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Both nanopore-based DNA sequencing and CRISPR/Cas-based gene editing represent groundbreaking innovations in molecular biology and genomics, offering unprecedented insights into and tools for working with genetic information. For students, reading, editing, and even writing DNA will be part of their everyday life. We have developed a laboratory procedure that includes (i) the biosynthesis of a guide RNA for, (ii) targeting Cas9 to specifically linearize the pBR322 plasmid, and (iii) the identification of the cutting site through nanopore DNA sequencing. The protocol is intentionally kept simple and requires neither living organisms nor biosafety laboratories. We divided the experimental procedures into separate activities to facilitate customization. Assuming access to a well-equipped molecular biology laboratory, an initial investment of approximately $2,700 is necessary. The material costs for each experiment group amount to around $130. Furthermore, we have developed a freely accessible website (https://dnalesen.hs-mittweida.de) for sequence read analysis and visualization, lowering the required computational skills to a minimum. For those with strong computational skills, we provide instructions for terminal-based data processing. With the presented activities, we aim to provide a hands-on experiment that engages students in modern molecular genetics and motivates them to discuss potential implications. The complete experiment can be accomplished within half a day and has been successfully implemented by us at high schools, in teacher training, and at universities. Our tip is to combine CRISPR/Cas gene targeting with nanopore-based DNA sequencing. As a tool, we provide a website that facilitates sequence data analysis and visualization.

Fungi mostly reproduce through spores that are adapted for airborne dispersal; hence, fungal spores (and fungi) are found virtually everywhere. Fungi can be "friends or foes." Our friends include fungi used in the food and biotech industries, fungi that contribute to the cycling of carbon and nutrients, and those involved in the decontamination of polluted soils and/or water, to mention just a few examples. Many species, however, are foes--they are detrimental to plants, animals, and/or humans. Annually, >1.5 million people die due to invasive fungal infections. With the aim of enhancing microbiology literacy and the understanding of microbial concepts, we set up a project for the collection of airborne spores (the principal agent through which human airways are exposed to fungi). Students from five high schools in the Oeiras municipality partnered with us as citizen scientists; they carried out sampling by collecting fungal spores on adhesive stickers. The fungal spores collected by the students were subsequently processed in the schools and our research laboratory. Results obtained by the students themselves revealed a large variety of fungal species capable of growing in a rich medium at 30°C. In the research laboratory, using selective isolation conditions, 40 thermotolerant fungi were isolated, 32 of which were taxonomically identified as aspergilla, mostly from within the Aspergillus fumigatus taxa, yet exhibiting high genetic heterogeneity. The protocols and results were presented to the students, who were made aware of the local dispersal of airborne fungal spores, including some from potentially pathogenic fungi. Through carrying out scientific activities, the students developed both the interest and the self-confidence needed to implement future environmental investigations.

Science misinformation represents a significant challenge for the scientific community. Hispanic communities are particularly vulnerable due to language barriers and the lack of accessible information in Spanish. We identified that a key step toward enhancing the accessibility of information for non-native English-speaking communities involves imparting science communication education and training to Hispanic youth. Our goal was to provide them with the skills to become science ambassadors who can effectively engage with their communities and bridge communication gaps. To address this, we developed the first science communication training program in Spanish for Hispanic high school and undergraduate students in Puerto Rico. The program called "+Ciencia" aims to provide training and education on science communication for Hispanic minorities through experiential and collaborative learning. In the short term, our multifaceted approach works to counter misinformation and promote science literacy within the broader community. Over the long term, our grassroots efforts with students will evolve into a generation of professionals equipped with strong engagement skills and comprehensive training in science communication with a specific focus on Hispanic audiences. Herein, we describe the components of this educational program and provide open access to educational materials and articles developed by three cohorts.

