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The aim of this study is to examine the opinions of prospective teachers about biology and nature-related activities for mentally disabled students. The survey method was used in this quantitative study. Attitude scale towards biology and nature-related activities for mentally disabled students was used as a data collection tool. The scale was applied to a total of 258 (183 females, 75 males) prospective teachers studying at the education faculty of a state university and taking special education courses. According to the findings, prospective teachers expressed their positive opinions about all the activities specified in the scale. However, a few prospective teachers stated that some of the activities, especially interaction with animals, were not applicable for their mentally disabled students. However, when the findings are evaluated in general, it is concluded that biology and nature-related activities are very valuable for mentally disabled students.

Higher education students need help and support to enable them to cope with the challenges of their studies. The aim of this study was to investigate the perspectives of first-year undergraduate students on predictors of psychosocial support in challenging situations. A creative art-based descriptive research design was employed utilising an individual One-Page Profile form to gather data from 240 first-year students from two different universities in Slovakia. Data was collected and analysed using a content-thematic and visual approach. Four significant individual predictors of psychosocial support were identified: emotional, instrumental, informational and appraisal. Emotional support consists of desirable mental health, defined by the students as experiencing happiness, self-satisfaction, self-development, relationships which are satisfying, loving and safe, trust, empathic acceptance, and care from others. Instrumental support varies from personnel up to material resources e.g., people, animals, and assistance such as financial services. The preferred informational support is peer-to-peer counselling, followed by professional counselling. When students describe appraisal support their needs are primarily in the areas of well-being and self-efficacy. The study makes various suggestions on how University staff can provide first-year students with support and counselling in their everyday challenges.

This study approaches the issue of autism in a case study. Specifically, it investigates how three key points in the daily life of a child on the autism spectrum change in the presence of a pet: social behavior, empathy and irritability. The aim is to study how the pet affects the child's daily life in the above points. The questions that are asked concern the close environment of the child, in order to be able to compare the situation before and after the presence of the pet. Teachers from the child's school and family environment participate in the survey. Questionnaires and personal interviews are used to collect information. The interviews are based on Goodman's S.D.Q (2005). The bibliography will refer to the method of Animal Assisted therapy- pet therapy, which concerns the treatment of syndromes, diseases, anxiety, disorders, through animals. The research questions that arise refer to improving the socialization of people with autism, increasing their social interaction and creating relationships and expressing their emotions. Then the data collected is analyzed and the conclusions of the research are drawn.

This comparative study looks into the image of the wolf in Genghis Aitmatov's "Plakha" and Jack London's "White Fang." For this purpose, first, the concept of the wolf in fiction is discussed, and the representation of wolves in these two texts is analyzed. This study explores the relationship between wolves and human beings as expressed in the texts in a way that helps understand the image of the wolf with specific cultural beliefs and practices that find aspirations in the text mentioned. The study concludes that Aitmatov associates Kazakh people with the wolf, unlike London's wolf, whose existence does not center around issues of freedom and independence.

Regular physical activity and balanced nutrition are important in maintaining a healthy weight. Nonetheless, minority populations, like Hispanics, face challenges (e.g., language barriers and transportation unavailability) that limit their participation in intervention programs to receive benefits. Furthermore, dog companionship has been shown to relate to adolescents' behavioral and socio-emotional development positively, and it has been shown to have the potential to increase physical activity in adolescence. Therefore, this study aimed to examine the feasibility, i.e., program adaptation, limited efficacy, and acceptability, of the two exercise and nutrition education interventions to improve body composition, motivation, and well-being in overweight and obese Hispanic adolescents. This pilot study was a quasi-experimental trial with eight pediatrician-referred participants (M[subscript age] =11.75±1.48) assigned to two parallel arms: (1) BRAVO! and (2) BRAVO!+. Both share identical exercise (24 hours) and nutrition (12 hours) programs centered on the self-determination theory for 12 weeks. The results suggested, first, acceptable attendance (BRAVO! = 56.25%; BRAVO!+ = 64.58%) but poor retention (BRAVO! = 33.33%; BRAVO!+ = 63.63%). Second, the findings suggested promising limited efficacy in BRAVO!+ group, with small but statistically non-significant reductions in participants' BMI (M[subscript baseline] = 33.08±6.13; M[subscript post] = 32.23±6.88; t[3] = 1.633, p = 0.201) and weight (M[subscript baseline] = 78.13±16.22; M[subscript post] = 77.62±17.64; t[3] = 0.485, p = 0.661). In addition, the results suggested high satisfaction and acceptable suitability for both programs and providing important suggestions for the future. In conclusion, our pilot study findings only partially supported the feasibility of the pet-dog-enhanced lifestyle intervention. Although this study found evidence that pet-dog companionship can improve program satisfaction and acceptability of pediatric lifestyle interventions, including a pet-dog in the intervention may contribute to high dropout evidenced in this study.

