Abstract Development of positive attitudes towards the environment is an important element in environmental education. We investigated whether students at Deakin University who took the first year level unit SQE112 ‘Ecology and the Environment' developed any changes in attitudes to nature. Students completed a questionnaire before and after completing the unit of study. The questions provided information on six categories of attitudes towards wildlife. We found students who had taken SQE112 developed significantly more positive attitudes to wildlife in four of these categories (biocorrect, exploitation, natural stewardship and pest rights) but not in the categories controlled breeding and animal rights. In contrast, a control group of year one students showed no significant changes in attitudes to nature. Students who studied SQE112 had higher attitude scores initially than the control group, suggesting they were more positively disposed to the environment and chose a course which reflected this greater interest in environment. There were no significant differences in attitude change for students enrolled in SQE112 at metropolitan and regional campuses, although regionally based students initially had much lower scores on the exploitation scale. Our results are very similar to those found for USA students.

The purposes of this research were to investigate the changes in the experimental skills and scientific ability of students as applied to a laboratory class in undergraduate course, and to examine the effects of teacher's guidance on the experimental knowledge and ability of the students. The results of this study are as follows: (1) Almost all students had observed the cells and plant tissues as well as plant cell mitosis using a microscope at the secondary level. On the other hand, many students had not experienced during school some laboratory activities such as fish dissection, detection of human blind spot, and observation of the respiratory movement of fish gills. The effects on the students of those activities that were novel were greater than those of previously experienced activities. (2) The students evaluated their own skills and ability after performing the laboratory activities. As the post-test score was significantly higher than the pre-test score for experimental skills, this laboratory class was shown to be effective in enhancing students' experimental skills. (3) The contents and evaluation method of this laboratory class were validated through the performance of the students. “Biological Experiment for Junior High School Science Teachers” may helps students enhance their experimental skills and scientific ability necessary for teaching biology at the junior high school level.

Abstract At Deakin University, first year Biology is one of the largest units and is taught at four campuses. At Warrnambool, Biology A (which runs in Semester 1) is taken by Science students taking three environmentally based courses as well as by Nursing students. This latter group of students takes Biology B in Semester 2. Here, we outline some of the features of the program including the web site and its associated interactive activities, the problems in teaching disparate groups of students in Biology A and in teaching students where most are living away from home and many are mature age learners who have not studied science for a long time.

The author has been researching effective ways of implementing biology education within compulsory education in Japan for many years. To serve as a basic reference for this work, an investigation into the usage of biological terminology in compulsory education science textbooks was performed. The definition of “biological terms” used in this paper includes not only technical terms for biology, but also words related to biology that are also used in daily conversation. The investigation includes the generation of a comprehensive list of biological terms from all the approved, commercially-available science textbooks used in compulsory education, and notation of how many textbooks each of the terms is used in at each grade level (a maximum of six textbooks for elementary school or five for lower secondary school). This paper outlines the results of that investigation.

‘Choke Anan' and ‘Nam Doc Mai' mangoes were wounded and treated with one of two yeast antagonists (Candida sp. isolate ns 5 and ns 9) for 12 h before soaking with chitosan (0.25% and 0.5%) and followed by inoculation with the anthracnose pathogen Colletotrichum gloeosporioides. Treated fruits were stored at 25°C for 7 days. The results revealed that anthracnose lesions decreased on fruit in whose wounds antagonistic yeasts had been allowed to colonize before inoculation with the pathogen. The combination of antagonistic yeast with chitosan was more effective on the reduction of anthracnose incidence than yeast or chitosan alone. Candida sp. ns 9 in combination with 0.5% chitosan was the most effective in controlling anthracnose fruit rot in ‘Choke Anan' and ‘Nam Doc Mai' mangoes in which the average percentages of disease incidences were 6.7% and 13.3%, respectively, compared with 93.3% and 100% infection in the control fruits. As for fruits treated with hot water (55°C for 5 min), the disease incidences in ‘Choke Anan' and ‘Nam Doc Mai' were 73.3% and 86.7%, respectively.

