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Advances in genetic information and complex genetic phenomena encourage undergraduate students to understand Mendelian inheritance concepts comprehensively. However, understanding the Mendelian inheritance concepts is still one of the most challenging topics for undergraduate students. This study aimed to reveal undergraduate students' understanding of the concepts of Mendel's first law and Mendel's second law. This research consisted of two stages, namely (1) the development of the Mendelian Inheritance Concepts Assessment (MICA) and (2) a qualitative descriptive study to investigate the extent of students' understanding of Mendelian inheritance. Furthermore, the data obtained were analysed using the percentage technique using Microsoft Office Excel for Windows and interpreted with NVivo12 software. First, the results showed that the MICA test instrument was valid and reliable, so we used it to describe undergraduate students' understanding of Mendelian inheritance. Second, the results showed that undergraduate students had an adequate understanding of Mendel's first law concepts but a partial understanding of determining model organisms and constructing chromosome reconstructions. In Mendel's second law concept, undergraduate students had a sufficient understanding of Mendel's second law principles but misconceptions in determining model organisms and compiling chromosome reconstructions. This finding indicated that understanding Mendel's second law was more complicated than Mendel's first law. More seriously, many students have difficulties understanding the principles of Mendel's law, determining model organisms of Mendel's law, and compiling chromosome reconstructions of Mendel's law. Thus, the results can be the basis for improving the quality of the process and assessment of genetic learning at the university. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scientific writing skills include writing ideas, opinions, and research results to other parties through written language. Scientific writing skills or research reports are needed for a career in science or education. Therefore, writing skills need to be developed systematically. The genetics course has been designed to develop scientific writing skills by providing a research project on Drosophila melanogaster. This study aims to analyse students' skills in writing project reports for genetics courses. This study uses a pre-experimental post-test-only research method using a practicum assessment rubric. Overall, writing skills obtained in compiling genetic practicum reports are in a good category. Students have good categories in writing titles and objectives, writing tools and materials, writing work procedures, and making observation tables. In addition, students have good categories in formulating problems, writing on a theoretical basis, and writing in discussions. However, based on the research results, it is necessary to improve further, especially in writing the formulation of the problem, theoretical basis, and discussion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metacognitive skill is one of the 21st-century skills that need to be empowered at various levels of education because they have an essential role in many international, multicultural, and interconnected patterns of people's lives. In genetics learning, metacognitive skills have a role in supporting learning success. Learners with high metacognitive skills can manage their cognitive skills and know their weaknesses to make improvements for the following action. Learners need a learning model to support the empowerment of metacognitive skills through the RQA (Reading, Questioning, Answering) learning model. This study aimed to determine the effect of implementing the RQA learning model in empowering students' metacognitive skills. This research was conducted using a pre-experimental method with research subjects of Biology students in the class of 2021/2022 who took the Genetics course. The group of students who took the Genetics 2 course consisted of 3 classes (102 students). Students' metacognitive skills were measured through essay tests and assessed using the metacognitive skill rubric by Sumampouw (2016). We analysed the research data through prerequisite tests and one-way ANOVA hypothesis testing. It was found that a data normality significance value of 0.200 and a data homogeneity significance value of 0.695. Data normality showed more than 0.05, so the research data is normally distributed and homogeneous. The results of the research hypothesis test show a significant effect on students' metacognitive skills taught by the RQA model with a significance value of 0.019. Furthermore, learning with this RQA model can be used as alternative learning that empowers metacognitive skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Genetic advancement is crucial as it supports science and technology and touches all aspects of human existence. Therefore, materials such as the regulation of gene expression become essential to be comprehensively reached by undergraduate biology students. However, this material is complex and requires good visual representation. Therefore, undergraduate biology students need more effort to understand it. This study aims to determine biology students' understanding of the concept of regulation of gene expression. We used qualitative research methods to analyse the understanding of the regulation of gene expression in biology students taking the Genetics II course from February to April at the State University of Malang. The first stage conducted material analysis and developed the Regulation of Gene Expression Concepts Assessment (RGECA) test instrument. Then, the data was obtained according to the level of understanding with the help of Microsoft Office Excel for Windows. The results showed that the RGECA instrument was valid and reliable, so we can use it to demonstrate the understanding of undergraduate biology students. Furthermore, the answers given by students show that biology students have a good understanding of the regulation of prokaryotic gene expression but a bad understanding of the regulation of eukaryotic gene expression. Most undergraduate biology students have difficulties understanding post-transcriptional modification, RNA splicing, and DNA methylation. The results of this study can be used as a basis for improving the quality of genetic learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scientific reasoning skills are essential abilities in decision-making to avoid panic behaviour while increasing critical thinking skills. Project-based learning can empower scientific reasoning skills among students by presenting content within authentic projects. This study aims to determine the effect of a project-based learning-assisted genetics 1 project guide interactive e-book on the empowering reasoning skills of Biology students at the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, State University of Malang. The study involved 63 students who were taking the Genetics 1 course. The research method was quasi-experimental with a nonequivalent control group pretest-posttest design. The instrument used to measure scientific reasoning is a test of scientific reasoning consisting of five questions whose validity and reliability are known well. Indicators of scientific reasoning consist of abilities in these aspects: (1) argumentation or topic selection; (2) knowledge, research, and views; (3) methodology; (4) analysis; and (5) conclusions, limitations, and implications. The data obtained were then analysed descriptively and continued with one-way ANCOVA. The results showed a significant difference in students' reasoning in learning that started with PjBL+e-books and PjBL only. The highest corrected average was reached by the experimental class (PjBL+E-book), 83.204, while the control class had a corrected average of 