In this industrial revolution era, university-level education emphasises higher-order thinking skills. This research aims to analyse the effect of implementing the PjB-HOTS learning model on cognitive learning, creative thinking skills, analytical thinking skills, and metacognitive skills of the students studying osmoregulation concepts in Animal Physiology courses. The sample consisted of 61 fifth-semester students divided into two classes. An open-ended test was used to measure students' cognitive learning levels, creative thinking skills, analytical thinking skills, creative thinking skills, and metacognitive skills. The research data were analysed using the Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA). The results of this research show that the learning model had a significant effect on the cognitive learning gains (0.000< [alpha]= 0.05), creative thinking skill (0.001< [alpha]= 0.05), analytical thinking skill (0.000< [alpha]= 0.05), and metacognitive skill (0.000< [alpha]= 0.05). These results indicate that the combined syntax of PjBL and HOTS can foster students' higher-order thinking skills and improve their cognitive learning gains. We recommend the PjB-HOTS learning model be used for other biological concepts at the university-level.

Background: Although the reading of science texts has been reported for high school learners, there is not much research on how younger learners engage with expository texts and how they develop academic language skills. In the instance of this study, the topic came from the curriculum content about animal reproduction. Aim: The study from which this article emanated aimed to explore how a sample of learners engaged with a short text, which required cohesive reading and some background knowledge and vocabulary. Setting: This study was conducted in a suburban school where the learners use English as a second language. Methods: A sample (n = 25) was randomly selected from five Grade 4 classes. Their reading comprehension of a custom-designed test was assessed, along with their writing competence in their responses to content questions as well as their drawings. The data were analysed in a typical content analysis modality. Results: This study showed that the learners do not apply inferencing skills and do not read cohesively across sentences and paragraphs and that their vocabulary and prior knowledge of animal reproduction is limited. Conclusion: The urgent need for the development of academic language skills in the early grades is foregrounded in this article, arguing that it can be infused in subjects across the curriculum of the early grades. Contribution: The task can be used by teachers and by researchers who may wish to replicate the study.

An understanding of how sensemaking unfolds when elementary students engage in engineering design tasks is crucial to advancing engineering teaching and learning at K-12 levels. Sensemaking has been widely studied in the context of science as a discipline. In this paper, we seek to contribute to the more nascent efforts to build theory about the characteristics of sensemaking in elementary school engineering. We report on an interpretive case study of a 3rd grade student team who worked with minimal adult intervention to design a solution to an engineering challenge. Considering the entire trajectory of their design process, from the given problem to the solution, we observed that they navigated through multiple epistemic conflicts while making decisions that informed their final solution. We found that these conflicts served as "opportunities for sensemaking" and that exploring how the students resolved conflicts shed light on their sensemaking processes. Analysis of the team's navigation through epistemic conflicts to come to a design decision helped identify two distinct kinds of engineering sensemaking: student engagement in functional reasoning as they suggested design ideas, and student engagement in mechanistic reasoning as they interpreted test results. Both processes facilitated knowledge building, which in turn supported students' engineering design decisions.

Several studies report on lower quality of life for autistic people when compared to non-autistic people. However, there are ongoing discussions about the conceptualization of quality of life for the autistic population. This qualitative study investigated self-perceived quality of life in the context of autistic young adults' everyday lives. Participants (age range 21-29 years) were recruited from a 10-year follow-up study, Lillehammer Neurodevelopmental Follow-up Study, all diagnosed in childhood and adolescence. Fourteen individual in-depth interviews were conducted. When asked about what was important for having a good quality of life, our autistic participants described relationships to people and pets as important, as well as having meaningful activities. Specific interests had guided many to their choice of both academic and work career. Many also described obstacles in their environment that had influenced their quality of life negatively, such as being misunderstood by teachers and other professionals, being bullied, and sensory and emotional overload. Our findings indicate that those in supportive roles should provide help with establishing connections to activities and people/animals, as this seems to be essential for creating a good quality of life. Taking advantage of passions and interests can create opportunities for autistic people. Findings suggest that future research should address the communication barriers between autistic people and professionals that can lead to misunderstandings.

This paper explores children's understandings of Acknowledgement to Country practices and Aboriginal knowledges. Guided by the relational lenses of respect, responsibility and reciprocity, we conducted focus groups with children across five Australian early education centres. We found that Acknowledgement practices were evident through recitation of their Acknowledgement to Country, engaging with artefacts, and/or discussion of artworks. Secondly, children demonstrated emerging understandings about place names, the symbolic use of flags for places and people, and Australian plants and animals. Thirdly, Aboriginal cultures as living cultures were evident in temporal discussions about people and culture. Finally, imaginative play implied efforts to make sense of Aboriginal concepts and language. Across the study, children were active in experimenting with ideas in their own meaning making. Acknowledgement to Country was not a moment in the day; rather, it was embedded throughout the day through routines, storytelling, play and creative activities, all designed to foster learning.

