Examining the Possibility of Connecting Lower Secondary School Science and Biodiversity Education Through “Soil Animal Observation Experiments”

Key Points

• To explore how soil animal observation experiments can enhance biodiversity education in lower secondary science curricula.
• Developed a unit plan connecting middle school science with biodiversity education through soil animal observations.
• Designed experiments that are easy for teachers to implement using identification guides from high school biology.
• Conducted text mining of student reflections after the experiments to analyze their responses.
• Utilized co-occurrence networking to examine links between student thoughts on environment and soil animals.
• Students frequently expressed surprise and acknowledgment of diverse soil animals, as shown in text mining analysis.
• Co-occurrence analysis suggested many students made connections between the environment and soil animal life.
• The experiments are expected to enhance student interest and motivation in biodiversity education.