Developing a culture of explaining in biology courses

The purpose of biology curricula is for students to understand phenomena scientifically. However, more than just content, science is a way of seeing and acting established by the discipline’s evolving community. This includes the types of explanations we produce and accept. Specifically, we explain phenomena causatively (i.e. via causes). Yet, the concept of explanation is often implicit in biology curricula. Through explaining many phenomena students may intuit what explanation entails but many don’t in my experience. In this article, I’ll explore why explanation is a concept worth teaching and show how it can become an explicit curricular component.