Over the years, Nigerian society has the belief that given the potency of kánàkò (collision of time and space) and egbé (teleportation), it can only be applied by men while neglecting the role of women in its application for national safety. The study examines egbé and kánako and implications for community policing and women's involvement in socio-economic sustainability in South West Nigeria. Three research questions were raised and answered to guide this study. The study adopts the qualitative research approach anchored on ethnographic research design. A purposive sampling technique was used to select 36 participants from six (6) communities in Ógun, Oyó, and Osun states. Recordings, observations, key informant interviews, and focus group discussions were used to gather qualitative data. Findings from the study revealed that egbé and kánàkò could be useful for military and paramilitary agencies if appropriately implemented to ensure community policing and national safety, amongst others. The study recommends, amongst others, that the hunters' association and government should properly sensitize women in the hunting profession on their role to enhance the preservation of these traditional means of fortifications and not become weapons that will render these fortifications irrelevant.

The Australian Outdoor Health (OH) sector provides diverse practices that support an interconnected human and ecological approach to health and wellbeing. There is an urgent need for the OH sector to develop a comprehensive ethical practice framework, to enable professional recognition and other initiatives to progress. This would bring the sector in line with similar health and wellbeing occupations including social work, psychology, and counselling that have established professional recognition. A key feature of professional recognition is the acceptance of a Code of Ethics or Ethical Framework to guide practice and enhance standing in the field. This scoping review of the literature is undertaken to aid in developing an OH ethical practice framework. Findings suggest the framework should incorporate two overarching themes of beneficence and nonmaleficence, and contain six guiding principles: diversity, equity, advocacy, justice, accountability, and competence. We discuss these findings, situate them within broader OH community and health sector discourses, and make recommendations for establishing an Australian ethical practice framework to assist the move towards professional recognition and drive ethical OH practice.

The sounds of birds form the outdoor playlist of our lives. Birds appeal to the public, in part because of the wide variety of interesting sounds they make. This popularity has led to a long history of amateur participation in ornithology, which has recently produced rapid increases in freely available online databases with hundreds of thousands of bird sounds recorded by birdwatchers. These databases provide unique opportunities for teachers to guide students through processes to learn to identify bird species by their sounds. The techniques we summarize here include combining the auditory components of recognizing different types of sounds birds make with visual components of reading sonograms, widely available visual representations of sounds.

In word learning, learners need to identify the referent of words by leveraging the fact that the same word may co-occur with different sets of objects. This raises the question, what do children remember from "in the moment" that they can use for cross-situational learning? Furthermore, do children represent pictures of familiar animals versus drawings of non-existent novel objects as potential referents differently? This study examined these questions by creating learning scenarios with only two potential referents, requiring the least amount of memory to represent all co-present objects. Across three experiments (n > 250) with 4- and 6-year-old children, children reliably selected the intended referent from learning at test, though the learning of novel objects was better than familiar objects. When asked for a co-present object, children of all ages in the study performed at chance in all of the conditions. We discuss the developmental differences in cross-situational word learning capabilities with regard to representing different stimuli as potential referents. Importantly, all children used a propose-but-verify procedure for learning novel words even in the simplest of the learning scenarios given repeated exposure.

Children's experiences of animal fears can be caused by direct conditioning, experiencing negative events, or modeling others' fears or situations. The fear of an animal that develops in a child as a result of various experiences may turn into an animal phobia over time. This study aims to examine the effectiveness of EMDR interventions for two different children with animal phobias through case studies. In the interventions conducted with the children in this study, facilitative techniques such as allowing the children to express themselves through drawings were utilized in addition to EMDR procedures. The study utilized a multiple-case study design, which is among qualitative research methods. One of the cases is a 9-year-old boy who developed a phobic condition related to dogs after being attacked by a dog and experiencing psychological distress associated with his dog phobia in daily life (such as running towards home, increased heart rate, and screaming when seeing a dog on his way home from school). The second case is a 10-year-old boy who developed a phobic condition related to insects after being stung by a bug while sleeping, experiencing fear of bugs in nature, such as during a picnic, and having difficulties sleeping alone. In this study, narrative analysis was utilized in the data analysis to describe the experiences of Client-1 and Client-2 regarding their phobic conditions and to present their narratives related to EMDR intervention in a chronological and holistic manner. According to the research findings, EMDR interventions conducted with two children (C1 and C2) who had animal phobias were found to have a positive impact on their phobic conditions. The current study revealed findings related to negative cognition as "I am afraid" and positive cognitions as "I am brave" and "I can overcome it" regarding children's phobic conditions, along with the expressions provided by the children during the interventions. In future studies, presenting the outcomes of EMDR interventions for children's phobic conditions in a qualitative design would allow for a more in-depth analysis of the prominent cognitions and expressions of the children.

Hands-on dissections of animals are traditionally regarded as an essential part of biology education. Nowadays, regardless of the reported educational benefits, there is a gradual change in the concept and acceptance of hands-on dissection, leading in many cases to its abandonment in schools and its replacement with alternatives such as 3D models, figurines, plastination and computer-based alternatives. However, the position of hands-on dissection has recently been challenged, mostly by computer-supported alternatives. The aim of the study was to explore whether teacher self-efficacy can be recognized as a predictor of the application of the different kinds of animals in hands-on and virtual dissections in Biology lessons. Based on responses from 405 Czech Biology teachers there are differences in the acceptability and implementation of organisms for hands-on and virtual dissection. It was established, that self-efficacy is not a predictor of either the acceptability of organisms or actual behaviour in both variants of dissection.

