体验科学探究提出有探究价值的问题是关键——以“探究环境因素对鼠妇生活的影响”为例

论述了在教学实践中,借助“探究光对鼠妇生活的影响”开展科学探究的学习,将提出问题的过程根植于自然中观察到的现象。在对疑问进行辨析、评价和修改的过程中,学生获得了关于有探究价值问题特点的知识,提出问题的能力得到了锻炼。从而真正理解“提出问题是科学探究的起点”,它对整个探究活动中起着重要的引领作用,而不是仅仅作为科学探究的第1个自然环节而存在。科学探究的起点和核心是“提出问题”,落实“提出问题”环节是学生理解真实的“科学探究”的重要途径。     

生物学教学中的探索性学习探微

探究性学习最初是由美国学者施瓦布倡导的 ,他主张学生的学习过程与科学家的研究过程一样 ,遵循科学探索的一般规律。学生通过主动参与探究 ,不仅学“知”,还要学“做”,即学会科学方法。因此探究学习符合现代教育理论提出的“主体性教学原则”和“以人为本、全面发展的教育理念”,并为学生的终身学习奠定坚实的基础。下面举例分别阐述两种探究性学习的基本过程。1　探究性学习的基本过程1.1　探究性讨论活动　这种方法主要适用于生物学原理的学习 ,让学生主动参与获取知识的过程。其一般步骤是 :教师提供有关知识和背景材料→提出问题→观…     

探究式学习在生物教学中的实施

高中生物新课标已将“倡导探究式学习”作为新课程的基本理念,强调“在教学中,教师应该让学生亲历思考和探究的过程,领悟科学探究的方法。”这就要求我们转变传统的教师讲授,学生被动接受、死记硬背的教学模式,采用新的教学方法,提高学生的生物素养和探究能力。拓展学生学习和探究生物问题的空间。     

培养学生探究生物学知识的尝试

在中学阶段 ,生物学教师主要担负着向学生传授生物学基础知识、基本技能等方面的教学任务 ,在这个过程中 ,学生可以学到很多新知识、掌握一些基本技能 ,然而这只能让学生“学会知识”,为了学生将来有能力“会学知识”,中学阶段要大力提倡“探究教学”的教学方式 ,让学生在探究过程中学到知识 ,培养学生多方面的综合能力 ,这不但有利于学生将来进一步学习生物学 ,也有利于国家对生命科学人才的培养。近几年来 ,笔者对探究教学法作了一些尝试 ,现以一个探究过程为例叙述。1　探究的模式1.1　提供背景材料 ,确定探究内容　现行的初中九年义务教…     

生物教学中学生探究能力的培养

新课标指出：“科学探究既是重要的学习目标,又是重要的教学方式之一”,这就要求教师在教学中把学生探究能力的培养放在重要位置。“授人以鱼,不如授人以渔。”教师要将学生学习重心从过分强调知识的传承和积累向知识的探究过程转化,从学生被动接受知识向主动获取知识转化,从而培养学生的科学探究能力和敢于创新的探究精神。     

"蚂蚁的觅食行为"一节探究教学

“科学学习要以探究为核心”。本节课进行“蚂蚁的觅食行为”探究实验 ,通过“自主设计→探究实施→表达交流”等 ,达到促进学生学习方式的改变 ,使学生能主动地获取知识 ,体验科学过程与科学方法 ,形成一定的科学探究能力和科学态度与价值观 ,培养创新精神。1　教学过程1.1　课前准备　各小组学生收集相关蚂蚁知识的资料 ,增加对蚂蚁的感性认识。观察寻找教学楼周边蚂蚁活动出没的地点 ,能知道“蚁穴”所在地则更好。1.2　各小组学生自主实验设计　由学生参考教材的要求 ,提出自己想探究的关于蚂蚁觅食的问题 ,做出假设 ,制定具体的实施方…     

生物学课堂中的探究性教学

“诱发探究”的倡导者、教育家施瓦布指出“如果要学生学习科学的方法 ,那么有什么学习比通过积极地投入到探究的过程中去更好呢 ?”探究性教学以发展探究思维为目标 ,以学科的基本结构为内容 ,以再发现为学习方法。它强调学生是“发现者”,激发学生对学科本身的兴趣 ,在教师指导下像科学家发现真理一样 ,通过学生自己探索、学习和实践活动 ,去发现规律 ,掌握基本的科学方法、提高能力。在教学结构序列上 ,主要体现在 :教师首先要为学生创设一个自主学习的环境 ,然后在教师指导下将启发、阅读、探究、点评、总结有机结合 ,从而让学生像科学…     

"探究植物细胞的吸水和失水"一节教学设计

新课程倡导转变学生的学习方式,特别提倡“自主、合作、探究”的学习方式,突出了对学生科学素养的培养,并将科学探究置于核心地位。“探究植物细胞吸水和失水”教学设计,正是基于这一理念,通过对细胞吸水、失水条件的探究,为学生进行探究性学习营造宽松、民主、和谐的课堂学习氛围,学生针对不同的实验材料设计不同的实验方案进行探究,总结出植物     

