Analysis of Japanese Biology Ⅱ textbooks and the introduction of a student experiment with origami birds (Avis papyrus) aiming at further understanding of the mechanism of evolution.

Abstract

In this study, Japanese Biology Ⅱ textbooks were compared with ones used in high school of USA and UK and in liberal arts courses at university in order to reveal how much unnecessary and/or inaccurate evolutionary mechanisms are described and how little data about field evidence of evolution are included in them.　In addition, the eff ectiveness of studentʼs experiments using origami birds (Avis papyrus) in understanding natural selection was examined by tests carried out before and after the experiment. Japanese Biology Ⅱ textbooks had two extra evolutionary mechanisms (i.e., Lamarckism and orthogenetic theory), and fewer examples of natural selection and genetic drift in the field (two and one examples, respectively).　Studentʼs experiments using origami birds were able to be fi nished in one class (45 minutes) and removed studentʼs misunderstanding that natural selection necessarily accompanies combat between organisms.