Language in Biology
Analysis of biology textbook for the use of language
The focus is on the use of scientific terms or concepts and the relations that describe a sentence or proposition. The current on-going work in this area is about characterizing and re-representing the biology text of secondary, senior secondary, undergraduate levels. The approach is based on focusing on concepts and relation names. The objective is to develop a methodology for mapping biology knowledge, determine a set of predicate terms required for cell biology domain. On the contrary to the prevailing approach of teaching biology focusing on concepts, we intend to focus on predicates. We believe that concepts by themselves do not contain meaning, it is only through the use of appropriate predicates, these attain meaning. Focusing on predicates can facilitate in introducing rigor in biology knowledge. The domain of cell biology is being re-represented. The textbooks followed are from std. 8, 9, 11, and undergraduate level (Campbell, DeRobertis) For more information in this area of research and to see some results, please visit the research area on Refined Concept Mapping in Biology Education. Researchers:
Publications: Meena Kharatmal & Nagarjuna G. (2011): An Analysis of
Growth of Knowledge Based on Concepts and Predicates---A Preliminary
Study. epiSTEME 4 conference.
