At the beginning of 1968, a new science syllabus was introduced in Papua and New Guinea. This syllabus had been prepared with the intention of changing the behaviour and attitudes of the students, so. that they would be able to break away from traditional cultural modes of thinking, and be able to live in a modem scientific world. (1). The syllabus is revolutionary in that approximately 50 per cent of the time allocated to science is devoted to core material in which concepts, skills, and attitudes by way of intensive practical work are stressed, and specific content is not prescribed. The remaining time is to be divided between 'developmental - areas' and research projects. The developmental area '. . . is aimed at giving the pupil a detailed appreciation, and a little historical background, of at least one ..technological and one biological and/or geological influence, closely affecting his life in the local district.' (2)

The research area is devoted to applying scientific mode of enquiry and known scientific principles to a problem involving unknowns. (3). This syllabus was introduced at third form level in all the secondary high schools. as an antidote to traditional science teaching methods which had very obviously failed to teach anything but a rote store of 'facts' and isolated scraps of information from elementary textbooks. Sogeri High School is situated on a plateau, which is approximately 2,000 feet above sea level, and about 20 miles inland. The school is divided into two parts about one mile apart, and connected by the main road. Parallel with this road Erawogo creek, a large tributary of the River Laloki, which it joins at larowari where the junior classes of Sogeri High School are housed. At larowari there is a concrete dam fed by two large springs and a number of smaller ones. These facilities, and the fact that the catchment dam for the hydroelectric system, Sirinumu Dam, was near the school, determined that two of the five third year classes would attempt a project in freshwater biology and ecology as their developmental areas. A tentative programme was prepared, but this was modified continually as the project progressed. Specific skills to be taught included manipulative skills, skills in measurement (including time), estimation and expression of relationship, observational skills, ability to discriminate, and facility to devise experiments, and open-mindedness to the possibility of modification of ideas in the light of new observations.(4). The biological principles which could be discovered from such a project would include classification, food webs and interdependence, mineral cycles, succession, life cycles, population fluctuations and instability in the ecosystem relative to the number of species present, adaptation to the environment, variation, population growth, associated physical and chemical topics, adaptations in structure and behaviour, the effect of introducing species without biological control, conservation, and finally economic considerations, such as food species and vectors of disease. In fact, it was strongly felt that most of these would have to be under- stood, even at an intuitive level, or the project could become trivial, or academically sterile. However, a number of factors, which had to be considered, were weighted against the possible success of this ambitious aim. As a result of several studies made with Territory students, Prince (5) came to the following conclusions. The students were generally very deficient in manipulative skills, they had difficulties with operations in logic, they had a different conception of their physical environment from people of European extraction, and they lacked ability to relate cause and effect. Personal experience has shown that although these were probably reasonable conclusions, the students are probably rather better than Prince was led to believe. Two factors possibly reduced their score in his tests. Firstly, Papuans and New Guineans are basically afraid of Europeans, and it takes a long time to establish the amount of rapport necessary in any psychology test. Secondly, the difficulty of understanding simple English, which many students experience, but which they will not admit. Certainly some of the coastal languages have words, which will translate into many of the English words associated with causality. This was verified by having one group of students translate the list of words associated with causality from Roget's Thesaurus into their own language, and having a second group translate these back into English. The results have not been collated and interpreted yet, but if language is any criterion then the students have the basis of a fair understanding of relationships. However,

there are 700 known languages in the Territory of Papua and New Guinea, and these must vary in vocabulary and sophistication. Even within one class of 40 boys at Sogeri, there were 19 different languages spoken. The facilities available included those previously mentioned, the river, the spring, Sirinumu Dam, and the school dam. The school dam contained a substantial population of Tilapia, and eight large carp, which had not bred. In order to increase the resources, an earth dam was built above the spring, and the carp were transferred to it. The earth dam was smaller in volume than the concrete dam, holding about 100,000 gallons of water. This project was intended to demonstrate to the students that a village could build a dam without much expenditure. There was a fairly well equipped laboratory, which could be

de voted to project work of this kind. During the year, fourth form students built on a darkroom extension to the laboratory, and this became available for behaviour experiments. The equipment was simple, including tape measures, metre rules, stop watches, metre sticks sub-divided into decimetres (made by the students), ropes with knots at one-metre intervals, nets made by the students from unserviceabl6 mosquito nets, fencing wire, and sticks from the bush, and a few reference books of my own plus duplicated information sheets. (See bibliography). Extra items used from time to time were home made fish traps, and a raft. The initial activity was to make a study of live animals in order to stimulate the required attitude towards observation. 67

