2002 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
Development of a Program for Secondary School Science to Encourage Student Understanding of the Responses of Organisms to Light
| Project/Area Number |
12680174
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
Science education
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| Research Institution | TOKYO GAKUGEI UNIVERSITY |
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Principal Investigator |
KATAYAMA Nobuyasu Tokyo Gakugei Univ., Dept. of Biology, Associate Professor, 教育学部, 助教授 (20014855)
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| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
TAKAMORI Hisaki Tokyo Gakugei Univ., Dept. of Biology, Assistant, 教育学部, 助手 (40188090)
NAKANISHI Fumi Tokyo Gakugei Univ., Dept. of Biology, Lecture, 教育学部, 講師 (30293004)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2000 – 2002
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| Keywords | Secondary school science / Biology education / Curriculum development / Development of experiments / Photobiology / Responses to environmental stimuli / Organisms for teaching |
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| Research Abstract |
The purpose of this project was to develop a program for studying the relationships between organisms and their environment for the secondary school level. The program was developed from the following point of view : what kinds of responses are evoked in organisms by a certain environmental factor. Laght was chosen as the environmental factor for this project. In the program developed, light is taught as an energy source for photosynthetic organisms and as a signal to start and to stop certain reactions for many organisms.
The program contains the following topics :
The relationship between the color of seaweeds and their habitats. Students learn that some seaweeds have special light-harvesting pigments for their photosynthesis, and this is related to their vertical distribution. This topic includes laboratory exercises such as the extraction and separation of photosynthetic pigments and the examination of the photosynthetic responses of seaweeds to different wavelengths of light.
Photoperiodism and plant morphogenesis in relation to light. Students learn that flower bud induction, flowering and the nastic movement of leaves are regulated by light (both quantity and quality of light). Examination of (l) flower bud induction in the Wisconsin Fast Plants, (2) the flowering in morning glories, and (3) the opening-closing movements of oxalis leaflets are the laboratory exercises developed for this topic.
The responses to light stimuli in insects. The fruit fly was chosen for this laboratory exercise to examine the phototactic responses to different wavelengths of light through which students can compare the visual sense between insects and human beings.
Some of the developed exercises have been implemented in secondary school science classes. The implementations were successful. Some hints to improve the program have been obtained for further studies.
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