Longan (Dimocarpus longan Lour. cv. Daw) is one of Thailand's most important export fruits. This crop was confronted with a severe postharvest fungal rot disease problem. Examination of the surface appearance using a stereo-microscope showed that the fruit skin was rough and uneven. Under a scanning electron microscope, the surface of longan fruit consisted of scale and epidermal hairs, and in some areas the remnant of cuticle could be observed. Filamentous fungi were also observed. Many genera of fungi were isolated from the affected skin of harvested longans by a tissue transplanting method. These were Aspergillus, Cladosporium, Colletotrichum, Fusarium, Lasiodiplodia, Mucor, Penicillium Pestalotiopsis, Phomopsis, Rhizopus, Trichoderma, Verticillium and 7 unidentified genera. Each of the fungal isolates was inoculated onto the pericarp of the fruit for pathogenicity determination. The pathogenic ability examination showed that Lasiodiplodia and Pestalotiopsis, which were common molds found on the fruit skin, caused the most severe symptoms, e.g. the diseased fruit rotted rapidly. The most virulent isolate was identified as Lasiodiplodia theobromae based on its morphological characteristics and by DNA sequencing.

One-day-old fresh longan fruits (Dimocarpus longan Lour. cv. Daw) were selected. The fruits were placed in 3-kg perforated plastic crates of commercial scale for each treatment. The treatments were: no pre-cooling, tap water immersion, pre-cooling with cold water 50, 100 and 200 ppm chlorine and also without chlorine. The cooling was for 10 min, and the final temperature of longan fruits reached 5°C. The effects of the hydrocooling treatments on the quality and decay of the fruits during storage at 5°C and 93 % relative humidity (RH) for three weeks were determined. By pre-treatment with cold water plus 50 ppm chlorine, the longan fruits showed significantly decreased peel browning and fruit decay in comparison to no pre-cooling and tap water immersion treatments. With this treatment, the fruits maintained the highest L* value both of the inner and outer peel, soluble solids content (SSC) in flesh, high sensory evaluation and peel desiccation was prevented. Therefore, the treatment could extend the storage life of longan fruits. Pre-cooling with no chlorine did not prevent fruit decay caused by fungi. Higher chlorine concentrations, 100 and 200 ppm, increased peel browning and fruit decay. Weight loss was not affected significantly by any treatments.

Extracts from some edible mushrooms could supplement important substances for fruiting body formation of straw mushrooms. Crude extracts from young fruiting bodies of Pleurotus ostreatus, Lentinula edodes and Agrocybe cylindracea were diluted and added to potato dextrose agar (PDA) before sterilization. The supplemented agar plates were inoculated with straw mushroom (Volvariella volvacea) agar plugs and the growth of the colony was measured after 3 and 7 days. The supplementation with the aqueous extract of P. ostreatus resulted in a faster growth and denser mycelia of the straw mushroom than that of the control or the other extract-supplemented media. Twenty ml each of the original solution and the two dilutions (1:1 and 1:3) of the P. ostreatus extract was sprayed on the surface of moist cotton waste already fully colonized by straw mushroom mycelia. After 5 days, the dilution of 1:1 significantly stimulated fruiting body formation. This dilution was applied 4 times to the colonized cotton waste substrates before primordial formation. Yield of early mature stage fruiting bodies increased over the control by a percentage of 40. The supplementation with the aqueous extract from P. ostreatus could help to induce fruiting bodies and increase the yield of straw mushrooms.

The diversity of macrofungi at Chiang Mai community forests and Doi Suthep-Pui National Park was investigated during October 1996 – November 1998 and November 2003 – October 2004. Fungi were collected from 19 forest areas and identified. Two hundred and fifty eight species were found. They were ascomycetes of 30 species, 21 genera, 12 families, 5 orders, and basidiomycetes of 228 species, 89 genera, 35 families, 10 orders. The most prominent species of macrofungi found belonged to the families Boletaceae, Agaricaceae and Russulaceae comprising 43, 35 and 28 species respectively. A wild mushrooms database including its management program, Wild Mushroom Database Version 1.0, was developed by using the data related to the habitats and macroscopic and microscopic characteristics of wild mushrooms. This software will be used for managing the dried wild mushroom specimens in the Mushroom Herbarium, Biology Department, Faculty of Science, Chiang Mai University, Thailand.

A survey was conducted to categorize medicinal weeds which belong to family Acanthaceae and family Asteraceae found in Chonburi Province, Thailand. Places sampled in 12 areas of 4 districts were residential areas, agricultural lands, plantations, uninhabited areas, along the seashore and some aquatic habitats. In total, 25 species were cataloged belonging to 20 genera in 2 families: in family Acanthaceae 7 genera, 11 species and in family Asteraceae 13 genera, 14 species. The medicinal characteristics of each species were studied in collaboration with traditional herbal medicine providers as well as by information from historical articles. The frequency of occurrence and medicinal characteristics of the weeds are discussed.