Earthworms versus apple worms: Assessing college student misconceptions and growth in an introductory entomology course

College students have misconceptions about insects and their lifecycles. Misconceptions can be rooted in common names or seemingly similar characteristics and are often enhanced through social media portrayals of “bugs." At Oklahoma State University, Insects and Society is an undergraduate non-major’s course that has between 200-400 students every semester. Students in the Fall 2024 and Spring 2025 semesters were asked to examine images of 11 invertebrates, including a crab, earthworm, grasshopper nymph, maggot, caterpillar, leach, spider, whitegrub, walkingstick, and snail. Students identified which were arthropods and of those, which were insects. We hypothesized that student scores would improve at the end of the semester. We used a two-sample Z-Test for means to compare pre and post survey results. Significantly more students were able to correctly identify which pictures on the survey were arthropods and which pictures were insects in the post survey when compared to the presurvey. In addition, the presurvey revealed lack of knowledge of immature stages or the ability to distinguish insect larvae from other soft-bodied invertebrates.