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The Six-Legged Subject: A Survey of Secondary Science Teachers’ Incorporation of Insects into U.S. Life Science Instruction

To improve students’ understanding and appreciation of insects, entomology education efforts have supported insect incorporation in formal education settings. While several studies have explored student ideas about insects and the incorporation of insects in elementary and middle school classrooms,...

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Autores principales: Ingram, Erin, Golick, Douglas
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5872297/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29538297
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/insects9010032
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author Ingram, Erin
Golick, Douglas
author_facet Ingram, Erin
Golick, Douglas
author_sort Ingram, Erin
collection PubMed
description To improve students’ understanding and appreciation of insects, entomology education efforts have supported insect incorporation in formal education settings. While several studies have explored student ideas about insects and the incorporation of insects in elementary and middle school classrooms, the topic of how and why insects are incorporated in secondary science classrooms remains relatively unexplored. Using survey research methods, this study addresses the gap in the literature by (1) describing in-service secondary science teachers’ incorporation of insects in science classrooms; (2) identifying factors that support or deter insect incorporation and (3) identifying teachers’ preferred resources to support future entomology education efforts. Findings indicate that our sample of U.S. secondary science teachers commonly incorporate various insects in their classrooms, but that incorporation is infrequent throughout the academic year. Insect-related lesson plans are commonly used and often self-created to meet teachers’ need for standards-aligned curriculum materials. Obstacles to insect incorporation include a perceived lack of alignment of insect education materials to state or national science standards and a lack of time and professional training to teach about insects. Recommendations are provided for entomology and science education organizations to support teachers in overcoming these obstacles.
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spelling pubmed-58722972018-03-29 The Six-Legged Subject: A Survey of Secondary Science Teachers’ Incorporation of Insects into U.S. Life Science Instruction Ingram, Erin Golick, Douglas Insects Article To improve students’ understanding and appreciation of insects, entomology education efforts have supported insect incorporation in formal education settings. While several studies have explored student ideas about insects and the incorporation of insects in elementary and middle school classrooms, the topic of how and why insects are incorporated in secondary science classrooms remains relatively unexplored. Using survey research methods, this study addresses the gap in the literature by (1) describing in-service secondary science teachers’ incorporation of insects in science classrooms; (2) identifying factors that support or deter insect incorporation and (3) identifying teachers’ preferred resources to support future entomology education efforts. Findings indicate that our sample of U.S. secondary science teachers commonly incorporate various insects in their classrooms, but that incorporation is infrequent throughout the academic year. Insect-related lesson plans are commonly used and often self-created to meet teachers’ need for standards-aligned curriculum materials. Obstacles to insect incorporation include a perceived lack of alignment of insect education materials to state or national science standards and a lack of time and professional training to teach about insects. Recommendations are provided for entomology and science education organizations to support teachers in overcoming these obstacles. MDPI 2018-03-14 /pmc/articles/PMC5872297/ /pubmed/29538297 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/insects9010032 Text en © 2018 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Ingram, Erin
Golick, Douglas
The Six-Legged Subject: A Survey of Secondary Science Teachers’ Incorporation of Insects into U.S. Life Science Instruction
title The Six-Legged Subject: A Survey of Secondary Science Teachers’ Incorporation of Insects into U.S. Life Science Instruction
title_full The Six-Legged Subject: A Survey of Secondary Science Teachers’ Incorporation of Insects into U.S. Life Science Instruction
title_fullStr The Six-Legged Subject: A Survey of Secondary Science Teachers’ Incorporation of Insects into U.S. Life Science Instruction
title_full_unstemmed The Six-Legged Subject: A Survey of Secondary Science Teachers’ Incorporation of Insects into U.S. Life Science Instruction
title_short The Six-Legged Subject: A Survey of Secondary Science Teachers’ Incorporation of Insects into U.S. Life Science Instruction
title_sort six-legged subject: a survey of secondary science teachers’ incorporation of insects into u.s. life science instruction
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5872297/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29538297
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/insects9010032
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