Anna Uitto

Production of the benthic amphipods Pontoporeia affinis and P. femorata in a Baltic archipelago

Abstract The production dynamics of Pontoporeia affinis Lindstrom and P. femorata Kroyer (Crustacea, Am-phipoda) were studied in 1980 near Tvarminne, SW coast of Finland. The study areas were located in the outer archipelago at depths of 21–25 and 26–30 m and in the sea zone at 46 m.p In P. affinis abundance declined from 12 000-17 000 ind. m-2 in May to 800–3000 ind. m-2 in November, but the maximum biomass of 5–8 g AFDM m-2 was attained in August. In the archipelago the daily production values were highest in June-July and biomass losses in July-August. In the sea zone production peaked in June but was considerable until autumn, and biomass losses increased toward autumn. Annual production to biomass ratios (P/B) declined from 2.9 to 1.3 with increasing depth. This decrease was most probably due to the lower temperature and food competition in the denser population of Ponloporeia at greater depths. The 0 + age group had the highest P/B ratio (4.8-3.4) and in the two archipelago areas about as high an an...

Teachers\' approaches to genetics teaching mirror their perceptions of teaching controversial, societal and sensitive issues

The skills to understand genetic phenomena and transfer knowledge to real world situations are an important part of 21st century scientific literacy. While socio-scientific issues (SSI) are emphasized and impediments to considering SSI are widely studied, science teachers have low interest in adopting SSI in teaching. Little is known about how teachers choose content for their teaching, although this is the process in which curricula translates to teaching practice. We studied how teachers choose content for biology courses on cells, heredity, and biotechnology by interviewing ten Finnish upper-secondary school teachers. We asked which content they perceived as the most important and studied how they described teaching genetically modified organisms, hereditary disorders, and complex human traits. We used content analysis to build a tentative model of variables influencing teachers’ choices. We found three main categories of the most important contents: development of phenotype, inheritance and continuity, and gene function. While teachers mentioned that SSI are important, they were never mentioned among the important contexts. Teachers differed in how they described teaching: some embraced human-related content while others described avoidance due to content or pedagogy-related issues. The tentative model of teachers’ choices included national-level factors, which were common to all teachers, school-level factors as the local context and personal-level factors. We classified teachers’ perceptions to Developmental, Structural and Hereditary approaches in genetics teaching which contained not only the perceptions of the most important content, but also teacher inclinations towards teaching human genetics and perceptions of students’ interest in different topics. Teachers’ perceptions were strongly linked with teachers’ likelihood to discuss human genetics. Experience played a part in which approach teachers had, and contrary to previous research, the less experienced teachers were most open to discussing human genetics. Our results suggest that curriculum is an important tool encouraging teachers to adopt SSI-oriented teaching. Disclosure of conflicts of interest: T.A. has participated in writing biology textbooks for upper-secondary school biology for eOppi Oy and has received monetary compensation. None of the teachers involved in this study used biology textbooks from eOppi Oy.Science education strives to increase interest in science and facilitate active citizenship. Thus, the aspects of personal and societal relevance are increasingly emphasised in science curricula. Still, little is known about how teachers choose content for their teaching, although their choices translate curricula to teaching practice. We explored how teachers choose genetics content and contexts for biology courses on cells, heredity, and biotechnology by interviewing ten Finnish upper-secondary school teachers. We specifically studied how the teachers described teaching on genetically modified organisms, hereditary disorders, and human traits as teachers have different amounts of freedom in choosing contents and contexts in these themes. We analysed interviews with theory-guiding content analysis and found consistent patterns in teachers9 perceptions of the main themes in genetics teaching, teacher inclinations towards teaching genetics in human context and perceptions of students9 interest in different topics. These patterns, which we call emphasis of content in genetics teaching could be classified to Developmental, Structural and Hereditary. Teachers with Developmental emphasis embraced teaching genetics in human context while teachers with Structural emphasis avoided them. Contrary to previous research, the less experienced teachers were most open to discussing human genetics. In general, teachers9 justified their choices by national, local school, and teacher9s personal-level factors. While teachers mentioned that societal and personal contexts are important, at the same time teachers never framed main themes in genetics with these contexts. We conclude that more emphasis should be put on how teachers handle issues with societal or personal relevance.