Modeling meiosis through story: a narrative-driven, low-cost virtual laboratory for introductory biology

Options for flexible online learning are essential because they remove barriers to education and make learning accessible to a much wider range of people. A greater demand for flexible online instruction highlights a critical need for accessible, active-learning science curricula. Teaching complex, dynamic cellular processes like meiosis and non-disjunction is notoriously difficult in independent or asynchronous environments due to high student cognitive load and frequent misconceptions regarding these processes. To address this, a flexible, low-cost virtual laboratory was developed using tactile modeling embedded in a relatable, pop-culture zombie narrative. This study evaluated the pedagogical efficacy and student perceptions of this exercise across multiple undergraduate-level introductory biology laboratory sections (n = 48 paired responses). Paired pre- and post-assessment data demonstrated a statistically significant increase in overall conceptual knowledge, with average student scores rising from 66.88% to 75.73%. Granular item analysis revealed that while rote vocabulary scores remained unchanged, students achieved significant learning gains in process-driven mechanics, phase identification, and mid-level cognitive skills within Bloom's taxonomy. Qualitative survey data showed high student self-efficacy, with over half reporting the lab significantly aided their understanding, despite baseline affective ambivalence typical of independent active learning. Furthermore, multi-instructor deployment demonstrated that while designed for asynchronous delivery, this curriculum possesses the structural flexibility to adapt seamlessly to synchronous, hybrid, or in-person flipped classrooms, offering an equitable and adaptable framework for modern multimodal STEM education.