Plant awareness disparity (PAD), formerly known as plant blindness, refers to the fact of overlooking or failing to perceive plants, perhaps due to poor 'species literacy'. Despite numerous efforts made by scientists and educators over the years, PAD is still present in students at all educational levels. An assessment was carried out on 259 students from primary school to university in the Spanish education system to evaluate their species literacy, especially regarding local flora and fauna, its possible improvement across educational levels, and to assess whether PAD was a reality among students. A biased perception towards animals was confirmed with strong statistical support. Animals were recognized and identified more than plants at all educational levels. Even if a positive correlation for animal-plant literacy was found, the values were weak. Although the curricula set out content and learning outcomes related to local environment and flora, their teaching has been proven to be unsatisfactory. The recently implemented curricula have the mission to reverse this trend, which can be done by improving students' interest in plants through specific educational programs and activities, as well as comprehensive training in the field of botany and the effective implementation of activities for current and future educators.

This article poses the question 'How do we look at animals?', suggesting a link to inherent problems of documentary film-making. However, the question further suggests that there may be ways of relating to animals other than 'looking at'; other than 'observing'. Drawing from the research project De-Doc-Donkeywork: Decolonising Documentary Art Practices and the Global Crisis for Donkeys, the article offers a reflection upon how specific art-practice-led research is brought into education. The interrelatedness of art practice, research, theory and pedagogy allows for connections to be identified between the decaying borders of disciplines, documental knowledges, and possibilities of decolonising our relation to animals. At the core is a problem of 'coloniality' related to film education: the domination of documentary concerns and valances through film discourse. The "documental" is identified as an epistemic practice that can reorganise extra-disciplinary resources into collaborating collectives in research and education, allowing for new ways of knowing 'donkey'.

Animal companionship has been found to have a positive influence on human well-being, and the presence of pets can have a subtle yet significant impact on the healthy development of students. Pet companionship takes various forms across different fields in China and other regions worldwide, and the impact of such companionship remains uncertain. Hence, it is imperative to investigate the impact of diverse forms of companionship and animals on multiple facets of student growth and development. This study employed meta-analysis methodologies to examine 47 effect sizes derived from 12 domestic and international studies on pet companionship. The aim was to investigate the overall trends of the influence of pet companionship on student development as well as the effects of diverse types of companionship and pets on different aspects of student development, including physical and mental health, social-emotional abilities, and academic performance. The objective was to enhance the exploration of approaches for maximizing the utilization of various forms of pet companionship. Furthermore, this research suggests a systematic and incremental approach to enhancing the function of pets within households, educational institutions, and medical facilities. Adequate content and organization are essential for scientific advancement and the development of students. In this particular context, it is possible to optimize the impact of pet companionship on the development of students.

The goal of the research was to find out the effect of using living animal in teaching on remembering and understanding acquired knowledge in students with special educational needs (SEN). In our experiment, students with SEN (n=24) were compared with students without SEN (n=56). The design of the research was experimental. The research tool consisted of a test which was made by the authors, and which served both as a pre- and a post-test. For the assessment, the methods of descriptive statistics (the average) and inductive statistics (t-test for dependent and independent samples) were used. Students in experimental groups which encountered living animals in teaching, acquired more information about animals, which were used during teaching process and because of that, their results were better than the results of students in control groups.

One of the learning outcomes of learning Animal Embryology and Reproduction is that students can explain concepts about reproduction or embryology theory. Since concept map-based learning can improve students' critical thinking skills and analysis, and support their interest in learning, this study analysed the ability of students enrolled in the 2019/2020 Animal Embryology and Reproduction course to construct concept maps and students' cognitive learning outcomes through assignments and tests. This descriptive study involved 127 students in semester VI enrolled in the Embryology and Animal Reproduction programme at the Department of Biology Education, FTTE at the Universitas Muhammadiyah Malang. The sampling technique was saturated sampling and the data were collected through the task of compiling concept maps and learning outcomes with tests. The drafting of concept maps was assessed by the concepts and ideas, relationships between concepts, hierarchies, propositions, and spelling, with cognitive learning assessed by tests. The results showed that most students had sufficient ability to compose a concept map and very good learning outcomes, indicating that concept maps can be used to learn biology in Animal Embryology and Reproduction courses.

This study aimed to determine the utilization of research results of the selection of marine fungi for milkfish ("Chanos chanos") feed. The study was conducted in stages, starting with identifying the issues in the learning activities of biotechnology concepts, followed by experiments to identify research methods and products, selecting an adaptation of research findings as the learning source content, and application and development of research findings as learning. The data and information were gathered through an interview grid and a questionnaire, and the findings of the surveys were then analyzed qualitatively. The results of a selection study of marine fungi from Dua Island, Banten, Indonesia as feed for milkfish related to basic competency (KD) 3.10 and 4.10 can be used as learning resources as digital magazines for class XII high school students. Thus, media can help student in learning process.