The challenge of creating reliable technology-based resources for science learning is a perennial challenge in Philippine education, with limited learning materials accessible to all learners. This study is about the development of a videocast embedded with physics education technology (PhET) simulation that served as supplementary learning material for grade 9 science in response to the scarcity of dependable visualization materials. The study employed the developmental research design with analysisdesign-development-implementation-evaluation (ADDIE) model as the developmental framework. The vodcast evaluation tool, achievement test questionnaire, and vodcast perception survey questionnaire for students and teachers were used in the data collection, while the Kendall's W statistic, mean, percentage, and gain score were used in the data interpretation. The teacher respondents (N=64) have moderate agreement on the ranking of topic difficulty, with Kendall's W of 0.45. The researcher-made vodcast attained an overall rating of 4.78 from experts, which implies that the vodcast can be very good material for classroom implementation. The developed achievement test has acceptable difficulty and discrimination indices. The implementation stage yielded a low normalized gain, which can be accounted for by unfocused attention during the pandemic. Nevertheless, the voicecasts were found very useful in learning projectile motion, as perceived by both students and teacher-observers.

This research is focused on assessing how the incorporation of Padlet technology affects the evaluation of historical thinking skills in high school history education. The research methodology involved a pretest-posttest approach with a randomly selected group of 70 students. The research tool employed questionnaires aligned with the study's objectives. Data analysis utilized comparative statistics, specifically the paired sample t-test. The outcomes of the study reveal a significant positive impact resulting from the integration of Padlet technology in assessing historical thinking skills. This is substantiated by the sign value being less than 0.05 for all aspects examined. Consequently, this research provides compelling evidence that this approach can serve as an effective alternative for improving the quality of history education at the high school level. The findings of this study have important implications for educators, learners, and other stakeholders. These results may be used by educators to create more successful teaching strategies that will improve their students' historical thinking and comprehension. As a personal learning tool, Padlet technology can help students comprehend the historical subjects they are studying better. For those involved, this study offers compelling proof that using Padlet technology in high school history curricula may improve its caliber.

For students to be able to compete and overcome challenges in the future, critical thinking is essential. The study's descriptive methodology aims to describe the students' critical thinking abilities. Every high school in a South Sulawesi district made up the research population. Based on school accreditation, with the use of a proportionate stratified random sampling technique, 150 students were chosen to comprise the research sample. The test instrument used is an essay distributed online. The indicators for the description questions are interpretation, analysis, and interpretation thinking skills. According to the study's findings, students' critical thinking abilities in static fluid material have an average score in the medium category of 73.09. In terms of school accreditation, students' physics critical thinking abilities average 73.87 for schools with A accreditation, 72.43 for schools with B accreditation, and 68.47 for schools with C accreditation. The percentage of each indicator of critical thinking skills is 34.58 in inference, 33.70 in analysis, and 31.71 in interpretation. It is anticipated that this study will give a broad picture of students' critical thinking competencies for teachers to choose and implement the most suitable stimulus to aid students in developing their critical thinking abilities.

The study's objectives are to i) develop a test kit to determine the ability of multiple intelligences (MI) to play basketball in high school and ii) measure a student's MI test ability in playing basketball. The method used is the development of instruments with analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation (ADDIE). The study subjects comprised five schools in five districts in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. With a total sample of 1029 students. The results showed i) that test kits developed to assess students' MI abilities meet valid and reliable requirements. It can be seen from the validity of the contents of V-Aiken (0.96) and the validity of the construct, namely the loading factor > 0.3. With the analysis of the item classically, it detects that the level of difficulty and differentiability of the problem is good and according to the criteria; ii) the results of MI capability measurements show 55% of capabilities with the "high" category, 35% with the "medium" category, and 10% with the "low" category.

Soft skills-based learning is very important to equip vocational high school students, one of which is entrepreneurship. This research aims to develop entrepreneurship learning through the "menara berkah" model. This research aims to develop entrepreneurship learning through the "menara berkah" model. This research is a type of development research including predevelopment stage of the model, model development, and validation or model testing stage. The research sample amounted to 25 people from two vocational high schools in Palembang and Yogyakarta. While data collection techniques using mixed methods and data analysis using statistical tests. Based on the construct of the model content assessment results obtained an average of 4.45, this score indicates that all aspects are components that are feasible to be used as material or content of entrepreneurship-based learning management models in the catering expertise competency. The "menara berkah" model is proven to be effective and applicable, with an average achievement of 4.76%, this indicates that this model can be used and can make it easier, especially in entrepreneurship-based learning. The results also show six competencies that must be possessed by students, namely: technical skills, decision making, organizational skills, marketing and financial management, risk taking, creativity, and innovation.

