Pixel International Conferences

An important part of the biology subject matter in school is the biological processes in the human body and health. In the Swedish curriculum human body and health is present in all years of the compulsory school. Even if this area is emphasized during all school years, students do not have an overall understanding of health and bodily functions. The misunderstandings of the nutritional processes of the human body have been reported by several authors [1, 2].  We have been teaching physiology to preservice teacher and biology students for several years trying to reach a better understanding of processes in the human body [3].The present study shows an example of teaching of health and body function starting with a discussion about ticks and the various diseases they spread in the Stockholm area. Nine preservice teacher students did four weeks of biology studies, including ecological of processes and different organism life cycles. The last week of the course was devoted to teaching body and health. The idea was to start with the circulatory system because students often focus on the various functions of the organs, but the linking to the blood system is often forgotten. By connecting to the students' previous knowledge of organisms and ecology to body and health, we started with an introduction of tics by going out collecting and investigating their morphology and life cycle. Teaching continued by showing a video clip about how the virus and bacteria are spread through the blood. The following lessons contained  body function, nutrition and the immune system. After the session about body and health, students wrote reflections from three different lessons about what they learned and what had surprised them. They also had to write a lesson plan for teaching body and health in upper primary school (year 4-6). At the end of the course, the students wrote an exam of three parts where one part was concentrated on body and health. Results from the reflections and the written exam showed that the students understood the interaction between the different parts of the body better and the importance of the circulatory system, but also between different organisms and how they may affect each other. The inclusion of ticks in the course increased the understanding

Keywords: Biology teaching, body function, circulatory system.

References:

1. Nuñez, F., et al. (1997). Students' conceptual patterns of human nutrition. International journal of science education, 19(5), 509 -526.
2. Reiss, M. J et al. (2002). An international study of young people's drawings of what is inside themselves. Journal of Biological Education, 36:2, 58-64.
3. Mutvei A., et al. (2017). Digestion as an example of integrated teaching of chemistry and biology. Conexão Ciencia. Formiga/MG, Volume 12 (2), p. 89-95.