Therapy dogs positively impact students mental and emotional well-being, which can improve the student's academic performance. Therapy dogs can reduce stress and anxiety levels, which leads to better concentration and improved learning outcomes. Canines can also help improve social skills and behavior, which fosters a more productive classroom environment. School accountability becomes more critical each year. Student performance on state assessments determines accountability ratings. This study investigated therapy dogs' impact on academic achievement in a rural middle school math classroom. By addressing this issue through learning motivational theory, the quantitative research sheds light on how incorporating canine animal-assisted interventions into the daily classroom routine can increase student achievement.

The world is changing: both a conventional and a vaccine passport are now needed to travel internationally. Mask mandates, and social distancing are the new norm in a rapidly changing society. These measures were put in place to control the spread of the highly infectious and often fatal COVID-19, caused by a viral agent, a microorganism, a zoonosis, and the cause of death for over 6 million people around the world. Considering this, maintaining biosecurity is important around the world to ensure public health. Biosecurity in New Zealand supposes that people including young people understand different pests and diseases that can harm public health. This qualitative study was conducted to gauge the biosecurity knowledge of 171 young people (14-15-year-olds). Young people were tested on their knowledge about biosecurity related plants, animals, and microorganisms. This paper reports specifically on the results of knowledge of microorganisms of young people. Results show that negative anthropocentric views dominate adolescents understanding of microorganisms and anthropomorphism is widely used to explain microorganism activity. An educational programme, targeted at developing a conceptual understanding about microorganisms starting at primary education may help develop a more educated global citizen, one versed in understanding the biology of microorganisms.

Although the empowerment of critical thinking (CT) has become an international concern that needs to be developed in the biology learning process for high school students, there still needs to be more relevant research literature. This study aimed to compare the effectiveness of implementing reading, questioning, and answering strategies integrated with creative problem solving (RQA-CPS) with RQA, CPS, and discussion strategies. This method used the pretest-posttest non-equivalent control group design for one semester using four classes. We designed that the experimental group was taught with RQA-CPS, the control-I group was taught with RQA, the control-II group was taught with CPS, and the control-III group was taught with DP. This research involved 129 high school students in four classes with the topics Plantae, Animalia, Ecology and Environmental Change. These four topics are classified as complex material that requires CT to be able to understand in depth. The results showed that high school students' CT increased in all four classes, but the RQA-CPS group experienced the most significant increase and was significantly different compared to the other three control groups. Thus, the RQA-CPS strategy should be used in learning to improve students' CT.

Governance and regulation of the use of live animals in research and teaching is examined in Australia, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, China, Japan and India. A comparison of the systems in different countries will enable the determination of best practice and fit-forpurpose regulation. The most comprehensive government regulation of animal welfare in institutions covers a broad range of animals and institutions are required to have an Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee, whose membership is specified in guidelines or regulations. The work of the Committees is rigorously overseen by government and facilities that use live animals are audited externally. All countries examined have legislation governing the use of live animals in research, although only Australia and Malaysia have a fully equivalent mandated oversight of teaching. Teaching that uses live animals is partly covered in the Philippines, Japan, Singapore and Thailand This paper thus aims to review the regulation of animal use in different Asian jurisdictions in order to determine best practices that are appropriate to those settings. The most comprehensive oversight is provided in Australia and Malaysia that essentially use the same regulatory framework.

This study aims to determine the learning outcomes of children in educational settings by using an AR (Augmented Reality) app for animals in classroom activities. To achieve this, the study used sequential exploratory research design, applied in both quantitative and qualitative research. The participants in the study are 2 teachers and 37 children working in the kindergarten affiliated to the Ministry of National Education in the central district of Kilis Province in the 2019-2020 academic year. The augmented reality app was used in one group (n = 18) of children, and not in the other group (n = 19). The children were given an animal recognition test prepared by the researchers before the app was used and again afterward in an attempt to discover how the AR app affected learning. The study determined that while animal recognition increased in both the AR and non-AR groups, the children in the group where the AR app was used recognized more animals than the other group. As a result of the analyses made of the animal pictures drawn by the children who used the AR app, it was understood that the children had the opportunity to discover details about the animals. Additionally, the study conducted analyses of animal pictures drawn by the children who used the AR app, revealing that the app provided children with opportunities to discover and explore intricate details about the animals.

The Fly-CURE is a genetics-focused multi-institutional Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experience (CURE) that provides undergraduate students with hands-on research experiences within a course. Through the Fly-CURE, undergraduate students at diverse types of higher education institutions across the United States map and characterize novel mutants isolated from a genetic screen in "Drosophila melanogaster." To date, more than 20 mutants have been studied across 20 institutions, and our scientific data have led to eleven publications with more than 500 students as authors. To evaluate the impact of the Fly-CURE experience on students, we developed and validated assessment tools to identify students' perceived research self-efficacy, sense of belonging in science, and intent to pursue additional research opportunities. Our data, collected over three academic years and involving 14 institutions and 480 students, show gains in these metrics after completion of the Fly-CURE across all student subgroups analyzed, including comparisons of gender, academic status, racial and ethnic groups, and parents' educational background. Importantly, our data also show differential gains in the areas of self-efficacy and interest in seeking additional research opportunities between Fly-CURE students with and without prior research experience, illustrating the positive impact of research exposure (dosage) on student outcomes. Altogether, our data indicate that the Fly-CURE experience has a significant impact on students' efficacy with research methods, sense of belonging to the scientific research community, and interest in pursuing additional research experiences.

