Exploring Primary Scientific Literature through the Lens of the 5 Core Concepts of Biology

The Five Core Concepts of Biology as a Framework for Promoting Expert-Like Behaviors in Undergraduates Learning How to Read Primary Scientific Literature

“…Students were able to connect content from the PSL to one of the 5CCs and one of the biological scales by writing a summary in their own words. For instructors wanting to adapt a version of the 5CCs activity with their own students, we provide information on how we graded the matrix table as an exam in a previous report (Chatzikyriakidou et al, 2021 [ 11 ]).…”

“…It is the intent of BIIB to give novice students experience with these skills before they begin the content-heavy introductory biology sequence. We teach this course using an interactive classroom activity designed to introduce students to PSL using the 5CCs ( 11 ), which are listed in Appendix S1 in the supplemental material.…”

“…Students read a total of 14 pieces of PSL over the course of the semester ( 11 ). For each piece of PSL, students were given a 5CCs matrix table (see Appendix S2) and were asked to connect the biological content from the piece of PSL to at least 3 corresponding boxes of the table.…”

Student Association of Lecture Content with the Five Core Concepts of Biology: Novel Results from an Introductory Biology Course

“…In each review session, students were provided with a single page worksheet previously designed for similar 5CCs activities ( 13 ) ( Fig. 1 ).…”

“…Using these frameworks, the Biology Core Concept Instrument (BCCI) tool was specifically designed to measure first-year students’ ability to identify and describe concepts represented in biological phenomena ( 12 ). More recently, we have developed a 5CCs lesson plan with the aim to advance student science process skills, such as analyzing primary scientific literature (PSL) while using the 5CCs ( 13 ). While biology education researchers continue to develop 5CCs-related activities and surveys that can be used to measure student understanding of the 5CCs ( 14 ), there is very little literature discussing what students learn when they are taught with the 5CCs or how they might be actually using the 5CCs to learn biology in class.…”