Development of an environmental education experimental material for exploratory learning of environmental assessment of chemical substances affecting marine ecosystems

(Aiming for a teaching material that nurtures high school students' ability to explore using zooxanthellae)

Abstract

Education about environmental issues should provide students with opportunities to think deeply using intuitive and accessible education tools. In this study, we developed an experimental system using zooxanthellae related to coral bleaching as a simple teaching material for observing the environmental effects of chemical substances and observed that organic UV filters inhibit the growth of zooxanthellae living symbiotically on corals. When this material was used for educational practice in high school classes, equivalent results were obtained compared to the well-organized university laboratory environment. Based on the above, we concluded that the experimental system developed in this study can be effectively used for the inquiry-based learning in the new high school subject "Period for Inquiry-Based Cross-Disciplinary Study” or “Basic Inquiry-Based Study of Science and Mathematics”.