EDUCATION IN BIOLOGY.
Academic year and teacher
If you can't find the course description that you're looking for in the above list,
please see the following instructions >>
- Versione italiana
- Academic year
- 2022/2023
- Teacher
- SIMONETTA PANCALDI
- Credits
- 6
- Didactic period
- Secondo Semestre
- SSD
- BIO/01
Training objectives
- The main target of the Course is giving the student the theroretical and practical basic knowledge of zoology, botany, human anatomy, physiology, ecology and genetics, useful to transfer knowledge of life sciences to students of the secondary school of both 1st and 2nd grade. A further fundamental target of the Course will consist in furnishing the students the necessary didactic tools to teach the subject in the school. Particular attention will be given to the relevance of language and of specific lexical expertise, to the skills to use knowledge and comprehension for a correct transfer of contents and to the ability to discuss the learnt subjects. Aim of the Course is providing the students an overall view of the potential of teaching biology inside the scholastic context, with a specific emphasis on thinking methods which can be given to pupils from the secondary school. The didactic approach will be organised through a theoretic path, always strictly combined with practical activities which will include easy, appropriate to be done also in the classes experiments, use of computer simulations, employment of simple models to explain processes and functions, realization of forms for integrative activities.
Prerequisites
- Even if there are no specific rules as regards propedeuticity, having preliminar knowledge on all subjects related to life sciences, also at a secondary school level, simplifies the comprehension of many topics that will be discuss during the theoretical and practical lessons. Knowledge of basis of chemistry and of physics is useful.
Course programme
- The Course consists in 48 hours (6 CFU) of theoretical teaching, always supported by laboratory activities. All contents of the Course combine theoretical and practical contents focused to provide methodologies useful to organise didactic paths on life sciences. For each subject will be given:
- Zoology: basic elements on different functions of organs and apparatus and on animal taxonomy and classification. Use of light microscope for the systematic classification of the main groups of invertebrates; systematic evaluation of whole animal preparations; anatomical reconstruction of animals through plastic models; evaluation of the anatomical and physiological organization of animals from different ecological niches. Learnt notions will be used to organise didactic paths characterised by contents specifically suitable for the secondary school of 1st and 2nd level.
- Botany: theoretical basis on plant cytology, histology, organography and reproduction, and basic notions of plant systematics. Theoretical lessons will be associated with simple laboratory activities, which will enable the students to learn the proper competence for the preparation and identification of plant samples through light microscopy. Appropriate experimental didactic paths on specific topics to be proposed to the secondary school (1st and 2nd level) will be suggested.
- Physiology: an introduction to the didactics of sciences as regards Physiology; the experimental method for the knowledge of natural phenomena; living beings: main characteristics and common functions (homeostasis, nutrition, chemical communication, transport, structure (skeleton), movement and nervous system). Particular attention will be given to the learning of teaching methods through a theoretical/experimental didactic path on a topic on physiology selected by students, among those developed during the theoretical lessons. The didactic path will be specifically organised the for students from secondary school of the 1st and 2nd grade.
Human anatomy: basics on the general organization of the integumentary, cardiovascular, respiratory, digestive, urinary, reproductive, locomotor and nervous systems, highlighting the main anatomical and functional aspects. In particular, for each apparatus will be described the clear correlation between the histological / anatomical organization and the function in the general context of the human body. Different level of descriptive details will be provided, to reflect the different needs of the teaching of anatomy in secondary school of the 1st and 2nd grade.
Ecology: basics of Ecology by using methodologies that stimulate the interest of students for the scientific exposition of the environmental themes, and by proposing didactic paths for the transfer of the theoretical knowledge of Ecology and of the awareness of the Natural Patrimony around us. The Course is divided into two parts: one has a descriptive approach – the natural patrimony; the importance of Ecosystems for human life; the structure and the functionality of ecosystems producing goods and services for the Human Society; the other one consists in learning didactic methods – theoretical/experimental didactic path on two current ecological themes selected by students. The theoretical basis of a problem will be discussed and a didactic path specifically developed for students from the secondary school of the 1st or 2nd grade will be proposed, with the aim of bringing the classes to the comprehension of that problem and, possibly, to the practical experimentation of it.
Genetics: the basic concepts of Genetics with the aim of developing the communication ability by means of didactic paths: the ereditariety laws, the genetic diversity, with a special attention to the human genetic diversity. Examples of innovative approaches for the transfer of these concepts will be furnished by using practical activities which recall the scientific pathway that led to the current knowledge. Didactic methods
- For each subject of the Course the appropriate teaching methods will be employed: observation at the light microscope of samples; movies for the comprehension of anatomy, physiology and of the animal/plant behaviour; animal and plant anatomy plastic models that can be disassembled and reconstructed; set up of forms for theoretical/experimental didactic paths characterised by different detail levels, appropriate for the secondary school of the 1st and 2nd grade; guided exercises of macroscopic anatomy using human preparations (bones), three-dimensional models and a multimedia device for the study of interactive anatomy; virtual labs.
Frontal lessons of all subjects will take advantage of Power Point presentations and will be integrated with practical activities. Learning assessment procedures
- For each subject of the Course, the learning level will be assessed using adequate tools. The final exam will be addressed not only at verifying the knowledge level of contents, but also and mainly the thinking ability developed by the student and his/her capability to organize the test by taking into account if it is directed to students of the secondary school of the 1st and 2nd grade.
The exam can be: a written test with multiple choice, closed answer questions; a Power Point presentation of a didactic unit on a specific theme belonging to the life sciences; preparation and oral discussion of forms for didactic units, specifically prepared for the secondary school of the 1st and 2nd grade.
The evaluation is expressed in thirtieths (minimum score 18/30, maximum score 30/30 cum laude) and will be the average value deriving from each mark obtained from the various tests. Reference texts
- E. Padoa-Schioppa, Metodi e strumenti per l’insegnamento e l’apprendimento della biologia (Edises)
Annali online della Didattica e della Formazione Docente (n. 14/2017, monografico "Strategie e metodologie didattiche in Matematica e nelle Scienze") a cura di Maria Teresa Borgato e Simonetta Pancaldi - http://annali.unife.it/adfd/index
Silverthorn DU, FISIOLOGIA UMANA, Casa Editrice Pearson
Hickman et al., ZOOLOGIA,ed. McGraw-Hill
Pancaldi et al., Fondamenti di Botanica Generale – Teoria e partica, ed. McGraw-Hill
E.P. Odum – Ecologia un ponte fra scienza e Società. Ed. Piccin
Glauco Ambrosi et al., Anatomia dell'uomo, edi-ermes
Un atlante di Anatomia umana
Saranno a disposizione gli appunti/presentazioni forniti dai docenti di ogni materia
