The study describes a teaching action undertaken in the belief that the use of methodologies based on active and cooperative learning could obviate some of the most worrying deficiencies in current scientific teaching, while at the same time supporting the validity of the constructivistic theory that prompted them. A teaching action on genetically…

Many studies have investigated the classification of living things. Our study deals with a different problem: the attribution of life to one component of a living organism, specifically the bones. The task involves not only specifying what we mean by "alive", but also requires "informed thinking" leading to an understanding of…