BIOLOGY EDUCATION

BIOLOGY EDUCATION: THE SCIENCE FOR KNOWLEDGE OF LIFE INTRICACIES AND IMPROVEMENT

OF EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM.

JUSTINA WADA GEORGEWILL

BED SCIENCE (UNBEN), M.Sc Ed. (Southampton, UK),

Ph. D (Ulster, UK)

PROFESSOR OF SCIENCE EDUCATION (BIOLOGY EDUCATION)

DIRECTOR, INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION

INAUGURAL LECTURE

DELIVERED ON APRIL 2006

RIVERS STATE UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE

AND TECHNOLOGY NKPOLU OROWORUKWU,

PORT HARCOURT.

April, 2006

DEDICATION

Dedicated to my late Parents:- MR. SYDER WOCHI and MRS. MAGARET SYDER WOCHI.

THE VICE –CHANCELLOR,

Deputy Vice-Chancellor,

Registrar and other Principal Officers,

Dean of Faculty of Technical and Science Education and Deans of other Faculties,

Directors of Institutes and Centres,

Heads of Departments,

Fellow lecturers and students,

Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen.

The Vice –Chancellor, Sir, I must express my profound and heart felt gratitude to you and your administrative staff for giving me this opportunity to present the. ………………Inaugural Lecture of this great University to day. This lecture is the third lecture from the faculty of Technical and Science Education and the second from the Department of Science and Technical Education. I feel extremely honoured to be given this opportunity to deliver this inaugural lecture of this university because this will afford me an opportunity to proclaim to the public what I profess and have been professing that led to my elevation to the chair of a Professor in 1998. I am the third female Professor to give an inaugural lecture in this University, the second female Professor in Rivers State, the first female Professor in Ikwerre, my Ethnic group. I give all the glory, honour and praises to the Almighty God. By God’s special grace I will humbly use this privilege given to me to share my knowledge, teaching and research work with all of you who are present here to-day.

The title of my inaugural lecture is: - “ BIOLOGY EDUCATION: THE SCIENCE FOR THE KNOWLEDGE OF LIFE INTRICACIES AND FOR THE IMPROVEMENT OF EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM. Although my first and my second degrees were in Science Education (Biology Education), my Ph.D was in pure biology where I carried out a research on sex-determination in a plant parasitic Nematode, Globodera Rostochiensis ROI and was given an award as the best and the first research -student who completed her work within two and half years, (2 ½ yrs) in that University. I was also given an award as the best student in Science Education during my Masters degree. My studies in Biology Education led me to the conclusion that Biology Education is a science for the knowledge of life Intricacies and for the improvement of Educational system, hence I chose this topic to share with you who are present during this inaugural lecture.

DEFINITION OF BIOLOGY

The Hutchinson Encyclopedia (2000) defined biology as science of life which includes all the life sciences such as anatomy and physiology (the study of the structure of living things), cytology (the study of cells) zoology (the study of animals), botany (the study of plants), ecology (the study of habitats and the interaction of living species) animal behaviour, embryology, taxonomy, and plant breeding. Increasingly in the 20th century Biologists have concentrated on molecular structure, biochemistry, biophysics and genetics. Researches in biology have come a long way towards understanding the nature of life that we live.

DEFINITION OF EDUCATION

Education has been defined by many authors in different ways. The dictionary of Education by Good (1959) defined education as a preparation for living or earning a living while Maduabum (1992) defined education as a process by which an individual gains knowledge or insight, develops right type of attitudes, skills and values. I defined education as simply the development of the totality of man and the natural world, the first world of man. My definition entails that through education, man develops mentally, physically, morally and spiritually and subsequently gains knowledge and skills with which he is able to develop the natural world of plants and animals, of soils, air and water which, proceeded him by billions of years and of which he is a part. In the process of man developing the natural world, he fashioned out what is now known as the second world of social institutions and artifacts which he has built for him-self using his tools, engines, science and his dreams. This second world is obedient to human directives and purposes and its building and developments could have not been possible without education.