New Science Teacher February 1970 To guide the students, question sheets were issued, and by attempting to find the answers they were to discover important facts about animals.(6). At this stage, the students were so dependent on textbooks that they would try to find the answers in a book, when it would have been far simpler to observe the animal in front of them. Students would also come and ask me questions such as, "How many fin rays does this fish have?". When they realised that the work was not going to be done for them, they improved in independence and, as a result, in self-confidence. Various species of fish were distributed, including Tilapia sp, and Gambusia affinis (both introduced species), as well as native freshwater sunfish, catfish, and gobies. Sonic of the questions proved too difficult at this stage, even with the use of reference books. However, as each student kept the question sheets, by mid-year those who were working with fish in their research projects had answered most, if not all, of the more difficult questions. One question led to the discovery that Tilapia cares for its young by retaining them in the parent's mouth. Some of their drawings were vastly superior to the sample, which had been prepared for their guidance. The rule adopted with such drawings was that if it could not be represented accurately, it should not be included in the diagram. Other animals to be studied by similar methods included toads, water boatman (Heteroptera), and culicine mosquito larvae. One interesting feature about the toads was that their stomach contents included rice and peas from the mess. The best hypothesis put forward to explain this was that the toads caught many flies in the mess pit, and took in the waste rice and peas at the same time by accident. The next phase was to make the students, observe, discriminate, and classify. An activity suggested in the syllabus notes(7) was used. After a general collecting excursion, the students were asked to divide the animals into sets, using any criteria, which seemed reasonable. Circles were chalked around the groups, resulting in something resembling Venn diagrams. The most successful method was to select an attribute, which would divide the specimens into two numerically equal groups. Subsequently, these sub-sets could be subdivided using other criteria, this process being repeated until groups were obtained, which the consensus of opinion held to be uniform or homogeneous. A simplified example is shown below.

It came as a surprise to the students that this approach had a use in organisms ideas, and that lack of attributes of a given kind could also be used to distinguish a member of a set. For instance, a flatworm can be distinguished from the 68

other animal because it has no shell, no legs, no scales, and no mouth feelers. The above diagram illustrates the complications which could arise with 20 or more species, and at this stage the students were organised on a voluntary basis into specialised groups, each boy working on one species, o and boys with similar species forming a small group of about six. There would be some overlap because there were 72 boys in the two classes involved in the project. The next exercise was to construct a punch card index system for the specimens. If the card was divided into a t number of columns, one for each attribute used to separate I the animals, the columns could be ascribed to the presence or absence of each attribute. When an attribute was present, a hole was made with a pencil, exactly one inch down the column; if the attribute was absent, the top of the column I was tom out. The example below illustrates the card for the water strider, using the attributes from the simplified Venn diagram.

The best cards for the purpose were found to be eight inches by five inches. If required, when the stage was reached 3 where the organisms were accurately classified, details of ecology and location could be written on to it. The cards could be applied to more limited groups. For instance, the attributes selected to distinguish the water snails were "shell spiralling in two dimensions or three,"" spiral left hand or right hand,"" with or without an operculum," and "the shell heavily sculptured or not." Although considerable help was given with the vocabulary, the criteria chosen in this case are close to those in accepted keys,(8) and yet they are the product of students with limited scientific background.

