Abstract

Developing classroom activities that help promote students’ ability to synthesize and evaluate mechanisms of organ formation is important for their life-long learning in the life sciences. Here, I present several techniques that engage and gauge (engauge) students in middle school science outreach and undergraduate college settings by using normal development of the zebrafish heart. The zebrafish heart is used as a scaffold for enabling students to explore how developmental principles can inform heart repair and regeneration, as well as mechanisms that underlie heart abnormalities, such as cardia bifida (split heart). These strategies set the framework for future investigations into how instructors can engage their students in the process of scientific inquiry.