on several adult behavioral outcomes in male and female C57BL/6J mice. Mice received 15 footshocks in infancy and were tested for stress-enhanced fear learning, extinction learning, discrimination and reversal learning, and novel object recognition. Infant trauma potentiated fear learning in adulthood and produced resistance to extinction but did not influence other behaviors, suggesting restricted effects of infant trauma on behaviors reliant on cortico-amygdala circuitry.

Experimentation is the foundation of science and an important process for students to understand and experience. However, it can be difficult to teach some aspects of experimentation within the time and resource constraints of an academic semester. Interactive models can be a useful tool in bridging this gap. This freely accessible simulation provides a unique opportunity for students to practice designing experiments and analyzing their results. The effects of sample size and variability on the usefulness and accuracy of experimental data are an important component of these exercises. In addition, students can easily repeat their experiments, demonstrating that repetition doesn't necessarily lead to exact replication due to natural variability. Lastly, the simulation provides a range of flexible input categories that allow students to develop their own experimental questions about Steller sea lion behavior, and to explore a range of parameters, including various specific behaviors, the sex of the animals, and various sampling intervals such as hourly, daily, seasonally, or even annually. While this exercise does not replace first-hand experience with experimentation, it provides a good foundation for students to build on as they begin the process of designing and implementing their own research projects.

In this paper, we describe a two-week learning module where students tested the role of the "fruitless" gene on aggression and courtship in "Drosophila melanogaster" via team-based learning (TBL) strategies. The purpose of this module was to determine if TBL could be used in the future as a platform to implement the course goals and teach scientific skills in two sections of a junior/senior-level college Behavioral Genetics laboratory. We utilized the TBL format: pre-class preparation, readiness assurance, and concept application. The first week students learned the concepts necessary to understand the role of the "fruitless" gene on behavior and were tested as individuals and teams during the Readiness Assurance Test (RAT). They practiced working with the organisms and observing their behavior before developing novel research experiments and engaging in an extensive peer review process of their experimental designs. The following week, each group re-designed and implemented their experiments. Student performance improved during the team RAT, they preferred TBL, and were more prepared for their final research projects. Therefore, we found that incorporating TBL in this laboratory module was a successful tool toward encouraging the development of scientific skills in this laboratory.

We present evidence that experience and cholinergic modulation in an early sensory network interact to improve certainty about olfactory stimuli. The data we present are in agreement with existing theoretical ideas about the functional role of acetylcholine but highlight the importance of early sensory networks in addition to cortical networks. We use a simple behavioral paradigm in mice which allows us to measure certainty about a stimulus via the response amplitude to a condition and novel stimuli. We conclude that additional learning increases certainty and that the slope of this relationship can be modulated by activation of muscarinic cholinergic receptors in the olfactory bulb.

Behavioral flexibility is important in a changing environment. Previous research suggests that systems consolidation, a long-term poststorage process that alters memory traces, may reduce behavioral flexibility. However, exactly how systems consolidation affects flexibility is unknown. Here, we tested how systems consolidation affects: (1) flexibility in response to value changes and (2) flexibility in response to changes in the optimal sequence of actions. Mice were trained to obtain food rewards in a Y-maze by switching nose pokes between three arms. During initial training, all arms were rewarded and mice simply had to switch arms in order to maximize rewards. Then, after either a 1 or 28 d delay, we either devalued one arm, or we reinforced a specific sequence of pokes. We found that after a 1 d delay mice adapted relatively easily to the changes. In contrast, mice given a 28 d delay struggled to adapt, especially for changes to the optimal sequence of actions. Immediate early gene imaging suggested that the 28 d mice were less reliant on their hippocampus and more reliant on their medial prefrontal cortex. These data suggest that systems consolidation reduces behavioral flexibility, particularly for changes to the optimal sequence of actions.

In obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), functional behaviors such as checking that a door is locked become dysfunctional, maladaptive, and debilitating. However, it is currently unknown how aversive and appetitive motivations interact to produce functional and dysfunctional behavior in OCD. Here we show a double dissociation in the effects of anxiogenic cues and sensitivity to rewarding stimuli on the propensity to develop functional and dysfunctional checking behavior in a rodent analog of OCD, the observing response task (ORT). While anxiogenic manipulations of perceived threat (presentation of threat-associated contextual cues) and actual threat (punishment of incorrect responding on the ORT) enhanced functional checking, dysfunctional checking was unaffected. In contrast, rats that had previously been identified as "sign-trackers" on an autoshaping task--and therefore were highly sensitive to the incentive salience of appetitive environmental cues--selectively showed elevated levels of dysfunctional checking under a range of conditions, but particularly so under conditions of uncertainty. These data indicate that functional and dysfunctional checking are dissociable and supported by aversive and appetitive motivational processes, respectively. While functional checking is modulated by perceived and actual threat, dysfunctional checking recruits appetitive motivational processes, possibly akin to the "incentive habits" that contribute to drug-seeking in addiction.

Motivationally attractive cues can draw in behavior in a phenomenon termed incentive salience. Incentive cue attraction is an important model for animal models of drug seeking and relapse. One question of interest is the extent to which the pursuit of motivationally attractive cues is related to the value of the paired outcome or can become unrelated and habitual. We studied this question using a sign-tracking (ST) paradigm in rats, in which a lever stimulus preceding food reward comes to elicit conditioned lever-interaction behavior. We asked whether reinforcer devaluation by means of conditioned taste aversion, a classic test of habitual behavior, can modify ST to incentive cues, and whether this depends upon the manner in which reinforcer devaluation takes place. In contrast to several recent reports, we conclude that ST is indeed sensitive to reinforcer devaluation. However, this effect depends critically upon the congruence between the context in which taste aversion is learned and the context in which it is tested. When the taste aversion successfully transfers to the testing context, outcome value strongly influences ST behavior, both when the outcome is withheld (in extinction) and when animals can learn from outcome feedback (reacquisition). When taste aversion does not transfer to the testing context, ST remains high. In total, the extent to which ST persists after outcome devaluation is closely related to the extent to which that outcome is truly devalued in the task context. We believe this effect of context on devaluation can reconcile contradictory findings about the flexibility/inflexibility of ST. We discuss this literature and relate our findings to the study of habits generally.

In two instrumental conditioning experiments with rats, we examined the impacts of acquisition and extinction cues on ABC renewal of instrumental behavior. Animals were reinforced with food for lever pressing in one context, followed by extinction of the response in a second one. Presentations of a brief tone accompanied extinction in Experiment 1 (extinction cue), and acquisition in Experiment 2 (acquisition cue). A final test in a third context revealed that instrumental responding was decreased in the presence of the extinction cue, whereas it was increased in the presence of the acquisition cue. We discuss theoretical and clinical implications of our results.

Working memory (WM), the capacity for short-term storage of small quantities of information for immediate use, is thought to depend on activity within the prefrontal cortex. Recent evidence indicates that the prefrontal neuronal activity supporting WM is driven by thalamocortical connections arising in mediodorsal thalamus (mdThal). However, the role of these connections has not been studied using olfactory stimuli leaving open the question of whether this circuit extends to all sensory modalities. Additionally, manipulations of the mdThal in olfactory memory tasks have yielded mixed results. In the present experiment, we investigated the role of connections between the rat medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and mdThal in the odor span task (OST) using a pharmacological contralateral disconnection technique. Inactivation of either the mPFC or mdThal alone both significantly impaired memory performance in the OST, replicating previous findings with the mPFC and confirming that the mdThal plays an essential role in intact OST performance. Contralateral disconnection of the two structures impaired OST performance in support of the idea that the OST relies on mPFC-mdThal connections, but ipsilateral control infusions also impaired performance, complicating this interpretation. We also performed a detailed analysis of rats' errors and foraging behavior and found a dissociation between mPFC and mdThal inactivation conditions. Inactivation of the mdThal and mPFC caused a significant reduction in the number of approaches rats made per odor, whereas only mdThal inactivation or mPFC-mdThal disconnection caused significant increases in choice latency. Our results confirm that the mdThal is necessary for performance of the OST and that it may critically interact with the mPFC to mediate OST performance. Additionally, we have provided evidence that the mPFC and mdThal play dissociable roles in mediating foraging behavior.