57.522. Therefore, the PjBL model-assisted e-book can be used as an effort to empower students' scientific reasoning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) is one of the requirements that must be owned by innovative learning. In its development, teachers are required to be able to choose the right learning strategies, not only in planning and assessment but also in the learning process. This paper explores the lesson plans made by teachers in developing learning that empowers HOTS on plant material in senior high school. The research approach is qualitative research with descriptive methods. The documents used in this study were taken from students taking curriculum and learning design courses. The samples used were eight lesson plans using plant themes. From the results obtained, there are four learning approaches developed, including the scientific, concepts, environmental, and STEM approaches. The learning models developed also vary, including Discovery Learning, Project Based Learning (PjBL), Problem-Based Learning (PBL), and Cooperative Learning. The development of these approaches and models is expected to be an inspiration for biology teachers to develop plant material learning in high school, especially in facing the new challenges of the implementation of a new curriculum in Indonesia called Kurikulum Merdeka. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Critical thinking is an intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualising, applying, analysing, synthesising, and evaluating information generated through observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication as a guide for action. Critical thinking allows individuals to solve and observe problems from different perspectives. In the Genetics II course, students must actively find the main concepts of the material through observation, experimentation, making pictures, graphs, and tables, and communicating the results to others. This process is closely related to critical thinking skills. Therefore, applying the PjBL learning model combined with the project guidebook can empower critical thinking in the Genetics II course. This study aims to determine the effect of applying the PjBL learning model combined with the project guidebook on the critical thinking skills of Biology students of the State University of Malang. The research used a pretest-posttest non-equivalent control group design involving 52 students taking the Genetics II course from April-Mei. Data on critical thinking skills were collected using eight essay questions. ANCOVA analysis was performed at a significance level of 0.5% to test the hypothesis. The results of data analysis obtained a significance value of 0.000, which means that there is an effect of the application of the PjBL learning model combined with the project guidebook on the critical thinking skills of biology students. The results showed a significant difference in students' critical thinking skills between learning that started with PjBL combined with a guidebook and PjBL only. Furthermore, the experimental class reached the highest corrected average (PjBL+guidebook), 73.423, while the control class had a corrected average of 65.053. The presence of the project guidebook is intended to support the interaction process between students, lecturers, and lecturer assistants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Effective learning can be defined as learning that successfully achieves learning and students know what they learn. Students' achievement and comprehension can be known by making a reflective. Reflection is one of the competencies that must be mastered by biology pre-service teachers. The ability of reflection is related to the development of the professional behavior of biology teachers to have lifelong learning abilities. Research on the reflection ability of biology pre-service teachers' is still little done in Indonesia. Therefore, it is necessary to conduct research to determine students' reflective writing abilities. The purpose of this paper was to describe and examine what students found valuable experience about the teaching and learning component. The research method used is a qualitative research method. The data collection technique was in the form of a reflective essay which was analyzed using thematic analysis. Overall, biology pre-service teachers reported that teaching and learning in the class is valuable. Four main themes were identified as aspects that students valued: (1) important and special things obtained during the learning process, (2) skills and knowledge gained during learning, (3) confidence and ability to learn independently, (4) the most effective strategies during the learning process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Technological advances in industry 4.0 allow automation in almost all fields. Digital-based learning materials also offer a new platform for developing multiaccess identification tools and techniques that can help address some of the challenges in the field of botany. The Plant Diversity course as one of the subjects in the field of botany, is currently not much in demand by students because it is considered very difficult and uninteresting to learn. The plant identification practicum carried out is also still using conventional identification keys, not many digital identification keys have been developed. This study aims to develop digital identification keys as an e-practicum media for the Plant Diversity course too keep up with the development technology. Conservation of species and ecosystems is an urgent global problem, and biodiversity remains a fundamental concept in biology teaching. The research method used is the Lee & Owens development model which consists of five stages of research, namely (1) analysis; (2) design; (3) development; (4) implementation; and (5) evaluation. The development model of Lee & Owns was dapted and developed for the Digital Identification Key for Plant Diversity of university students. The results of the validation by material experts obtained a score of 90% (very qualified category), while by material experts obtained a score of 83.33% (very qualified). The results of the validation by the subject lecturers obtained a score of 90.27% (very qualified), and the trial limited to 30 students obtained a score of 89.17% (very qualified). To obtain an average score of 88.19% (very qualified category), it can be concluded that the digital identification key of plants is very qualified to be used as an e-practicum medium for the Plant Diversity course. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Passiflora has beneficial value as a medicine plant. However, with its many morphological variations, it is difficult to identify and classify them. Therefore, observation of its morphological characteristic and the phenetic relationships between Passiflora species is essential. This study aims to determine the morphological variations of the genus of Passiflora in Probolinggo and their phenetic relationship based on morphological characteristics of generative organs. This explorative-descriptive study was conducted using the cruise methods in the Probolinggo area on 0-500 m asl. Identification of the morphological feature was conducted to the species level using the Backer dan Bakhuizen van der Brink identification key in their book entitled Flora of Java. Morphological characters of generative organs were selected, then the similarity index was calculated using the association coefficients. The results were analyzed using cluster analysis, then illustrated in the form of the dendrogram. This study shows that in the Probolinggo area, seven species of Passiflora are found, including Passiflora ligularis, Passiflora foetida L., Passiflora quadrangularis L., Passiflora edulis Sims, Passiflora caerulea-racemosa Sabine., Passiflora coccinea L., and Passiflora vitifolia H.B.K. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]