By definition, biology education therefore is the education that serves both individual and social roles by inculcating knowledge and right types of attitudes for the survival of both the individual and society at large. It helps individuals to acquire the correct mental and physical skills; abilities and competencies that will enable him/her live in and contribute to social and physical developments (Georgewill, 1997).

BIOLOGY EDUCATION AS THE SCIENCE FOR KNOWLEDGE OF LIFE INTRICACIES

The Vice-Chancellor Sir,

Biology Education is said to be the science for knowledge of life intricacies because it provides to individuals and society, the knowledge that enable them to live a proper life.

1. It helps an individual understand himself, the part of his body and their functions.

2. It questions superstitions caused by sustained interest arising from a comprehension of the causes of events.

3. It brings into sharper focus, the need to maintain good health such as using clean water, clean air, having good sanitation, vaccination against infectious diseases, exercise and adequate rest as well as eating balanced diet.

4. It promotes the understanding of the relation of man to his environment as well as acknowledges the interrelationships that exist between living and non-living things.

5. It prepares the individual for both professional and vocational selections in medicine, dentistry, agriculture, pharmacy, teacher educational etc.

6. It prepares the individual for higher Education.

7. It inculcates scientific skills and attitudes into an individual that will help him handle both personal and social problems, ask questions, formulate hypotheses, analyse data, and make inferences and predictions.

8. It increases the individual’s interest and aesthetic appreciation of nature, because where there is admiration of nature, there will also be the desire to protect it.

9. It stimulates interest in biologically based hobbies such as floriculture, collecting insects etc, thereby encouraging leisure activities for individual enjoyment.

10. It imparts factual knowledge and stimulates reflective thinking to produce a better-informed individual.

Biology Education cuts across many social problems and its knowledge assists in providing solutions to most of these problems such as: -

1. HUMAN OVER-POPULATION

In recent years, there is human over-population as a result of technological advancement in the fields of medicine, public health and good nutrition which have reduced death rate especially infant mortality. The over-population has led to increased consumer demand in such a way that rate of population growth is higher than the rate of food production, thereby posing a threat of faming, social unrest and rivalry over natural resources. Biology Education has tried to assist the society to solve this problem by applying available techniques to reduce birth –rate and control population explosion. For example, couples are taught how to use contraceptics and other methods to control birth.

2. FOOD PRODUCTION

How to produce enough food for a daily growing populace is one of the social problems facing biology education. The knowledge of Biology, (Agriculture) has tried to solve this problem by increasing crop yield by the production and application of fertilizer to improve the soil deficiencies, introduction of numerous techniques to combat erosion, pesticides and herbicides to control pests and weeds respectively. It has also led to the production of varieties of plants. While the introduction of aquaculture (i.e. fish farm) has helped in augmenting fish resources from the lakes, sea, rivers and oceans.

3. POLLUTION

Pollution is another social problem facing the world at large in recent years. It has been defined by different authors in different ways.

(a) Experts on scientific aspects of marine pollution (GESAMP,1972) defined pollution as introduction by man into the environment of substances or energy liable to cause hazards to human health, harm to living resources and ecological systems, damage to structures or amenity or interference with legitimate uses of the environment.

(b) The report on pollution Nuisance or Nemesis (1972) defined pollution as the deliberate or accidental contamination of environment with man’s wastes.

(c) Holister and Porteous (1976) defined it as a substance or effect which adversely alters the environment by changing the growth rate of species, interfering with the food chain or health comfort, amenities or property values of people and is generally toxic. I simply defined pollution as wrong substances in wrong places, at wrong time and in wrong quality and are usually toxic (Georgewill, 1997).

The above definitions imply that pollution is not a problem for scientists only. It is a societal problem because it affects everything in the society. It is a health problem because it affects human life. It is a problem in conservation of natural resources because it affects living organisms and it is an aesthetic problem because it affects the senses. Society in effort to improve her living and provide job opportunity to her continuously increasing population has embarked on different activities which include industrialisation. Such ventures have led to the pollution of her environment (Air, land and water) which has endangered the life of the people in the society. Biology Education (Environment Education) has been helping in solving the pollution problems by highlighting to the society the causes, effects and possible controls of different types of pollution. For instance it is now known that most substances that cause pollution of environment, be it air, land or water are waste products, referred to as “wastes” which are produced by man.

