| Abstract: | This paper is an investigation of the How People Learn (HPL) Legacy Cycle's ability to expand adaptive expertise across the developmental span of high school and college. Participants included high school and college students. Pre‐test data indicated younger students (high school and first‐year college students) were less knowledgeable about the science of stem cells than older students (second‐, third‐, and fourth year college students), and all students were low in adaptiveness. Post‐test data showed that younger students achieved parity with the more advanced students in basic scientific knowledge. The younger students also became highly adaptive by the post‐test, but the older students did not advance beyond their pre‐curriculum levels. We hypothesize that the older students began the intervention with more preconceived notions about stem cells, and thus were less able to think and analyze flexibly within that framework. |
