Sample Course Material for Biodiversity and Sustainable Education

Abstract

This study was done in a period when there are attempts to develop a framework for the sustainable development and sustainable education in order to emphasize the universal significance of biodiversity, sustainable development, and sustainable education. The research reported here is a case study carried out in the spring semester of 2012-2013 academic year. The participants of the study were student teachers enrolled in a general biology course in a preservice science teacher education program at a major research university in central Turkey. The study was designed as a qualitative study and the data of the study were collected through semi-structured interviews and observation forms. The aim of the study was to develop teaching materials about the sustainable education and the sustainability of biodiversity. In parallel to this aim, an experiment of frog breeding was designed and the experiment was carried out by the participants under the supervision of the author.  More specifically, the participants were involved in feeding the frogs and cleaning the aquarium. They recorded their observations together with the author. The whole process was shared in the biology course. In short, the participants observed how larvas come out from frog spawn that were put in the aquarium and how larvas became adult frogs. Adult frogs were transferred to the nearest creek after the completion of the observations. At the end of the process the attitudes of the participants towards living beings changed positively as their reports indicated.