Abstract

FALA, Angela Maria; CORREIA, Elisete Marcia  and  PEREIRA, Humberto D'Muniz. Practical activities in high school education: an experimental approach to genetics teaching. Ciênc. cogn. [online]. 2010, vol.15, n.1, pp. 137-154. ISSN 1806-5821.

Experimentation in education is required to bring students closer to the phenomena taught in lectures. Nevertheless, hands-on activities are little explored by biology and science teachers. Therefore, students show difficulties in understanding the concepts. The fact that teachers use explanatory classes that are based on textbooks or printouts only, and which are apart from examples of everyday life, aggravates the problem. Thus, in this study we present a monohybrid cross of the Drosophila melanogaster fruit fly as an educational strategy to complement the mendelian concepts taught to high school sophomores. The activity took place once a week during after-school hours and lasted for seven weeks. Besides the fruit fly crosses, students also read complementary texts, made probability exercises, talked about tdehe phases of the insect life-cycle and had debates on the ethical aspects of applied genetics. Students' performance was evaluated through questions and answers applied before and after completing the activities. The main results indicate that these activities promoted the integration of the group and helped with students' progress in understanding the subject studied. © Cien. Cogn. 2010; Vol. 15 (1): 137-154

Keywords : genetics; drosophila; hands-on activities; teaching-learning; high school education.

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