生物科学史与探究能力——利用"光合作用发现史"培养学生探究能力的研究

学习生物科学史能够使学生沿着科学家探索生物世界的道路,理解科学的本质和科学研究方法,学习科学家献身科学的精神。本文结合光合作用发现史的教学实践,从创设持续的问题情境、体验探究过程与方法、研究知识的深入发展、尝试部分探究和全程探究几个方面探讨了利用生物科学史培养学生探究能力的基本方法和基本模式,即“创设情境-体验过程-模拟探究-部分探究-全程探究”。通过教学实验研究,从探究活动主要步骤的完成人数和Chi-Square Test的统计结果可知,生物科学史教学可以有效地培养学生各方面的探究能力。     

"区分先天性行为和学习行为"一课的探究教学

1 教学设计思路 本课由“狼孩”的故事引入新知,唤起学生探究的热情;再由学生通过“看书填空”,自学“先天性行为和学习行为”的概念;之后通过分析资料、小组讨论、观看动物世界、设计实验等一系列探究活动,进一步让学生区分先天性行为和学习行为,并掌握这两种行为的意义,同时也培养其科学探究能力;最后以“解读狼孩”结课,让学生能认同人类学习或自身学习的重要性。     

The performance of ravens on simple discrimination tasks: a preliminary study

Recent studies suggest the existence of primate-like cognitive abilities in corvids. Although the learning abilities of corvids in comparison to other species have been investigated before, little is known on how corvids perform on simple discrimination tasks if tested in experimental settings comparable to those that have been used for studying complex cognitive abilities. In this study, we tested a captive group of 12 ravens (Corvus corax) on four discrimination problems and their reversals. In contrast to other studies investigating learning abilities, our ravens were not food deprived and participation in experiments was voluntary. This preliminary study showed that all ravens successfully solved feature and position discriminations and several of the ravens could solve new tasks in a few trials, making very few mistakes.     

Cognitive abilities - the result of selective pressures on food acquisition?

Locating and capturing food are suggested as significant selection pressures for the evolution of various cognitive abilities in mammals and birds. The hypothesis is proposed that aspects of food procuring behaviour should be strongly indicative of particular cognitive abilities.Experimental data concerning higher mental abilities in mammals and birds are reviewed. These data deal with self-recognition studies, rule-learning experiments, number concept, deceptive abilities, tool-use and observational learning.A Darwinian approach reveals: (1) the adaptiveness of particular abilities for particular niches, (2) that in complex foraging environments, increases in foraging efficiencies in animals should result from the evolution of particular cognitive abilities, (3) that phenomena such as convergent mental evolution should be expected to have taken place across taxonomic groups for species exploiting similar niches, (4) that divergence in mental ability should also have taken place where related species have exploited dissimilar niches.Experimental data of higher mental abilities in animals concur with a Darwinian explanation for the distribution of these cognitive abilities and no anomalies have been found.There are, as a consequence, significant implications for the welfare of animals subject to training when training methodology gives little or no consideration to the various mental abilities of species.     

Genetic aspects of resistance to cocoa swollen-shoot virus in Ghana

The inheritance of resistance in cocoa to infection with cocoa swollen-shoot virus was studied in seed inoculation experiments with progenies of Upper Amazon, Trinitario and West African Amelonado parents. In an eight parent diallel cross grown in two seasons and in six male × female factorial experiments, general combining abilities were much more important than specific combining abilities. The diallel cross revealed significant maternal effects but there was little evidence of specific reciprocal differences. Estimates of general combining abilities corresponded with expectation and were positively correlated with maternal effects, the latter indicating that tester parents should be used as males. The results from scaling tests with hybrids between selections from the River Nanay (a Peruvian tributary of the River Amazon) and Amelonado fitted a model with additive resistance; there was no evidence of dominance. Attempts to obtain stronger sources of resistance by hybridisation and selection were unsuccessful. In three crosses the resistance of individual seedlings was compared with that of the parents using test crosses but no evidence of transgressive segregation was obtained. In further experiments seedings of two hybrids between contrasting parents were heavily inoculated with virus so that few healthy survivors remained. Test crosses showed that these survivors and randomly selected seedlings of the same parentage did not differ as resistance sources.     