Fig. 1 shows how wastes cause pollution within the manufacturing –consumer system.

Figure 1 waste and pollution within the manufacturing –consumer system (Dix 1981)

The Vice Chancellor, Sir, having shown how “wastes” pollute our environment, it is necessary to highlight different types of pollutions, their effects and how the knowledge of biology education has contributed to their control to preserve human life which is endangered by these pollutions.

(a) Air Pollution

The following waste products pollute the air: -

1. COAL: Incomplete combustion of coal that produces smoke (soot or carbon drops).

2. WASTE: - Gases, dust and heat from industrial centers such as chemical manufacturers, iron and steel smelting works, quarries, electrical power generating centers, cement and brick works.

3. The exhaust emissions from transport vehicles that use petrol or diesel oil or kerosene, fuels used by road vehicles, diesel locomotive & aeroplanes.

4. The combustion of fuels to produce energy for heating and power.

5. The exhaust emissions from use of generators and grinding machines.

6. Radioactive substances: All chemical substances consist of atoms that

contain a central core or nucleus surrounded by electron particles speeding round the nucleus in circular or elliptical orbits. The nucleus is made up of the mass of the atom. If an atomic nucleus is not stable, it may undergo spontaneous disintegration or decay. This process produces radiation and the atoms that undergo disintegration are said to be radioactive. Radioactive atoms produce radiation continually and hence pollute the air. The dangerous thing about them is that they usually have very long half-life. Half-life is a period of time within which half the nucleus in a sample of radioactive substance undergoes decay. For example, if a sample of strontium –90 contains 1000 atomic nucleus and 500 will decay over a period of 28 years and a further 250 of the 500 nucleus remaining will decay over the next 28 years etc, it then means that the half-life of strontium –90 is 28 years. Different substances have different half-life.

The nuclei disintegration produces radiation that consists of:

(a) Alpha particles and reduces the atomic number by 2 and the mass number by 4.

(b) Beta particles that increase atomic number by 1 but does not affect the mass number.

THE EFFECTS OF AIR POLLUTION

The substances that pollute the air and their effects.

1. Smoke and fumes increase the atmospheric turbidity and reduce the amount of solar radiation reaching the ground.

2. Solid particulates take part in cloud formation that causes crashing of air crafts. An example was what happened on 4th January 2005 when airplane from London could not land in any of the Nigerian Airports but in Accra in Ghana. This shows that Nigerian atmosphere (Air) is highly polluted. They also increase water vapour emission that leads to increase cloud cover, wet days, increased mist, fog and smog. These processes combine to increase the deposits of the large sized particulates on the ground that result on erosion, corrosion of building materials and metals as well as affect plant life.

3. Radioactive materials cause radioactive pollution that results in the production of radiation which causes a lot of damages. If the damages by radiation continue for over a long period of time, it produces serious visible damages to tissues and organs. Very high radiation doses lead to death immediately or after a few days. Genetic radiation damage is not apparent in one generation but can appear in offsprings in subsequent generations. Radiation also affects the parental reproductive organs and result in the production of gametes or sex cells that contain mutation which are inherited.

Radiation causes severe mental retardation in children (mongolism). Abnormal dozes of X –rays also cause retardation in children.

4. Hydrochlorofluoro carbons (HCFC), methane (CH4), chlorofluorocarbons (CFC), carbon-dioxide (CO₂), carbon-monoxide (CO), and Nitrous oxide (N₂O) cause Global warning which is the increase of atmospheric temperation as a result of depletion of Ozone layer by the above mentioned substances. Ozone layer reduces the quantity of ultra-violet radiation reaching the earth. Any increase of this solar radiation causes damages to plants and crops as well as increases the incidence of skin cancer.

(B) WATER POLLUTION

The Vice Chancellor, sir, water pollution is one of the problems that Biology Education is assisting in solving. Clean and suitable water for use should have the following composition.

Temperature 15.2^0C

Total suspended solids (T.S.S) 66ppm

Total dissolved solids (T.D.S) 225ppm