Grammar school students\u27 knowledge of cell cycle and basics of genetics

Raziskave kažejo, da imajo dijaki težave z razumevanjem celičnega cikla in genetike zaradi težko predstavljive in kompleksne narave teh tem. Namen naše raziskave je bil preveriti znanje dijakov prvega, drugega in tretjega letnika gimnazije o celičnem ciklu in osnovah genetike. Želeli smo ugotoviti, ali so med dijaki različnih letnikov in različnega spola razlike v znanju. Zanimalo nas je, ali imajo dijaki, vključeni v našo raziskavo, napačne predstave o celičnem ciklu in osnovah genetike. V raziskavi je sodelovalo 297 dijakov dveh gimnazij. Od tega je bilo 37,0 % dijakov prvega letnika, 32,7 % dijakov drugega letnika in 30,3 % tretjega letnika. Dijaki so reševali anonimni test znanja, ki je vseboval 20 vprašanj. Od tega so bila štiri vprašanja izbirnega tipa, dve odprtega tipa, šest jih je bilo v obliki dvotirnega testa, osem pa v obliki trditev, pri katerih so dijaki morali označiti, ali so pravilne ali ne. Z raziskavo smo ugotovili, da je znanje dijakov o celičnem ciklu in osnovah genetike zadovoljivo. Povprečni dosežek dijakov vseh treh letnikov gimnazije je bil 62,4 %. Rezultati so pokazali, da so razlike v znanju dijakov različnih letnikov zanemarljive. V znanju fantov in deklet je bilo nekaj razlik, vendar na temelju tega ne moremo zaključiti, da ima kateri od spolov boljše znanje. Ugotovili smo tudi, da imajo dijaki določene napačne predstave v povezavi z našo temo.Various studies show that students have difficulties in understanding of cell cycle and genetics due to their abstract and complex nature. The purpose of our research was to evaluate students\u27 knowledge of the first, second and third year of grammar school of cell cycle and basics of genetics. We wanted to find out whether there are differences in knowledge between students among the different grade level and different sexes. We were also interested in whether the students involved in our research hold some misconceptions about the cell cycle and basics of genetics. In the study participated 297 students of two grammar schools. Of this, 37 % were first-year students, 32.7 % were second-year students and 30.3 % were third-year students. Students answered a questionnaire containing 20 questions. Four of them were multiple-choice questions, six questions were in the form of a two-tier test, two were open-ended questions and there were eight statements where students had to mark whether they are correct or incorrect. Research has shown that students\u27 knowledge of cell cycle and basic of genetics is satisfactory. The average achievement of the students was 62.4 %. The results showed that the differences of students\u27 knowledge of all three grade levels are negligible. There were some differences between the genders, but only based on that we can\u27t conclude that one gender have better knowledge than the other. We have also found that students have some misconceptions related to our topic