Pupils aged 12-14 from the University of Ghana Primary and Junior High School conducted studies off the coast adjacent to Accra, including a field visit to explore the effects of climate change on the country's biology, ecology and physical environment. They composed poems and made paintings about the coast and sea as means of conveying their…

Among potential topics in the new science of biodiversity, understanding the characteristics and impact of invasive birds is an attractive subject to include as part of junior high school biology studies. Birds are aesthetic and raise curiosity. Curiosity about birds, combined with field observations, can stimulate students to ask authentic…

Concept mapping is discussed as a tool for the visualisation of knowledge structures that can be exploited within biological education. Application of this tool makes it possible to relate the structure of the curriculum to the structure of the discipline, in order to support the development of robust student knowledge structures in ways that…

Evolution curricula are replete with information about Darwin's theory of evolution as well as microevolutionary mechanisms underlying this process of change. However, other fundamental facets of evolutionary theory, particularly those related to macroevolution are often missing. One crucial idea typically overlooked is that of most recent common…

A causal explanation in biology focuses on the mechanism by which a biological process is brought about, whereas a teleological explanation considers the end result, in the context of the survival of the organism, as a reason for certain biological processes or structures. There is a tendency among students to offer a teleological explanation…

Schools have been identified as one of the appropriate settings for addiction prevention since this is the place where pupils may come into contact with drugs for the first time and experiment with them, with the possibility of becoming addicted. To be effective, school-based drug education must be firmly based on knowledge of oneself and…

For many years there has been a growing concern, particularly among researchers in biology education, about the extent to which research findings from one discipline (most usually physics education) can be applied directly to other disciplines (particularly biology education). This paper explores the issue through the use of one particular…

Students need tools, thinking skills, to help them think actively and in depth about biological phenomena. They need to know what kind of questions to ask and how to find answers to those questions. In this article we present a toolkit with 12 "thinking tools" for asking and answering questions about biological phenomena from different…

The purpose of this research was to explore the way pupils of different age groups use a model to understand abstract concepts in genetics. Pupils from early childhood to late adolescence were taught about genes and DNA using an analogical model (the wool model) during their regular biology classes. Changing conceptual understandings of the…

On first contact, students express less interest in plants than in animals. With suitable didactic methods, however, the teacher can actively interest students in plants. In our research we attempted to quantify the influence of these methods. 184 students of three age groups took part in the experiment. We used eight plants (one artificial). We…

The theory of evolution by natural selection is contrasted in the media, and in some schools, with creationist ideas, in which the diversity of life on Earth is said to be the result of direct species-by-species creation, not of evolution. More recently, the Intelligent Design movement has claimed that "certain features of the universe and of…

This paper reports on a study of pupils' knowledge and understanding of atmospheric pollution. Specifically, the study is aimed at identifying: 1) the extent to which pupils conceptualise the term "air pollution" in a scientifically appropriate way; 2) pupils' knowledge of air pollution sources and air pollutants; and 3) pupils' knowledge of air…

The study examines the interests and attitudes of school students toward biology: through their interest in out-of-school activities and their attitude towards lessons as measured by interest, importance and difficulty. Biology lessons were relatively popular with the greatest preference found among students learning zoology. Girls showed…

This paper discusses some traditional approaches to the teaching of evolutionary theory at pre-university level, criticising in particular some of the more commonly used models and exemplars. Curricular demands are described and an alternative approach is suggested, using the emerging story of human evolution. Recent discoveries help to illustrate…

It is common to find students believing that they have a high skill level in computer use yet this does not normally include proficiency in the use of computer packages for data presentation. This exercise develops team work in data collection, requires the production of a simple spreadsheet, and the exporting of the data from that into one or…