Biotechnologies as a context for enhancing junior high-school students’ ability to ask meaningful questions about abstract biological processes

Junior high-school (seventh-ninth grade, 13-15 years of age) students are expected to acquire some knowledge of ‘abstract’ biological processes that take place in the cells of living organisms. The concepts used to describe and explain them are usually drawn from the domain of biochemistry, which is esoteric to ninth graders. Based on the idea of showing the processes in action, a new approach is suggested in this study: the outcomes of many biotechnologies, and the intervention of the scientists, which brought out the outcomes, can be demonstrated at the ‘macro’ level (production of foods, medicines, etc.), or at last in ways which are understandable to 14- to 15-year-old students. Between the intervention and the outcomes, there is a ‘black box’ (the biochemical process), which will become the focus of the students’ questioning. The development of students’ ability to ask meaningful questions about intra-cellular processes, and the resulting meaningful learning of relevant biological concepts will be outlined and discussed.