Japanese Journal of Biological Education
Online ISSN : 2434-1916
Print ISSN : 0287-119X
Volume 32, Issue 4
Displaying 1-6 of 6 articles from this issue
EDUCATIONAL STUDIES
  • T. Tanzawa, T. Nakatani
    1992Volume 32Issue 4 Pages 230-240
    Published: 1992
    Released on J-STAGE: December 12, 2024
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS

    BSCS, which developed Blue, Green, and Yellow Version in 1960s, continued to revise them after that. BSCS also developed several STS (Science, Technology, and Society) programsin late 1970s and 1980s. So, we took up 4th. (1980), 5th. (1985) and 6th. (1990) editions of BSCS Blue Version as an example, and investigated the relationship between it’s change and STS education.

    The focus of this investigation was on the analysis of STS topics in the area of genetics, and the clarification ofinterrelationship among science, technology and society in goals, Chapter 1.“The Science of Life”,and Chapter 13. “The New Genetics” of Blue Versions.

    As a result of these analyses, it was revealed that 6th. edition of Blue Version incorporated more intensively the rationale of STS. BSCS Blue Version 6th. edition, to be concrete, presented the following interrelationships among science, technology, and society:

    1. knowledge generated by the scientific enterprise contributes to the development of new technologies, and vice versa ;

    2. technology is both beneficial and detrimental to society ; and

    3. science may solve society’s problems,in turn, society may decide the direction ofscientific research. In conclusion, how views of science Blue Version 6th. edition reflect was discussed.

    It seems that BSCS is going to integrate it’s traditional curriculum approach with STS approach. As BSCS have had a greatinfluence upon science education in the United States, it is needed to check BSCS programs in the future, to predictthe direction of science education in the United States.

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  • H. Ubukata
    1992Volume 32Issue 4 Pages 241-247
    Published: 1992
    Released on J-STAGE: December 12, 2024
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS

    The defects ofthe content ofthe textbooks of biology for Japanese upper secondary school concerning population change were as follows: (a) incompletenessin selecting fundamental concepts, (b) uncleamess ofthe relationship among the concepts. (c) insufficiency ofthe evolutionary thinking, and (d) avoidance of mathematics in the explanation.

    The proposed curriculum was constituted by the following concepts : (1) the causes of population change (definitions, factors of population change, reasons of reproduction) : (2) theories of population growth (models ofdiscrete generations with and withoutlimitin environment, innate capacity ofpopulation increase, logistic population growth, carrying capacity) : (3) analyses of population change (life table, fertility table, density dependence, density effect, age structure) : (4) population and evolution (life history strategies, evolution in deme, lifetime reproductive success).

    Finally, the significance of adopting simple mathematics in explaining population growth was emphasized, because the logical relationship is more clearly shown by an equation than by verbal and/or graphical explanation.

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PRACTICAL STUDIES
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