@article{landin_cozart_2024, title={Redesign of a Life Cycle Figure Improves Student Conceptions of Ecology and Evolution}, volume={14}, ISSN={["2227-7102"]}, DOI={10.3390/educsci14040403}, abstractNote={Life cycle diagrams communicate the developmental life stages of an organism. Design choices may inadvertently communicate additional information about survivorship rates, genetic variation, and microevolutionary change. In this controlled experiment, we randomly assigned one of three life cycle diagrams to 684 college students. Each figure included identical life stages of a fictitious organism’s development but differed in (1) the number of offspring (single or multiple) and (2) layout (cyclical or linear). Each participant could reference the figure when answering questions about organism survival, variation among offspring, and variation between generations. Students scored 28–30% higher on questions about survivorship when the available diagram included multiple offspring. Students scored 19–30% higher on questions about microevolution when the diagram layout was linear. Overall, students who received the figure with a linear layout and multiple offspring earned the highest average score (54.5%, or 3.3 of six questions) on the assessment, while students with the traditional figure (cyclical layout with single offspring) scored the lowest average (26.1%, or 1.6 of six questions). These results suggest that figure design affects student interpretations and may assist student learning about ecology and evolution concepts and common misconceptions.}, number={4}, journal={EDUCATION SCIENCES}, author={Landin, Jennifer M. and Cozart, Abigail Janet}, year={2024}, month={Apr} }
 @article{ansari_landin_2022, title={Coverage of climate change in introductory biology textbooks, 1970-2019}, volume={17}, ISSN={["1932-6203"]}, DOI={10.1371/journal.pone.0278532}, abstractNote={Climate change is a potent threat to human society, biodiversity, and ecosystem stability. Yet a 2021 Gallup poll found that only 43% of Americans see climate change as a serious threat over their lifetimes. In this study, we analyze college biology textbook coverage of climate change from 1970 to 2019. We focus on four aspects for content analysis: 1) the amount of coverage, determined by counting the number of sentences within the climate change passage, 2) the start location of the passage in the book, 3) the categorization of sentences as addressing a description of the greenhouse effect, impacts of global warming, or actions to ameliorate climate change, and 4) the presentation of data in figures. We analyzed 57 textbooks. Our findings show that coverage of climate change has continually increased, although the greatest increase occurred during the 1990s despite the growing threats of climate change. The position of the climate change passage moved further back in the book, from the last 15% to the last 2.5% of pages. Over time, coverage shifted from a description of the greenhouse effect to focus mostly on effects of climate change; the most addressed impact was shifting ecosystems. Sentences dedicated to actionable solutions to climate change peaked in the 1990s at over 15% of the passage, then decreased in recent decades to 3%. Data figures present only global temperatures and CO2 levels prior to the year 2000, then include photographic evidence and changes to species distributions after 2000. We hope this study will alert curriculum designers and instructors to consider implicit messages communicated in climate change lessons.}, number={12}, journal={PLOS ONE}, author={Ansari, Rabiya Arif and Landin, Jennifer M.}, year={2022}, month={Dec} }
 @article{gardner_bonner_landin_ferzli_shea_2016, title={Nonmajors' Shifts in Attitudes & Perceptions of Biology & Biologists Following an Active-Learning Course: An Exploratory Study}, volume={78}, ISSN={["1938-4211"]}, url={http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-84955478007&partnerID=MN8TOARS}, DOI={10.1525/abt.2016.78.1.43}, abstractNote={This exploratory study examined the impacts of a student-centered, active-learning course on nonmajors' attitudes and perceptions of biology and biologists. Results revealed changes along various measured attitude variables. Most notably, participants saw significant positive shifts in their perceptions of biology as a scientific field that contrasted with their relatively stable perceptions of biologists as scientists. Implications are discussed in the context of the impacts of nonmajors biology courses on future K–12 science instructors and potential influxes of students into the science pipeline.}, number={1}, journal={AMERICAN BIOLOGY TEACHER}, author={Gardner, Grant E. and Bonner, Jeff and Landin, Jennifer and Ferzli, Miriam and Shea, Damian}, year={2016}, month={Jan}, pages={43–48} }