Abstract:

Interest in science has been continually declining during last decades, especially among the students of all ages. On the top of it, we can experience a general worrying trend in last ten years that less top quality students apply for science university programmes and want to become a scientists. Emerging issue, how to attract young generation to the nontrivial objective word of science is recognized not only by academy, but also by political representations. One way, how to overcome an on going decline is to offer students innovative educational methodologies, where they could experience science subjects (chemistry, biology, physics) as scientists themselves by observing and testing. This approach can show high school students that science can be rewarding, thrilling, challenging, interesting and also funny. There are several international competitions and occasions to meet other young people interested in science and to deepen their enthusiasm. Together with subject Olympiads (namely Biology, Physics and Chemistry Olympiads) European Union Science Olympiad (EUSO) was recently established as a European enterprise. The philosophy behind EUSO is that the tasks should be interdisciplinary (covering topics a techniques in a triangle between biology, chemistry and physics), complex and should encourage the team work. The 9th EUSO took place in Czech Republic in April 2011. Each country (out of 20 participating countries) could bring two teams composed typically from one chemist, one biologist and one expert in physics. Our article describes the biological tasks which were formulated to follow the Inquiry Based Science Education (IBSE) rules. We also show which variables influenced the results of the particular teams (sex, being nominated for A or B team, specialization of the participants, participants´ mutual interactions, how easily they identified the problem and the way how they solved it etc.).

Keywords:

Biology education, practical courses, IBSE, EUSO.