Surveys (n=1116) 15-year-old students from 11 Western Australian schools to determine their understanding of and attitude towards recent advances in modern biotechnology. Discusses reasons for students' over-estimation of the use of biotechnology in society. Provides a rationale for the inclusion of biotechnology, a cutting edge science, in the…

Agricultural communications students (n=330) were surveyed to determine their knowledge of and attitudes toward biotechnology issues reported in the mass media. Although students achieved only 30% correct responses, 84% perceived their knowledge level to be average to high. Most were somewhat accepting of genetic modification for plants but less…

Presents a method for analyzing the didactic strategies put forward to develop students' argumentation skills in biotechnology. Considers five supporting examples and focuses successively on the social characteristics at play and the procedures. Attempts to produce analytical tools to support designers and users of teaching materials in making…

Presents lesson plans on bread making using a student-centered approach and process skills. Includes designing the experiment, investigation, and data collection. (YDS)

States that media effects are largely long-term and indirect, and that lay publics associate more risk with science and technology in their social context than with the underlying science itself. Uses biotechnology to explore media effects issues. Concludes that the scientific community's interests would be better served by news addressing…

Suggests a new approach to teaching about biochemical cellular processes by stimulating student interest in those biochemical processes that allowed for the outcomes of modern biotechnologies. Discusses the development of students' ability to ask meaningful questions about intra-cellular processes, and the resulting meaningful learning of relevant…

Describes an unusual course at the University of California, Los Angeles which includes DNA sequencing experiences and exploration of the social, economic, and ethical issues resulting from advances in biotechnology. (EV)

Compares the impact of a role-play versus a conventional discussion on students' argumentation on an issue involving animal transgenesis. Applies two different debate situations and asks students to decide whether or not to approve a giant transgenic salmon farm being set up in a seaside village. (Contains 30 references.) (Author/YDS)

A writing task assigned to tenth grade students of a biotechnology unit is elaborated wherein they practiced literacy skills and demonstrated knowledge integration by communicating their understanding to seventh-grade students. The standards put forward by the National Research Council are fulfilled by such teaching strategies.

Environmental and genetic explanations have been given for Black-White racial differences in intelligence and other traits. In science, viable, alternative hypotheses are ideally given equal Bayesian prior weights; but this has not been true in the study of racial differences. This article advocates testing environmental and genetic hypotheses of…

An increasing number of Bioscience courses embed entrepreneurship learning outcomes within the curriculum, across a number of modules and/or within a dedicated module. The level 2, Developing People and Products module is one such example, involving students in 100 study effort hours over 7 weeks. This module was delivered to students (n = 37)…

Successful knowledge-based economic models rely on synergy between government, industry and academia. This paper reviews the efforts to convert the island of Puerto Rico from a manufacturing to a high-tech manufacturing/research and development economy, with information technology and biotechnology as the main development strongholds. The…

Restriction enzymes are basic tools in recombinant DNA technology. To shape the molecular biology experiments, the students must know how to work with these molecular scissors. Here, we describe an integrated set of experiments, introduced in the "Advances in Molecular Biology and Biotechnology" postgraduate course, which covers the important…

The world is a dynamic environment driven by technology that challenges each individual in a unique way. No longer is the ability to read and write sufficient because technological change affects nearly every aspect of one's life from "enabling citizens to perform routine tasks to requiring that they are able to make responsible, informed…

This report provides an overview of the efforts of Iowa's community colleges to train workers for the emerging bioscience/biotechnology sector. The report explains the programs available and the future plans of individual community colleges designed to educate students for careers in the biosciences. Also detailed are a variety of creative…