Using Pop Culture To Teach Introductory Biology

Students are captivated by the characters, storylines, and gossip provided by pop culture (television, movies, magazines, books, sports, music, advertisements, and the Internet). They always seem more engaged when teachers incorporate examples and analogies from popular culture into their lectures. This seems especially true regarding non-majors biology students--a demographic group most instructors find challenging to teach because many of these students are frustrated and bored with the topic of biology. In accordance with these observations, the author believes that pop culture references can be used as an effective pedadogical platform and have the potential to reshape the approach taken by many professors to teach introductory biology. (Contains 2 figures and 1 table.)