Development of a Science Lesson to Deepen Students’ Understanding of Rhinoceros Beetles’ Body Structure and Arthropod Segmental Structure and Evolution

Abstract

Rhinoceros beetles are popular insects, well-known from childhood in Japan, but it has been reported that many students, preservice teachers, and elementary school teachers do not have a correct understanding of their body structure. Therefore, this study developed a lesson to help students understand the body structure of rhinoceros beetles by dealing with the evolution of insect segmental structure. As a side effect of this lesson, we expected to deepen students’ understanding of the body structure and evolution of arthropods. As a result of the practice lesson with junior high school students, the percentage of students who selected an appropriate illustration of the body structure of rhinoceros beetles increased significantly after the class. The results also suggest that students’ understanding of the body structure of arthropods was deepened through the class; knowledge such as “a pair of legs grows from a single segment” and “some arthropods have fused body segments” was obtained. On the other hand, after the class, more students described the characteristics of arthropods as those of insects, with descriptions such as “body divided into head, thorax and abdomen” and “legs from the thorax”. The development of teaching materials on evolution and the taxonomy of arthropods, which account for about half of the known species on Earth, is expected to continue in the future.