Lab materials and activities. Students in the ABT articles engaged
with living or prepared biological material (e.g., tissue samples,
slide preparations) in two-thirds of the labs (66%), but only 13% of
the labs were focused on field systems (e.g., trips to local streams,
observing insects on schoolgrounds) (Figure 2). This could reflect
limited time and logistical difficulties of getting students out of the
classroom. Students engaged in observing, exploring, and gathering
observational data in most (85%) of the ABT articles, but these activities
tended not to be explicitly described as having an instructional
purpose. Students analyzed data in 75% of the studies and engaged
in argumentation in just over half (56%).