The final exercise in this section involved the construction of a key for the identification of specimens. This followed the usual 'couplet' arrangement, and was a fairly simple extension of the two previous exercises. However, there is a modification of the normal systematic key which has a number of advantages over the traditional kind. This has only just come to my notice, but it is recommended, because it demonstrates the logical processes which are built up by the two previous exercises. It is called the "Sommerman" key(9), and is based on a statement being true or false. After each statement, which is the description of an attribute, there are listed the-letters T and F. If the specimen has the character listed, then the person goes to the statement indicated by the letter T. If the specimen does not have the character, then the person goes to the statement listed by F. Apart from conciseness, such a key demonstrates that a negative statement is just as important as a positive one in scientific thinking. Or, in scientific method, a negative result to an experiment is just as important as a positive one. At this stage, a more systematic classification of the animals was adopted. As the only books available were northern hemisphere books, plus a few Australian books which were rather elementary and lacked sufficient detail, it was decided that most animals could be classified to family level, and this would be satisfactory. Some formal lessons on systematic classification were given. The water plants were approximately identified. Fortunately, the most prevalent algal genus was Spirogyra sp, and as this was in most elementary text books, the students were able to identify most of the structures present. As a large number of specimens were being stored alive in trays, jars and an aquarium in the laboratory, the fungus Saprolegnia soon became evident, and this resulted in further library research. The best way for the students to identify the animals appeared to be by matching them with sheets of diagrams. The first sheet of diagrams was too crowded and the figures on it (on average) too small. Subsequent sheets with larger diagrams and fewer to each page proved more satisfactory. Unfortunately, they are not all available for inclusion at this time, but the set formed a comprehensive series of diagrams. At this stage, Dr. 1. Lansbury, of the Hope Department of Entomology, Oxford University, advertised in the Bulletin of the Australian Entomological Society, for water bugs in the sub-family Heteroptera, from the Australasian region. The School undertook to supply them, and I wrote to him offering to send specimens. This addition to the project gave the students considerable incentive, and they felt gratified to know that such an august body as Oxford University was dependent on them. By the end of this stage it was not uncommon to hear the students toying with words such as Chironomus, Gambusia and Belastoma. From the specimens in the laboratory, it soon became evident that some animals could spend their lives a few inches apart and never come into contact. For example, members of the families Gerridae and Veliidae spent their lives on the surface film, but crabs, gobies, catfish and some dragonfly nymphs spent their lives in the. mud at the bottom of the water. With a little prompting and questioning the students admitted the probability of the presence of more than one environment in the fish tank. The final group opinion was that there were five possible habitats. These were: (1) buried in the mud; (2) on the bottom; (3) on anchored plants; (4) free swimming; and (5) on the surface film. Although some animals were capable of migrating from one of these to another, it was possible for an animal to be confined to any one of these environments. These classifications correspond with some of those adopted by ecologists. Examples include benthos, periphyton,plankton,necton and neuston.(10) In order to extend this classification to natural habitats, an excursion was arranged to Ewarogo creek, which was about 50 yards from the laboratory. The problem given to the students was to see if there was any relationship between the rate of flow and the size of stones on the creek bed. The creek varied in width and depth, but on average it was 20 feet wide, and in dry weather it was usually three to four feet deep. In pool zones where there was little or no flow, the bottom was clay derived from the agglomerate rocks of the area. The size of clay particles could be found from reference books(11). Where the water was flowing, the rate of flow was determined by timing the passage of small pieces of wood over a measured 20 feet. An average of three trials was taken. Ten stones were taken from the bed of the creek. As the number was so small in each case, a selection was made so that the smallest and largest at any place were obtained, as well as ones of intermediate size. Three places were selected and ten stones were obtained from each. The stones were weighed and the average and range of each group were recorded. The results were not clear cut, and it became apparent that the larger stones were sorted by the flood torrents which periodically poured down the creek, and the silt was de- posited when the creek was at a low ebb. However, a valuable technique had been learned in estimating the rate of flow, and it was discovered that sometimes not all the causes of naturally occurring things were as apparent as the text books indicated. mapping had already been covered in the core programme, and the next technique to be mastered was the transect. Sheets were issued so that the results could be recorded in the field. These results were then used to construct a transect to scale in the laboratory. A line was extended over the water, and the depth of the water was recorded at every yard or metre. (Both metric and British systems were used so that the students became familiar with them.) It was seen now that the classification of the original five habitats would have to be changed because another independent factor was the rate of flow of the water. Excursions were arranged so that the students could collect in still and running water, and in large expanses and small bodies of water. It was found that the faunas collected from each place were quite different. The students, who were by now working on definite groups of animals such as water snails, Hemiptera, fish and so forth, were asked to look for any features of their animal which would help it to escape potential predators, or would help it to feed, or help to maintain it, in its environment. In other words, they were asked to look for adaptations to environment, although this term was not used. By using the school library, the small library of old text books in the laboratory, and by observation, the students became aware that colour could be important. Many animals which lived on the surface of the mud were brown. Many animals which climbed over water plants were green. Fish were dark on top and light underneath. One species of gobi actually changed colour when it was transferred to a beaker in bright light. Caddis flies, of which there were four species, had larvae which built cases, and this served as camouflage. They found that shape could be important. Bottom-dwelling fish were cylindrical, or even slightly dorsoventrally flattened, but the actively swimming fish were laterally compressed. In fact, many of the observations made in the initial set of