动物学实验教学改革的初步探索

介绍了动物学实验教学的改革,包括编好实验讲义,改变实验类型,改进实验教学环节,采取开放实验室,利用野外实习和改革实验考核方法等措施,来促进实验教学效果,提高学生的综合能力和创新能力。     

Revisiting the syntactic abilities of non-human animals: natural vocalizations and artificial grammar learning

The domain of syntax is seen as the core of the language faculty and as the most critical difference between animal vocalizations and language. We review evidence from spontaneously produced vocalizations as well as from perceptual experiments using artificial grammars to analyse animal syntactic abilities, i.e. abilities to produce and perceive patterns following abstract rules. Animal vocalizations consist of vocal units (elements) that are combined in a species-specific way to create higher order strings that in turn can be produced in different patterns. While these patterns differ between species, they have in common that they are no more complex than a probabilistic finite-state grammar. Experiments on the perception of artificial grammars confirm that animals can generalize and categorize vocal strings based on phonetic features. They also demonstrate that animals can learn about the co-occurrence of elements or learn simple 'rules' like attending to reduplications of units. However, these experiments do not provide strong evidence for an ability to detect abstract rules or rules beyond finite-state grammars. Nevertheless, considering the rather limited number of experiments and the difficulty to design experiments that unequivocally demonstrate more complex rule learning, the question of what animals are able to do remains open.     

Reliability and the adaptive utility of discrimination among alarm callers

Unlike individually distinctive contact calls, or calls that aid in the recognition of young by their parents, the function or functions of individually distinctive alarm calls is less obvious. We conducted three experiments to study the importance of caller reliability in explaining individual-discriminative abilities in the alarm calls of yellow-bellied marmots (Marmota flaviventris). In our first two experiments, we found that calls from less reliable individuals and calls from individuals calling from a greater simulated distance were more evocative than calls from reliable individuals or nearby callers. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that marmots assess the reliability of callers to help them decide how much time to allocate to independent vigilance. The third experiment demonstrated that the number of callers influenced responsiveness, probably because situations where more than a single caller calls, are those when there is certain to be a predator present. Taken together, the results from all three experiments demonstrate the importance of reliability in explaining individual discrimination abilities in yellow-bellied marmots. Marmots' assessment of reliability acts by influencing the time allocated to individual assessment and thus the time not allocated to other activities.     

Bioenergetics of cross-ice movements by Microtus pennsylvanicus, Peromyscus leucopus and Blarina brevicauda

Laboratory and field experiments were conducted to investigate bioenergetics of winter dispersal and to compare winter (cross-ice) dispersal abilities of three small mammals: Microtus pennsylvanicus, Peromyscus leucopus and Blarina brevicauda . Total metabolic rates increased with running activity and decreased as ambient temperatures increased for all species. Thermal conductance was significantly higher for running than for resting Microtus and Peromyscus , but decreased significantly with activity for Blarina .
Winter dispersal abilities, calculated from treadmill experiments, increased with ambient temperature and with body size of the species. The superior dispersal ability of Microtus in comparison with Peromyscus results from the former's ability to utilize more energy reserves during running. The comparatively low winter dispersal ability of Blarina , which was less than a third of the two rodent species, resulted from its high weight specific cost of transport at winter temperatures and its relatively low energy stores and/or energy utilization during running.     

Cognitive functions of the basal forebrain.

Studies of the function of the basal forebrain have focused on cholinergic neurons that project to cortical and limbic structures critical for various cognitive abilities. Recent experiments suggest that these neurons serve a modulatory function in cognition, by optimizing cortical information processing and influencing attention.     

Variation in the abillties of different strains of Drosophila melanogaster to utilize diverse carbon sources

In several experiments, flies of different geographic origins have been tested for their abilities to produce adult progeny on culture media containing primarily one or the other of several sugars. Flies of different origins differ in their abilities to produce progeny on a given sugar; flies of a single origin differ on different sugars. The data reveal a strong strain-sugar interaction as well. Strains of flies maintained for two or more years by mass transfer on culture media containing one or the other of several sugars, including xylose and lactose, adapt to that culture medium. Hybrid flies-either between lines within localities or between localities-are best able to produce offspring on xylose-containing medium.     

Behavioural flexibility and problem-solving in a tropical lizard

The role of behavioural flexibility in responding to new or changing environmental challenges is a central theme in cognitive ecology. Studies of behavioural flexibility have focused mostly on mammals and birds because theory predicts that behavioural flexibility is favoured in species or clades that exploit a diversity of habitats or food sources and/or have complex social structure, attributes not associated with ectothermic vertebrates. Here, we present the results of a series of experiments designed to test cognitive abilities across multiple cognitive modules in a tropical arboreal lizard: Anolis evermanni. This lizard shows behavioural flexibility across multiple cognitive tasks, including solving a novel motor task using multiple strategies and reversal learning, as well as rapid associative learning. This flexibility was unexpected because lizards are commonly believed to have limited cognitive abilities and highly stereotyped behaviour. Our findings indicate that the cognitive abilities of A. evermanni are comparable with those of some endothermic species that are recognized to be highly flexible, and strongly suggest a re-thinking of our understanding of the cognitive abilities of ectothermic tetrapods and of the factors favouring the evolution of behavioural flexibility.