The rise and growing prevalence of juvenile delinquency is a matter of concern for many parties. This study aims to establish a research instrument in the form of a questionnaire that can be deployed to assess the learning environment perceived by high school students. This research endeavor constitutes a developmental study, wherein the outcomes are a single survey instrument encompassing six variables, nineteen indicators, and forty questions. The data-collecting process involved the utilization of a Google Form across five schools in five districts, containing a total of 1615 participants. The analysis of expert data was conducted utilizing V. Aiken and field trials employing confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) Second Order. The findings of this study indicate that the diagnostic survey instrument used to assess the learning environment's impact on the mental health of high school students demonstrated validity, as evidenced by loading factor values exceeding the established minimal threshold. The reliability of the instrument remains insufficient. This survey can be utilized to detect adolescent persistent tendencies carried out by students or other school members that interfere with mental health: the emergence and significant raising of juvenile delinquency.

Digital literacy is an important part of vocational secondary school education. Along with the development of technology and the expansion of access to digital resources, digital literacy is very important for vocational students. Digital literacy itself indirectly helps Vocational High School students to gain greater access to information and helps them in the learning process of various topics using trusted sources. This descriptive quantitative research aims to analyze the digital literacy skills of private vocational students in Surabaya City. Students' digital literacy ability was measured with the Likert Scale as a variable in this study. The population consists of students from four private vocational schools in Surabaya City with a total of 700 students. The sample consisted of 100 students, using a random sampling technique. Data collection is carried out through digital literacy instruments and data analysis using descriptive analysis. The results of the research data analysis showed that respondents' ability to elements of basic literacy skills averaged 2.79, average background knowledge 2.26, and information and communication technology (ICT) skills averaged 2.53. In addition, the attitudes and views of users of student information averaged 2.59. The results showed that the digital literacy ability of private vocational school students in Surabaya City was in the "Good" category.

Purpose: Many students perceive plant anatomy as difficult due to the complexity of the material. Additionally, conventional teaching techniques often neglect the importance of information retention in the learning process. Therefore, this study examines the effects of Retention-Based Learning on students' learning outcomes compared to conventional learning without Retention-Based Learning. Methodology: A multiple-group time series research design was used to measure the effectiveness of Retention-Based Learning on students' learning outcomes including information retention, cognitive load, and learning achievement. Retention interventions in the Retention-Based Learning class included watching videos, identifying images and answering questions. The participants in this study were seventy-eight 10th-grade public high school students in Bandung, West Java, Indonesia, divided into two research groups. Findings: This study found that students in the experimental group had better information retention in each lesson and a significantly higher ability to process information with less mental effort and lower cognitive load than the control group. Additionally, the experimental group showed significantly higher learning achievement than the control group. These findings demonstrate the importance of maintaining information retention to maximize learning outcomes in plant anatomy lessons. Significance: This study indicates that maintaining retention can be a simple and powerful learning approach to help high school teachers teach complex material. The study highlights the significance of maintaining student retention to improve learning performance.

Purpose: Given the research gaps identified in a literature review, this study aims to uncover how the intensity of learners' motivational behavior and its predictors vary with grade level. Methodology: A large-scale survey was conducted to examine motivational behavior and its predictors among EFL learners across three education levels and ten grades in Taiwan: primary school (Grades 3 to 6), junior high school (Grades 7 to 9), and senior high school (Grades 10 to 12). A total of 12,441 valid cases were collected from both rural and urban areas in Taiwan. ANOVA and multiple regression analysis were used to analyze the data. Findings: The results showed a significant effect of grade level on the intensity of motivational behavior. Specifically, learners' intensity of motivational behavior tended to decline with grade level (years of study). The significant predictors of motivational behavior also differed with grade level. Significance: In addition to theoretical and methodological contributions to L2 motivation research, this study can enhance understanding of factors that could enhance learners' motivational behavior and offer implications to assist EFL teachers in developing motivational teaching strategies.

