Development of teaching materials using a zoo in science of a junior high school and activities of spreading those teaching materials

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The first goal of the present study is to develop teaching materials and methods using a zoo on an animal study in a junior high school. The second goal of this study is to spread those teaching materials to secondary schools. We gave attention to importance of observing real things, importance of evolutional point of view and importance of observation with sense of purpose in devising teaching plans about animals. For that purpose, we made replicas of crania of a deer and a lion, plastination of pieces of a small intestine of a pig, skeletal specimens of chicken forearms, replicas of footprints of mammals and video showing differences of locomotive manner of vertebrates. These teaching materials can be used in chapters of "Structure and Function of Animal Body" and "Vertebrates Group" in science.Students pay attention to adaptive forms of animals based on feeding habit and locomotive manner in the proposed teaching plans, and understand that all the animals connect phylogenetically. This is important in biological study and essential in realize the importance of life. The proposed teaching plans include a process of inferring deductively from a hypothesis, which give sense of purpose to students in the observations.In order to spread the results of this study and the teaching materials, we established the Group of ASAHIYAMA Zoo Education (GAZE)"in which zoo staffs and university teachers offer opportunities of animal study to school teachers. We also used opportunities of teacher's studies for a brushup and studies held under the law every 10 years.We think that the teaching materials which train students to observe and think biological phenomena from the evolutional point of view are offered to junior high school teachers.