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Representing Variability: The Case of Life Cycle Diagrams.

ABSTRACT: Two foundational concepts in biology education are 1) offspring are not identical to their parents, and 2) organisms undergo changes throughout their lives. These concepts are included in both international and U.S. curricular standards. Research in psychology has shown that children often have difficulty understanding these concepts, as they are inconsistent with their intuitive theories of the biological world. Additionally, prior research suggests that diagrams are commonly used in instruction and that their features influence student learning. Given this prior work, we explored the characteristics of life cycle diagrams and discuss possible implications for student learning. We examined 75 life cycle diagrams from books, including five biology or general science textbooks and 25 specialized trade books focusing on biology for children. We also examined 633 life cycle diagrams from a publicly available online database of science diagrams. Most diagrams failed to show any within-species variability. Additionally, many diagrams had perceptually rich backgrounds, which prior research suggests might hinder learning. We discuss how the design characteristics of diagrams may reinforce students' intuitive theories of biology, which might make it difficult for students to understand key biological concepts in the future.

SUBMITTER: Menendez D

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8711823 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Representing Variability: The Case of Life Cycle Diagrams.

Menendez David D Mathiaparanam Olympia N ON Liu David D Seitz Vienne V Alibali Martha W MW Rosengren Karl S KS

CBE life sciences education 20200901 3

Two foundational concepts in biology education are 1) offspring are not identical to their parents, and 2) organisms undergo changes throughout their lives. These concepts are included in both international and U.S. curricular standards. Research in psychology has shown that children often have difficulty understanding these concepts, as they are inconsistent with their intuitive theories of the biological world. Additionally, prior research suggests that diagrams are commonly used in instructio ...[more]

PMID: 32870076

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Project description:PurposeThe recently published first Life-LCA case study of a human being (0-49 years) did not use primary data for the "childhood and youth stage" (0-17 years). Consumption was assumed to contribute 50% of the calculated 48th baseline year. This led to uncertainties as consumer behavior changes from birth to adulthood. Furthermore, transport emissions and environmental impacts before birth were neglected. Therefore, this paper analyzes the prenatal and infancy phase (0-3 years) to develop the Life-LCA method and database further and evaluate generic assumptions.MethodsThe Life-LCA method sets the reporting unit to newly defined prenatal and infancy phases. The reporting flow describes the range of all consumed products attributable to an infant. Primary data was collected with a sample of three study objects-a pregnant mother, a newborn baby, and a 3-year-old infant-living in Germany. The following environmental impact assessment categories are considered: climate change (GWP), acidification (AP), eutrophication (EP), and photochemical ozone creation (POCP).Results and discussionPrenatal and infancy phase burdens account for a GWP of 4,011 kg CO2-eq., an AP of 22.3 kg SO2-eq., an EP of 10.7 kg PO4-eq., and a POCP of 1.7 kg C2H4-eq. The share of the prenatal phase is around 15-20% for all impact categories. Transport is a hotspot for GWP (30-60%) and POCP (45-70%) in both phases. AP (50%) and EP (45-50%) are dominated by food products, mainly meat (45%) and dairy products (35%). For the prenatal phase, energy and water consumption at birth rank third in GWP (8%). Diapers account for 6% (GWP) of the environmental burden in the infancy phase. Assumptions made in the first Life-LCA study connect closely with the values calculated for the first three years of infancy. A remaining challenge is allocating the impacts between infants and parents and developing a methodology for assessing data quality.ConclusionFocusing on two new life phases has led to the subdivision of the "childhood and youth stage" and an extension of the system boundaries. The results' uncertainty was reduced by developing a new set of specific datasets focusing on several study objects. The case study results show the importance of primary data collection for evaluating generic assumptions. Additional studies on childhood and adolescence from 3 to 17 years are suggested for a robust assessment of the complete "childhood and youth stage."Supplementary informationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11367-022-02129-7.

Project description:Grapholita molesta, the oriental fruit moth, is a serious global pest of many Rosaceae fruit trees. Gut microorganisms play important roles in host nutrition, digestion, detoxification, and resistance to pathogens. However, there are few studies on the microbiota of G. molesta, particularly during metamorphosis. Here, the diversity of gut microbiota across the holometabolous life cycle of G. molesta was investigated comprehensively by Illumina high-throughput sequencing technology. The results showed that the microbiota associated with eggs had a high number of operational taxonomic units (OTUs). OTU and species richness in early-instar larvae (first and second instars) were significantly higher than those in late-instar larvae (third to fifth instars). Species richness increased again in male pupae and adults, apparently during the process of metamorphosis, compared to late-instar larvae. Proteobacteria and Firmicutes were the dominant phyla in the gut and underwent notable changes during metamorphosis. At the genus level, gut microbial community shifts from Gluconobacter and Pantoea in early-instar larvae to Enterococcus and Enterobacter in late-instar larvae and to Serratia in pupae were apparent, in concert with host developmental changes. Principal coordinate analysis (PCoA) and linear discriminant analysis effect size (LEfSe) analyses confirmed the differences in the structure of gut microbiota across different developmental stages. In addition, sex-dependent bacterial community differences were observed. Microbial interaction network analysis showed different correlations among intestinal microbes at each developmental stage of G. molesta, which may result from the different abundance and diversity of gut microbiota at different life stages. Phylogenetic Investigation of Communities by Reconstruction of Unobserved States (PICRUSt) analysis indicated that most functional prediction categories of gut microbiota were related to membrane transport, carbohydrate and amino acid metabolism, and DNA replication and repair. Bacteria isolated by conventional culture-dependent methods belonged to Proteobacteria, Firmicutes, and Actinobacteria, which was consistent with high-throughput sequencing results. In conclusion, exploration of gut bacterial community composition in the gut of G. molesta should shed light into deeper understanding about the intricate associations between microbiota and host and might provide clues to the development of novel pest management strategies against fruit borers.

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Representing Variability: The Case of Life Cycle Diagrams.

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Representing Variability: The Case of Life Cycle Diagrams.

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