exercises could now be related to the organism in its environment. However, no one had mentioned the possibility of behaviour being related to environment. As part of the half-yearly examination, each class was to have one section dealing with its own projects, the remainder of the paper being devoted to core material and basic concepts. Questions requiring factual information were well answered. However, a question which was intended to see what sort of generalisation the students made from the results of a simple experiment, led to answers which were often irrelevant, and this reflected a common weakness in Territory students. Another question was intended to discover whether the students could predict from the behaviour of an animal in the field what its activity would be in the laboratory. About 70 per cent suggested that the Chironomus would move away from the light. This was verified by experiment after the examination. A well-answered question showed that they had mastered the mechanics of constructing a transect. A question requiring the design of an experiment to ascertain the activity of a water beetle at high and lower temperatures again revealed a general inability to devise simple experiments. Probably many of the experiments suggested would have resulted in boiled water beetle, without much information being discovered about their behaviour. This was to become a major aim of the project; to try and help the students develop some facility in devising experiments to test hypotheses, which came as a result of field observations. As the school now had a dark room it was possible to study the response of animals to directional light, to grades of light intensity, and to certain light intensities. At this time they were given the terms response, orientation and kinesis. Each student worked with their own group of animals, and the results were pooled. From these results one of the brighter students produced the generalisation that mud and bottom- dwelling animals usually moved away from the light, and that free swimming animals often moved towards it. However, it was difficult to be certain about some free-swimming animals as they tended to keep away from the sides of the container. One experiment, which was conducted in the laboratory in the early morning, produced very spectacular results. Four watch glasses each contained a dragonfly nymph of the same species. All four nymphs had moved to the side of the watch glass, which was away from the sun, and each one was orientated parallel to the shaft of incident light, and facing away from the source. However, the students were still unable to devise original experiments to test hypotheses, and, therefore, resource material was duplicated, some of it largely based on "Simple Experiments in Biology" by Cyril Bibby.(l 2) It was felt that the students should begin to describe their results quantitatively at this stage, and two excursions were made. The first one was to plot the distribution of the different species of damsel flies around the dam at larowari, and the second was to record the time spent in different activities by these insects. Firstly, the species of damsel flies had to be identified. As the keys are very technical, and are based on interpretation of wing venation, I did the initial identification using two Australian keys and various papers which were available, which listed species discovered on various expeditions. The species present were tentatively identified as Rhinocypha tincta semi-tincta. Selys.; Agriocnemis femina. Braur.; Agriocnemis exudans. Selys.; Notoneura sp. and Pseudagrion Sp. To give the students some understanding of the problems involved in identification, guidance sheets were issued. These were supplemented by negative photographs of the wing venation, and wings projected by a 35mm slide projector on to a screen. They had not thought that the veins in insects' wings followed any pattern, and they were surprised to learn that the pattern was constant for a species, and differed from species to species. The better students then prepared a wall chart so that they could all manage to identify the different species in the field. This was in full colour and the rendering was completely accurate. Each student was then given a duplicated sketch map of the dam, and asked to make one dot on the map for each member of the particular species he was observing. The classes were distributed around the dam for about one hour. The results were collected and combined and the results were made into large charts. Environmental details were marked in. From this map it was obvious that there was a relationship between the distribution of the different species and the type of environment. The next exercise involved groups of students in watching individual damsel flies, and recording the amount of time spent in various activities. The activities chosen were hovering, flying from one place to another, resting on grass, resting on trees and feeding. The damsel flies were observed from 7 a.m. until I p.m. by shifts of students, a number of damsel flies of each species being observed. The percentage time spent in each activity was recorded, and the results were represented as a histogram. There was little difference in activity when the five species were compared, and most species spent over 90 per cent of their time settled on the vegetation. The illusion one gets of active flying by damsel flies when walking along a river bank is caused by the disturbance caused by the observer. This exercise was regarded as important because it emphasised that there is no need of special laboratories or apparatus to be scientific; one just needs to observe things and interpret them in certain ways using certain methods. Two kinds of classification had been undertaken, namely, the insects and their activities. Measurements had been made of the activities in terms of their duration. The question: "Do you think the activity pattem would have varied at another time of day" was posed but left open, to be the starting point of another activity. The only certain way to find an answer would be by further observation. This, in turn, would lead to other questions, such as "Does the weather on any day influence the activity of damsel flies of any species?" This could lead to studies made in the laboratory with carefully controlled conditions of light, temperature and humidity. Some excursions were now undertaken with the object of determining the relative abundance of the different species in various habitats. Rather than record definite numbers in limited measured areas, it was decided that a better exercise would be to adopt the classifications rare, occasional, frequent, common, and abundant. After a careful explanation of the meaning of the terms, it was surprising how the students' results showed consistent agreement. Most disagreements were settled by informal group discussions, and generally the difficulties arose because of inaccurate observation on the part of some students, rather than by disagreement about the use of the terms. The opportunity was taken for a full-scale excursion to the Sirinumu Dam. As the Dam was only three years old, it was expected that the species list would be smaller than that for the school area. An instruction sheet was issued, and the students were divided into groups, so that a variety of habitats could be investigated. Some difficulties were occasioned by the fact that the Dam was releasing water, and that the lower

