Although the use of computer-assisted instruction has rapidly increased, there is little empirical research evaluating these technologies, specifically within the context of teaching statistics. The authors assessed the effect of screencast tutorials on learning outcomes, including statistical knowledge, application, and interpretation. Students from four sections of a psychology course in statistics were randomly assigned to a control text tutorial or an experimental video tutorial group and were tasked with completing a novel statistics problem. Previous math experience, math and computer anxiety, and course grades were also controlled. The results demonstrate that screencast tutorials are an effective and efficient tool for enhancing student learning, especially for higher order conceptual statistical knowledge compared to traditional instructional techniques.

Introductory biology courses provide an important opportunity to prepare students for future courses, yet existing cookbook labs, although important in their own way, fail to provide many of the advantages of semester-long research experiences. Engaging, authentic research experiences aid biology students in meeting many learning goals. Therefore, overlaying a research experience onto the existing lab structure allows faculty to overcome barriers involving curricular change. Here we propose a working model for this overlay design in an introductory biology course and detail a means to conduct this lab with minimal increases in student and faculty workloads. Furthermore, we conducted exploratory factor analysis of the Experimental Design Ability Test (EDAT) and uncovered two latent factors which provide valid means to assess this overlay model’s ability to increase advanced experimental design abilities. In a pre-test/post-test design, we demonstrate significant increases in both basic and advanced experimental design abilities in an experimental and comparison group. We measured significantly higher gains in advanced experimental design understanding in students in the experimental group. We believe this overlay model and EDAT factor analysis contribute a novel means to conduct and assess the effectiveness of authentic research experiences in an introductory course without major changes to the course curriculum and with minimal increases in faculty and student workloads.

As the amount and complexity of scientific knowledge continues to grow, it is essential to educate scientifically literate citizens who can comprehend the process of science and the implications of technological advances. This is especially important when educating science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) college students, since they may play a central role in the future of scientific research and its communication.

Research indicates that deceitful videos tend to spread rapidly online and influence people’s opinions and ideas. Because of this, video misinformation via deepfake video manipulation poses a significant online threat. This study aims to discover what factors can influence viewers’ capability of distinguishing deepfake videos from genuine video footage. This work focuses on exploring deepfake videos’ potential use for deception and misinformation by exploring people’s ability to determine whether videos are deepfakes in a survey consisting of deepfake videos and original unedited videos. The participants viewed a set of four videos and were asked to judge whether the videos shown were deepfakes or originals. The survey varied the familiarity that the viewers had with the subjects of the videos. Also, the number of videos shown at one time was manipulated. This survey showed that familiarity of subjects has a statistically significant impact on how well people can determine a deepfake. Notably, however, almost two thirds of study participants (102 out of 154, or 66.23%) were unable to correctly identify a sequence of just four videos as either genuine or deepfake. Overall, the study provides insights into possible methods for countering disinformation and deception resulting from the misuse of deepfakes.

The Venus Flytrap (VFT) is fire adapted because it regenerates vegetatively from its rhizome after seasonal fires. Many fire-adapted plants have seed that germinate following smoke exposure. Mature VFT seed are quiescent and germinate almost immediately when exposed to appropriate physical environmental factors. Here we show that smoke exposure induces secondary dormancy in VFT seed. Smoke-exposed seed exhibit either complete inhibition or significant delays of germination; however, the secondary dormancy can be reversed by soaking the seed in hydrogen peroxide solution or stratifying the seed. Whereas the treatment with peroxide resulted in germination comparable to controls, stratification resulted in germination over a prolonged time period. We propose induced dormancy demonstrates a unique fire adaptation as dormancy would prevent summer germination under adverse conditions following fire and stagger germination later in the fall or spring following winter stratification, allowing germination over a wider and more favorable range of environmental conditions.