This research paper delves into the origins of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) speaking anxiety in Moroccan high school students and offers potential remedies to reduce or prevent its occurrence, with a particular emphasis on encouraging a willingness to speak. The study involved 37 high school teachers who completed a questionnaire regarding their strategies to mitigate speaking anxiety and promote communication willingness among Moroccan EFL high school students. The data was collected and analyzed using SPSS. The findings reveal that anxiety stems from various factors, including linguistic issues (such as limited vocabulary, grammar challenges, and fluency), personal factors (such as learner personality and motivation), and teacher-related factors (including feedback quality and classroom activities). Moreover, the research suggests that teachers should prioritize strategies like providing positive feedback, offering praise, and incorporating collaborative work or task-based learning to reduce students' EFL speaking anxiety. Additionally, teacher participants proposed additional strategies focused on a variety of activities and methods to foster a welcoming classroom atmosphere.

This article presents an exploratory study examining the importance that students attribute to pedagogical strategies focused on bridging learning in-and-out of school. The aim is twofold: to analyse students' views of such strategies in different types of school (personalised learning--PL--and mirror schools), and to investigate whether different perceptions appear among three selected PL schools according to their degree of implementation of such strategies. We have administered the EPAE-A questionnaire to a sample of 3001 students (1481 from 5 PL schools, and 1520 from 5 mirror schools) to determine the value to these type of strategies for learning. The results indicate broad student agreement on the importance of connected learning strategies for learning and engagement in both groups. Moreover, our analysis reveals a certain relationship between the amount of pedagogical strategies aimed at promoting connections between in and out of school learning in the three selected cases and the perceived frequency reported in the questionnaire. In conclusion, our study highlights different elements to help teachers implement connected learning strategies in classrooms.

Open education is an education and instruction network that is widely used to overcome physical and temporal limitations. In the current study, an evaluation was made by taking the opinions of students on the application areas of the open education system in Turkey. In this context, the reasons for students attending open education high schools to switch to open education high schools were examined and a general perspective on open education applications was presented in line with their goals and expectations. To this end, phenomenology, one of the qualitative research methods, was used and students' opinions and experiences about open education were elicited. The sample of the current study is comprised of 500 open education high school students registered through public education centres. An online questionnaire form consisting of semi-structured open-ended questions was used to collect data in the study. When the findings were examined, it was seen that the reasons for the participants' enrolment in open education differed. In the analysis performed, it was seen that the reasons for enrolling in open education were grouped under six sub-headings: individual-emotional reasons, familial reasons, economic reasons, health-related reasons, reasons arising from school education processes and environmental-stimulating reasons.

Although research has always related e-portfolios to self-regulated learning, recently agency, which includes individual, relational, and contextual domains, has also been highlighted. Likewise, agency has been explored in technological environments that support collaborative and co-design learning processes. This study, investigating the enactment of student agency within e-portfolio learning co-design with 68 secondary students in Hong Kong, focuses on how students perceive their agency within a co-design e-portfolio learning framework, which was coined as the Co-PIRS model in previous stages of research. With descriptive aims, a mixed research methodology was designed using quantitative and qualitative data collection instruments. Among the findings, it is argued that students report a greater awareness of agency, characterized by competence beliefs (individual domain) in the showcase phase of e-portfolios, peer learning (relational domain), and the opportunities to make choices (contextual domain) in the implementation phase. The study also reveals students' positive attitudes towards reflection, which suggests the suitability of structuring collaboration in the co-design approach. These insights serve as a foundation for implementing e-portfolio co-design frameworks to empower students' agency and provide educators with guidance in Secondary Education and beyond. [Note: The page range (190-203) shown on the PDF is incorrect. The correct page range is 190-202.]