This article bewilders dominant discourses about child-animal relations by acknowledging and challenging the work of Gail Melson who positions animals as providing emotional, social and pedagogical support for children. Melson's psychological approach rests upon implicit assumptions that shape and support anthropocentrism whilst also critiquing a utilitarian approach to animals in educational learning spaces. The legacy effects of this approach are steeped in neoliberal discourse that entangle with pedagogy and practice. Unless modified these effects pass through generations as sticky webs of knowability that are difficult to contest. Research from Australia and Finland, framed by critical posthuman and relational ontologies, unsettles these effects to reconfigure child-animal relations as fluid and situated. 'Bewildering education' grants insights into historical political legacies that can be traced in education policy, practice and theory preoccupied with knowledge development, relations and meaning-making around the productive 'good' human subject. Child-animal relations expose complex and far-reaching effects of early childhood because processes of becoming and being human with other animals provides spaces for knowing 'difference' as a constituting force that disrupts anthropocentric relations with the world. Building a political history of animals that pays attention to agency and ethical relations reconfigures and reconstitutes animal species, not as objects of pedagogical inquiry, but rather as subjects and fellow earth dwellers.

In this study, we randomly assigned struggling readers in special needs education (n = 23; 8-12 years of age) to a dog-assisted reading intervention or a similar intervention without a dog present. Students participated in 30-minute reading sessions twice a week for a total of six weeks. Using two standardised tests we measured reading skills before, immediately after, and three months after the intervention. In addition, the task-related behaviours and emotional expressions of a sub-group of these students (n = 17) were observed during the sessions. Results show that students who received the dog-assisted intervention had a higher increase between the pre- and post-test in their reading scores on two standardised tests, for both single-word reading and full-text reading. Differences between the groups at the follow-up measurement were present, but not significant. Observations indicated that the group receiving the dog-assisted reading intervention showed a longer duration of on-task behaviour and positive emotions during the sessions. No differences in the duration of off-task behaviour and negative emotions were found.

Recent emphasis on learning biology through scientific investigations has focused instruction on understanding and using scientific evidence. To unpack the complexities of evidentiary reasoning, here we present a novel laboratory investigation for teaching the Hardy Weinberg Equilibrium (HWE) in an introductory biology laboratory course that was informed by the Conceptual Analysis of Disciplinary Evidence (CADE) framework. This HWE laboratory investigation highlights evidentiary reasoning with scaffolding questions to target reasoning with and about scientific evidence and it provides students with detailed disciplinary knowledge underpinning their investigation and evidentiary reasoning. To indicate how CADE influenced instruction on evidentiary reasoning during the investigation, changes in one instructor's laboratory discussion questions before and after implementing CADE are provided. Also, our CADE-informed HWE laboratory investigation is compared to other published activities for engaging students with HWE. Findings show that with CADE, the instructor implemented more scaffolds for directing students to consider multiple aspects of evidentiary reasoning and encouraged students' epistemic considerations about the nature, scope and quality of scientific evidence. These changes suggest that CADE can be a practical pedagogical tool to inform improvements in HWE laboratory investigations and to help instructors develop and implement scaffolds to guide students' evidentiary reasoning during a scientific investigation.

The importance of genetic diversity, especially within small populations of endangered species, is becoming increasingly apparent. Genetic engineering techniques that could potentially enhance diversity are now being developed. However, the use of such techniques would require social licence and yet within the general population there is limited understanding of the importance of variation within a species. This qualitative study explored the potential of introducing the concept of within-species variation to New Zealand primary school children (5 to 11 year olds) with the aim of preparing these students to make critical decisions about the use of these techniques in their futures. Eighty-four children participated in the study and their explanations for the impact that differences between individuals may have were analysed revealing their scientifically acceptable understanding of the concept. But findings also highlighted potential misconceptions that they may retain. These misconceptions include a belief that animals think and behave in a manner similar to humans or that variations within a species are for identification purposes only. Findings showed that the concept of within-species variation could be introduced to primary school children. However, to do this successfully curriculum documents may need to be reviewed and teachers may require specific professional development.

The topic of keeping livestock is very well suited to addressing the ecological, social, and economic aspects of the sustainable production of our food in school lessons. However, the production of animal-based foods is mainly outside the personal experience of children and young people. To derive relevant implications for teaching, this paper explores the following research question: 'What conceptions do elementary school students have about keeping fattening pigs and dairy cows on farms?' In more detail, this study examines students' conceptions of stock sizes, husbandry practices, and feeding of fattening pigs and dairy cows and how these differ between urban and farm students. For this purpose, six elementary school students (M[subscript Age] = 8.8 years, SD = 0.4 ; 83% female) from Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia were interviewed. Three of the subjects were growing up on a conventional farm with fattening pigs. The study is informed by the Model of Educational Reconstruction. To elicit students' conceptions, we used semi-structured guided interviews, during which students made a drawing of a farm that they described in detail. The data were evaluated with the help of qualitative content analysis. The study results show a wide range of conceptions, ranging from naive and unbiased conceptions to clear conceptions of modern, conventional livestock farming.

