Teaching authentic cutting-edge science to high school students

Specialerapport. IND's studenterserie nr. 46. Biologi.

Leonora Simony, marts 2016.

Teaching authentic cutting-edge science to high school students, (1,6Mb)

Vejleder: Marianne Achiam, Institut for Naturfagenes Didaktik.

Abstract

Laboratory work is an important part of many scientific subjects, such as
physics, chemistry or biology. As a result laboratory work is also an
important part of science education. Even so many didactic studies
questions the effect of laboratory work on students ability to acquire
scientific knowledge.

In this thesis the Theory of Didactic Situations and Didactic Transposition
theory are used and combined in order to analyse the educational
program ‘DNA and Life’, offered by The Natural Museum of Denmark. This
program invites high school students to spent a day in a modern
laboratory, where they try a newly developed molecular method in order
to examine biodiversity.

There were two aims of this study. First I wanted to examine how students
work in the laboratory and if this work could be optimised? Second I
wanted to examine if a newly developed method would increase the
students enthusiasm towards science?

Theory of Didactic Situations was used to examine the programs structure
and this work became the point of departure when analysing the Didactic
Transposition, thus combining these two theories in one theoretical
framework. These analyses created my reference model, which in this
thesis functions as a result, as it became an idealised version of ‘DNA and
Life’. Through the analyses I found that if students are to achieve the
optimal learning outcome from cookbook-styled laboratory exercises, the
exercise needs to be followed by other types of tasks, where students,
without interference from an educator or teacher discuss and evaluate the
work done in the laboratory. The results in this thesis also indicates that an
open-ended evaluation of the laboratory exercise and not the usage of a
new method engaged students in laboratory work.