Use of Seaweed for Teaching Taxonomy with Everyday Language in High School Biology

Abstract

This paper proposes a teaching strategy to provide high school students with an engaging biology exercise (seaweed taxonomy) in the field using simple and inexpensive tools to revive field-based education, shift teaching methods to active learning, and overcome the limitations of a typical Philippine public high school laboratory. In the course of our reconnaissance, we were able to identify a coastal area with high seaweed diversity just fifteen minutes away from our school. In our proposed exercises, high school students will be able to identify actual seaweeds in the field using freely downloadable pictorial guides. They will also be able to perform other basic, taxonomic tasks such as taking field photographs and notes, creating a character matrix, and constructing a dichotomous key. Finally, we gave suggestions on how to link field biology teaching with other disciplines such as chemistry and physics for a more integrated science learning.