This paper considers the topic of student wellbeing using the lens of a different type of support mechanism -- 'dog borrowing' -- which builds on prior research about emotion work and human-animal interactions but in the context of student transitions and pastoral care in higher education. This novel study was about the experiences of students settling into their university life and how, through a facilitated opportunity for students to connect to a dog and community partners, universities can meet mental health standards for wellbeing support. The findings outlined in this paper provide new insight into; how the university ethos and environment can be viewed as more personalised and emotionally supportive, how different kinds of relationships can support emotion state regulation conducive to wellbeing and effective learning and the ways that a human-animal bond can enhance connection with the community and provide social support for university students who have moved away from home.

'Diaspora' is a term that has undergone transformation throughout history. In its original sense, it referred to the Jewish population residing outside of their native land in Palestine. In its current usage, it encompasses any dispersion of people or linguistic and cultural phenomena originating from a localized source. The transnational narrative of Gun Island parallels the dispersion of both human and non-human animals caused by human-induced climate change. Humans migrate for various reasons, including environmental factors and economic opportunities, while non-human animals migrate solely due to pervasive climate change in the Anthropocene. This study argues that the novel invites readers to rethink the global perspective of diaspora from a more inclusive and ecological standpoint, recognizing that nonhuman animals also exhibit some features common to human diaspora groups. Examples include displacement from original habitats, encountering challenges in new environments, and bearing cultural or ecological relevance for source regions.

Evidence increasingly demonstrates nature engagement benefits. However, little evidence shows nature engagement provides children with a reflective perception of biodiversity, nor whether perception influences children's wellbeing and resilience. We explored the impact of weekly nature engagement in schoolgrounds on 509 eight-to-eleven-year-olds' biodiversity perception, wellbeing, and resilience. At the start and end of the academic year, wellbeing and resilience questionnaires were completed, and biodiversity perception was assessed by children drawing what they thought was in their schoolgrounds. Children initially perceived few organisms within easily visible taxa, and perceived more vertebrates compared to invertebrate species. After, children were more aware of taxa, resulting in a more reflective biodiversity perception. Children with initially low scores in wellbeing and resilience increased in these measures, and a positive association was found between increased invertebrates and vertebrates perception and improved resilience. Nature engagement within curriculum could reduce children's extinction of experience and improve wellbeing and resilience.

Transdisciplinary learning--where students develop and apply knowledge from multiple disciplines to solve open-ended problems--is necessary to prepare students for the most pressing real-world problems. Because transdisciplinary education often requires reimagining the content and design of undergraduate science courses, it can be a challenge for instructors to envision how such work might take place. In this article, we share an example of an undergraduate course developed at the intersection of animal sensory biology and robotics engineering. Students in the course developed knowledge from both disciplines to design a robot that could mimic the sensory behaviors of some animals to achieve a predetermined task. We share examples of students' work in the course and evidence of how students' perceptions of science and engineering changed throughout their participation in the course. Additionally, we describe how we adapted a hybrid model of collaboration that made it feasible for students to work together on an open-ended project requiring access to robotics equipment during the COVID-19 pandemic. This course can serve as a model for instructors working to incorporate more interdisciplinary or transdisciplinary perspectives into existing science courses.

Collective cultural transformation is needed to save the Earth from the growing effects of the human-caused environmental problems. Music education, too, can take part in preparing future generations with the knowledge and skills needed to address the world's complex challenges and create a more sustainable future. Approaching music education from the perspective of ecosocial sustainability can foster students' sensitivity to diverse sonic environments and support the overall appreciation of multispecies communities and mutually beneficial ways of interaction in the more-than-human world. Based on the general theory of ecosocial art education, this article presents three practical approaches to music education, which can promote a sustainable life orientation: (1) "Attuning to sounds" helps cultivate one's connectedness to more-than-human others. (2) "Reconnecting with sound memories" helps recognise how sonic environments affect and indicate the lives of humans and other beings. (3) "Co-composing with the more-than-human world" helps to embrace the generative powers of creativity in experiencing interdependence with others.

Objective: Assess administrative responsibilities and experiential effects of emotional support animal (ESA) and service animal (SA) policies on college campuses. Participants: Students at two four-year universities participated in an emotional support animals and service animals survey. Selected students and professional personnel participated in interviews and focus groups. Methods: This mixed-methods study included quantitative survey data from 1,363 students, qualitative individual interviews (3) and a focus group (1) regarding emotional support animal (ESA) and service animal (SA). Results: Seventy-one students reported having ESAs, 18 had SAs. Barriers for ESAs on campus included no ESAs outside of dorms, while SA-owners reported fewer barriers. University administrators followed federal guidelines for SAs but lacked clear guidelines for ESAs. Qualitative themes included lack of awareness, education, support for SA, and ESA accommodations. Conclusions: ESA and SA accommodations continue to rise, on university campuses. Clear guidelines and implementation processes are imperative for future improvements.

