Abstract:

This Good Practice, whose common thread is the comprehensive understanding of the design and application of transgenic plants, aims to stimulate students and make their learning meaningful by acquiring the role of researcher. The student acquires this role as a part of a small working team, to develop a short research project, as if it were a professional team. The objective of each research project is to satisfy a specific demand in response to a real problem that is solved through plant biotechnology and genetically modified organisms (GMO). The teams, made up of three students, allow cooperative work to be effective while tasks are distributed and incentivized to each member of the group, according to their abilities. The presentation of a final research paper and its critical argumentation, with a controversial and trendy topic (transgenic plants), favours the interdisciplinary nature of the proposal and the acquisition of the key competences for the correspondent educational level. Scientific literacy is achieved through the interchange of theoretical and practical activities targeted to an appropriate understanding of the universal scientific method: initial brainstorming, semi-guided bibliographic research, use of the virtual laboratory, interaction with real scientists on the field, participation in intra- and inter-group proceedings/focus groups, writing an article and exposing ideas. The use of new ICT resources, such as the virtual laboratory, and the visit to a research Centre of international prestige during the Science Week, favour and stimulate this learning. This Good Practice has been in principle designed for the last year of high school, to be integrated in a module of the subject of Biology, but might be ideally extrapolated and adapted to the initial academic years of related University Degrees, in subjects like Molecular Biology.

The Good Practice exhibits several advantages:
(i) improves the visibility of the contents on biotechnology, ignored in many school contexts;
(ii) transgenic plants stand out, contrary to what usually happens in various proposals analysed, which tend to be more focused on animal cloning and related topics;
(iii) the link between Science and society is favoured throughout the entire proposal, by trying to solve a real problem by means of controversial GMOs;
(iv) the central strategy of the proposal, based on directed enquiry, is novel as it relates and relies on key ideas from other proposals: it mixes paper and pencil and experimental activities, brings closer the real productive world, focuses on autonomous and cooperative learning, and encourages the application of research in the classroom.

Keywords:

Good Practice, problem-based learning, semi-directed enquiry, scientific method, plant biotechnology, cooperative work.