A Development of Rapid Cycling Brassica rapa and Its Use for Promotion of Scientific Investigation Skills for Lower Secondary Students

By:

The purposes of this research are 1) to develop Warm Temperature Adapted Breeding Pool of Wisconsin Fast Plants (Rapid Cycling Brassica rapa) as a biological instructional material to promote students’ investigation skills 2) to study students’ ability to conduct scientific investigation and understand the nature of scientific inquiry using Warm Temperature Adapted Breeding Pool as a tool. The study consists of two phases beginning with the first phase: development of biological instructional material. Warm Temperature Adapted Breeding Pool of Wisconsin fast plants are developed. Two steps of studying Wisconsin fast plants aspects are development of Wisconsin fast plants adapted to warm temperature, and growing Warm Temperature Adapted Breeding Pool (WTABP) are performed. Also, students were involved in the experiment in this phase. This phase has been done. In the second phase, WTABP will be used in classroom enhance students’ inquiry. The results of the first phase demonstrated that Wisconsin fast plants could develop and reproduce in warm temperature under various conditions. The number of viable seeds was higher in late generation. Seed’s appearance was evident as both round and flat shape. The color of the seed is lighter than that of the original seed obtained from Science House at UW – Madison. The range of optimum temperature for warm temperature-adapted Wisconsin Fast plants is 22 – 35 °C. Students’ ability to conduct an investigation was enhanced. They gained more understanding of scientific inquiry and also on flowering plant life cycle. However, it is still difficult for students to make a scientific hypothesis before conducting the experiment. The researcher is developing phase two and the result of the pilot study will be discussed at the conference.

Stream: Curriculum and Pedagogy; Student Learning, Learner Experiences, Learner Diversity

Paper: , Introducing a Warm Temperature Adapted Rapid Cycling “Brassica Rapa” to a Thai Science Classroom

I'm a Doctoral Student in Science education at Srinakharinwirot University, Bangkok. I was a biology teacher in chaiyaphum province, my hometown when I was 23. I taught for 2 years and got a scholarship from the government to study science education. The curriculum take 5 years to finish. I went to USA for research proposal. It's a part of the curriculum. My research is about growing Rapid cycling Brassica rapa (RBR) in warm country and its use in Thai classroom. RBR have been bred by Professor Paul H. Williams in University of Wisconsin-Madison for his teaching. The plants became popular in American classroom for inquiry teaching. I'm very interested in using the plants in Thai classroom so that I have to figure out how to grow it in Thailand. Professor James Stewart and Professor Paul H. Williams are my advisor when i was doing research proposal in UW-Madison. I'm interested in doing research in science education and teaching biology for sure. I really want to change Thai teaching style from traditional to inquiry method.