This paper is focused on the development of a didactic proposal for English students in the Basque Country. Specifically for students in the 1st year of "Bachillerato" with Spanish and Basque as their L1 and English as their L2 which aims to improve their communication skills, especially oral abilities and pronunciation, through the use of didactic dubbing. This proposal is framed within a project-based learning (PBL), in which the final project is the creation of a vertical video dubbed in English. For this purpose, six sessions have been designed with different group activities that will culminate with the presentation of the video. This didactic unit revolves around social networks and seeks to meet the requirements of current regulations in terms of objectives, contents, competences and evaluation criteria. In addition, transversal elements such as the appropriate use of social networks, fears or interpersonal relationships are worked on. The use of videos in vertical format meets the increasing demand for creating content in this format that adapts to the new mobile devices.

Language learning beliefs are considered to be an important factor influencing student learning outcomes. This mixed-methods research investigated English language learning beliefs of Iranian English language learners. Data were collected from 226 junior and senior male and female high school students using the Beliefs about Language Learning Inventory (BALLI) and semi-structured interviews. Participants reported strong beliefs in terms of 'motivation and expectation' and 'foreign language aptitude'. First and third graders' mean belief scores were statistically different across their 'overall beliefs', 'foreign language aptitude', and 'motivation and expectations'. Moreover, although the overall gender differences were not statistically meaningful, significant differences were noticed with regards to beliefs about 'difficulty of language learning' and 'foreign language aptitude'. The results underscore the hypothesis that changes in language learning beliefs happen due to learners' stage of development, i.e. their grade. Further, certain misconceptions among high school learners were noticed about the role of aptitude and intelligence, error correction, and supremacy of learning certain forms of language. The implications are discussed with reference to language education and policy development.

The purpose of the study is to investigate school counselors' support of youth experiencing homelessness going to college. Using survey methods, school counselors reported their knowledge, perceived competence, advocacy, and actions related to supporting students experiencing homelessness in their college preparation. The results suggested that training and the number of students experiencing homelessness on counselors' caseloads were significantly related to their knowledge and competence. Knowledge, competence, and advocacy all impacted the number of interventions utilized by participants. The implications of these results for school counselors and counselor educators are discussed.

Incorporating ethnoscience into lessons through the ethnoscience-students' worksheet (ESW) is one method to improve student interest in science learning while introducing them to the local culture. However, no research was reported the effects of ESW on students' responses and the factors that influence ESW implementation in science learning. In order to better understand how students learn through ESW, this study investigated the relationship between ethnoscience context, science learning, and the implementation of students' worksheets. Seventy-two students participated in the survey after they studied ethnoscience learning through ESW. Students' responses are more influenced by science learning. In addition, the ethnoscience-integrated students' worksheets (SW) variable indirectly affects students' responses. Additionally, ESW affects students' responses more significantly than science learning and ethnoscience. This research provides insightful implications for educators on planning, designing, and practicing ESW to enhance students' problem-solving motivation and academic achievement. Furthermore, to contribute significantly to future researchers, further research employed the structural equation model through covariance analysis, also known as confirmatory factor analysis (CFA).

Higher order thinking skills (HOTS) are an important element in facing the challenges of the 21 st-century. Difficulty in solving problems systematically, facing challenges in an organized manner, and being unable to design original solutions are due to the low HOTS that students have. HOTS ability can improve students who low-level thinking skills in several ways, for example, through learning integrated with media, practice, and assessment or HOTS-based cognitive assessment. The purpose of this study was to develop and implement a HOTS-based cognitive assessment to assess students' HOTS abilities. The device development model used is an adaptation of the analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation (ADDIE) model. The research sample consisted of 30 students in class 11 of the Governance and Office Automation Competency Program of Vocational High School 1 Kudus. The result is that 11 students have the HOTS ability with very good criteria, 17 well criteria, and 2 enough criteria. This study suggests that a test instrument for further research is to measure students' HOTS ability. The Experts conclude that HOTS-based cognitive assessment can be used as an approach to improve students' HOTS to actively think selectively and supported by logical argumentation.