Science is a perspective. It’s hard to appreciate something that you don’t know exists. One of my goals for teaching Biology is to help students become aware of what they don’t know and to enable them to teach themselves about these things. I love this essay that touches upon the difference between surface level memorizable biological facts vs. the how and why behind biological phenomena that makes Biology so wonderful.
Science is a practice. New knowledge or skills stick better when you get into the habit of accessing or using them. Another teaching goal of mine is for all of my students to become practicing biologists. Over time, frequent practice can lead to identity changes. My courses have frequent zero- or low-stakes assessments that are designed to help students build habits of using what they have recently learned.
Science is not free from socio-political systems. Scientific findings are used by people, both scientists and non-scientists. They are historically and currently misused to promote socio-political agendas. During discussions about the consequences of particular scientific findings I ask students to come to the table with an emphatic spirit, having acknowledged that we are each products of socio-political systems and are therefore prone to mistakes and causing harm even when unintended.
Beyond my current institution, I am part of a collaboration centered around finding more inclusive ways of teaching about evolution called RIE2 (Resources for Inclusive Evolution Education). We organized evolutionary biologists, science educators, and science/technology/society scholars and published five teaching modules.