It is a controversial issue in education that students perform dissection experiments. Different opinions have been noted in studies on this subject, and various applications are recommended according to education levels. This case study aimed to determine pre-service science teachers' views of hands-on dissection and virtual dissection. The study group consisted of 36 students, 29 female, and seven male. An open-ended question form and student diaries were used as data collection tools. The implementation started with observing the chicken embryo development process that the students actively carried out. Then, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the frog dissection experiment was conducted as a virtual dissection. The content analysis method was used in the analysis of the data. According to the findings, the observations made during the chicken embryo development process emerged negatively due to ethical and moral concerns as the development process progressed. The frog dissection experiment applied in the virtual environment was accepted by the majority of the pre-service teachers who stated that they would prefer virtual dissection tools.

Purpose: End-user participation is often encouraged to promote the uptake of Digital Livestock Technologies (DLTs). However, managing participation during DLT development can be challenging. We explore how participation decisions can impact end-users' engagement and attitudes towards the process, before suggesting strategies for improved management of the participation process. Methodology: We explored the experiences of end-users (e.g. farmers and farm assessors) and other stakeholders (e.g. developers, researchers, industry) involved in the development and testing of DLTs on UK farms, using semi-structured, in-depth interviews (N = 31). Findings: Participation can help develop technologies that better align with users' needs, promote learning, and encourage feelings of ownership. However, participation can be a double-edged sword. Inadequate levels of involvement, management of stakeholder relationships and expectations, and available support can negatively impact end-users' engagement and attitudes. Practical implications: Our study highlights the importance of understanding how management decisions during the participatory development of DLTs can influence the engagement and attitudes of end-users towards the process. Theoretical implications: The study contributes to the participation literature in agriculture and demonstrates the importance of using a critical lens to avoid making normative assumptions that participation necessarily promotes uptake in a linear, uncomplicated fashion. Originality/Value: Participation is seen as key for technology adoption. However, the potential downsides of participation have received less attention in relation to the engagement of end-users in the process.

This study investigated the development of rapid visual object categorization. N = 20 adults (Experiment 1), N = 21 five to six-year-old children (Experiment 2), and N = 140 four-, seven-, and eleven-month-old infants (Experiment 3; all predominantly White, 81 females, data collected in 2013-2020) participated in a fast periodic visual stimulation electroencephalographic task. Similar categorization of animal and furniture stimuli emerged in children and adults, with responses much reduced by phase-scrambling (R[superscript 2] = 0.34-0.73). Categorization was observed from 4 months, but only at 11 months, high-level cues enhanced performance (R[superscript 2] = 0.11). Thus, first signs of rapid categorization were evident from 4 months, but similar categorization patterns as in adults were recorded only from 11 months on.

In line with Andrew Culp's work "Dark Deleuze" (2016) and in opposition to the tendency in some education studies communities to selectively engage affirmative and vitalist dimensions of Deleuze's work, this article engages the radical critical theory foundation of "Anti-Oedipus" (1972/2009) by exploring anatomies of desire at work around students and animals in educational practice. Desiring-machines, with their capacity to produce repression as much as revolution; freedom as much as fascism and slavery take on specific and outlandish manifestations in the presence of animals in different educational settings. Drawing on ethnographic data from upper secondary school and higher education, the article identifies the subjectivation of students to implements of animal killing and control, and to the risk of physical harm accompanying work with wild animals, as constitutive anatomies of desire in these settings. The article argues that the way society and education make use of animals is emblematic of multiple and accelerating social-ecological crises. Emerging from Deleuze and Guattari's unsettling question, why we invest in the systems that destroy us, is not only a hierarchical human exceptionalism, but an invasive human expansionism that forces itself upon other species as well as upon philosophy of education in the 21st century.

Objective: The purpose of this systematic review is to synthesise the available evidence of the impact of therapy dog-assisted interventions on the social and emotional wellbeing of students in mainstream school settings through the use of the biopsychosocial framework. Method: The PRISMA 2020 guidelines were followed, and the inclusion criteria included primary outcomes related to social and emotional wellbeing, such as social competencies and mental health. The studies included were conducted in mainstream educational settings, incorporated a therapy dog, provided a comparison or control group and were in English. The quality of the evidence was assessed with the Evidence Project Risk of Bias tool. Results: Of 405 studies identified, seven studies with sufficient rigour met the inclusion criteria of evidence to support the use of therapy dog-assisted interventions to improve social and emotional wellbeing within a school setting. Outcomes consisted of psychological, biological, and social variables contributing to overall wellbeing, such as improved self-perceptions, decreased cortisol levels and improvement in social behaviour and empathy. Conclusions: Findings suggest that therapy dog-assisted interventions can have a positive impact on social behaviours and reducing stress in a school setting; however, there is a need for more rigorous and current research investigating therapy dog-assisted social and emotional wellbeing interventions in mainstream educational settings.