Identifying Students' Interests in
Biology Using a Decade of
Self-Generated Questions

Ayelet Baram-Tsabari; Ricky J. Sethi; Lynn Bry; Anat Yarden

doi:10.12973/ejmste/75228

Identifying Students' Interests in Biology Using a Decade of Self-Generated Questions

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Ayelet Baram-Tsabari ¹ ^* , Ricky J. Sethi ², Lynn Bry ³, Anat Yarden ⁴

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¹ Department of Education in Technology and Science, Haifa, ISRAEL² University of California, Riverside, CA, USA³ Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA⁴ Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, ISRAEL^* Corresponding Author

Abstract

An identification of students’ interests in biology can help teachers better engage their pupils and meet their needs. To this end, over 28,000 self-generated biological questions raised by students from kindergarten through graduate school were analyzed according to age and gender. The sample demonstrated a dominance of female contributions among K- 12 students. However, girls’ interest in submitting questions dropped as they grew older. Topics popular among different age groups of males and females were identified, and the development of interest was described. Ways in which students’ interests can be incorporated into a standard-based curriculum are discussed, mainly as a trigger for the learning of less popular subjects which are required by the curricula.

Keywords

Data Mining
free-choice environment
gender
interest
K- graduate

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This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Article Type: Research Article

EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed, 2010, Volume 6, Issue 1, 63-75

https://doi.org/10.12973/ejmste/75228

Publication date: 21 Jun 2010

Article Views: 3218

Article Downloads: 2714

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How to cite this article

APA

Baram-Tsabari, A., Sethi, R. J., Bry, L., & Yarden, A. (2010). Identifying Students' Interests in Biology Using a Decade of Self-Generated Questions. Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, 6(1), 63-75. https://doi.org/10.12973/ejmste/75228

Vancouver

Baram-Tsabari A, Sethi RJ, Bry L, Yarden A. Identifying Students' Interests in Biology Using a Decade of Self-Generated Questions. EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed. 2010;6(1):63-75. https://doi.org/10.12973/ejmste/75228

AMA

Baram-Tsabari A, Sethi RJ, Bry L, Yarden A. Identifying Students' Interests in Biology Using a Decade of Self-Generated Questions. EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed. 2010;6(1), 63-75. https://doi.org/10.12973/ejmste/75228

Chicago

Baram-Tsabari, Ayelet, Ricky J. Sethi, Lynn Bry, and Anat Yarden. "Identifying Students' Interests in Biology Using a Decade of Self-Generated Questions". Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education 2010 6 no. 1 (2010): 63-75. https://doi.org/10.12973/ejmste/75228

Harvard

Baram-Tsabari, A., Sethi, R. J., Bry, L., and Yarden, A. (2010). Identifying Students' Interests in Biology Using a Decade of Self-Generated Questions. Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, 6(1), pp. 63-75. https://doi.org/10.12973/ejmste/75228

MLA

Baram-Tsabari, Ayelet et al. "Identifying Students' Interests in Biology Using a Decade of Self-Generated Questions". Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, vol. 6, no. 1, 2010, pp. 63-75. https://doi.org/10.12973/ejmste/75228