Integrating scientific practices with biological content
Leading team:
- Prof. Anat Yarden
Project team:
- Dr. Moriah Ariely
- Dina Bartov
- Dr. Yehuda Ben-Hur
- Dr. Tom Bielik
- Dr. Gilat Brill
- Einat Filler
- Dr. Ilana Hopfeld
- Dr. Lena Raved
- Dr. Ronit Rozenszajn
Brief
The Life Sciences group is currently developing learning materials according to the biological aspects of the new syllabus for science and technology in junior high schools in Israel. In the current development effort, our main theme is the integration of scientific practices with biological contents, and particularly the development of systems thinking among junior high school students. So far we have developed units on life systems, transport systems, ecological systems, and reproductive systems. We are attempting to develop students’ understanding of systems using a knowledge organizer aimed at helping learners to organize their knowledge about each system in terms of its structural components, the processes that occur within the system, and the mechanisms involved.
Developing systems thinking in the biological sciences requires of the learner to understand multiple organizational levels. The Life Sciences group is attempting to develop this understanding using the structure-behavior-function (SBF) theory, which has been previously suggested as a suitable framework for analyzing biological systems, due to the crucial relationship between form, function, and mechanism in biology. Members of the group have developed a framework for knowledge organization according to the SBF theory (Raved et al., 2013), and we are testing its feasibility in promoting systems thinking among learners in the context of learning about transport systems in the 7th grade.
Further reading:
Related publications
- Raved, L., and Yarden, A. (2014). Developing seventh grade students’ systems thinking skills in the context of the human circulatory system, Front. Public Health
2:260. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2014.00260.
Related learning materials (in English and in Hebrew)
- Bartov, D., and Yarden, A. (2013). Exploring life, In B. Eylon, A. Yarden & Z. Scherz (Eds.), Exploring Life Systems (Vol. 1), (A student text, a digital book and a teacher guide, The Amos de-Shalit Israeli Center for Science Teaching, grade 7).
- Raved, L., Bielik, T., Haskel-Ittah, M., and Yarden, A. (2013). Exploring transport systems, In B. Eylon, A. Yarden & Z. Scherz (Eds.), Exploring Life Systems (Vol. 1), (A student text, a digital book and a teacher guide, The Amos de-Shalit Israeli Center for Science Teaching, grade 7).
- Ben-Hur, Y. (2013). Living organisms in their environment, In B. Eylon, A. Yarden & Z. Scherz (Eds.), Exploring Life Systems (Vol. 2), (A student text, a digital book and a teacher guide, The Amos de-Shalit Israeli Center for Science Teaching, grade 8).
- Ariely, M., and Yarden, A. (2013). Exploring reproductive systems, In B. Eylon, A. Yarden & Z. Scherz (Eds.), Exploring Life Systems (Vol. 2), (A student text, a digital book and a teacher guide, The Amos de-Shalit Israeli Center for Science Teaching, grade 8).