Lots to remember, but not a lot to think about? Using mass-participation online outreach to change students’ perception of biology

Biology is often perceived by students as a subject that primarily requires the memorisation of large volumes of information. All too often, the way biology is taught and assessed prioritises factual recall at the expense of developing the creativity, lateral thinking and collaboration skills that students need to succeed professionally in the life sciences. Here, we describe the results of a new two-year outreach programme, the Cambridge Biology Challenge (CBC), which aimed to dispel the ‘memorisation myth’ whilst also helping students develop their ability to solve biological problems. We show that our programme successfully achieved both aims for several thousand students and discuss the broader lessons that can be learned as to how best to help students understand the true nature of biology as a discipline.