part of the stream carrying the released water was surrounded by very thick scrub. Other factors to be considered were crocodiles and venomous snakes, including the common taipan, Papuan black, and the death adder. This rather curtailed the activities, but some important principles became evident from the results. One particular group obtained results from four habitats. Their habitat number two was a small pothole which was temporary, occasionally replenished by rainfall. There were only two species present, mayfly nymphs, possibly in the family Baetides, but certainly with a very short life cycle, and some culicine mosquito larvae. The question was put to the whole class, "Why do you think that Culex larvae have a frequent occurrence in this pothole, and mayfly larvae are abundant in this pothole, and yet in the other three habitats, which were only yards away, Culex does not occur, and mayfly nymphs are only found occasionally in one of the habitats?" In the case of both classes there was a positive response that the presence of predators had eliminated the small nymphs and larvae in the open habitats. Then followed a discussion about biological control of mosquitos, and the reason for the introduction of Tilapia sp and Gambusia affinis. This led to a question about the relative effectiveness of these fish compared with the native species. Tank trials were arranged where the introduced species were placed into a tank with native species of fish, and 10 culicine larvae were dropped into the tank. The surprising conclusion was that the local sunfish inevitably caught a larger share than either Tilapia sp and Gambusia. Invertebrate predators such as Dytiscid beetle larvae and dragonfly nymphs operated at a far lower level of efficiency. The generalisation from this particular exercise was that the abundance of an animal depends on the availability of a food supply and absence of predators, all other things being equal. This was to be an important point when the abundance of introduced species was considered. Although no mention was made of the term, the concept of 'competition' was being introduced by these experiments. The individual projects had been progressing as suitable material was available for each group. Sheets were issued so that the students could complete their work up to the present level of their understanding. The projects varied in standard, some showing understanding of the basic principles so far considered, others being a rehash of textbook material. These were returned for completion and assessed. Bloom's Taxonomy was used as a guide, and to do really well, a student had to show that he could interpret material, synthesise generalisations, and show some ability to evaluate results. As there were 72 books, all different, and some quite long, a certain amount of selection was necessary. The project on the prawn was particularly good in that the prawns had been kept in the background, partly because of the difficulty in classifying, and partly because other projects were envisaged at a later date. The student classified the prawn as far as he could from general zoology textbooks(' 4), worked out the structure and functions of the appendages from an invertebrate dissection guide, which actually dealt with the crayfish, and did experiments on the activity and behaviour of prawns, and recorded their migrations and preferred habitats, all without any guidance. At about this time it was thought necessary partly to drain the concrete dam and widen part of the area so that it be used for swimming. Consequently, the opportunity was taken to tag some fish, and to obtain an estimate of the number of fish present. Initially, about 30 Tilapia had been put into the dam, when it was built about four years previously. These had bred at a rapid rate. It was felt that the students should have the opportunity of experiencing some benefit from the dam so that they might one day try fish farming back in their own villages. The most positive way of making the students realise the practical possibilities of fish farming was to organise a fishing competition. This became a regular event. In the first two competitions, a recorded 600 lb. of Tilapia were caught. It is fairly certain that an equal weight was taken away for private rather than communal consumption, and therefore was not recorded. The effect of removing large quantities of fish soon became apparent, as the one species of water weed in the dam, which closely resembled the genus Elodea of the northern hemisphere, although it was probably not at all closely related to it, began to grow at a considerable rate. This, in turn, resulted in a large generation of rapidly growing Tilapia, and it was felt that if the fishing competitions could be timed properly, very large yields could be obtained. However, in the third competition which took place in April this year, very few fish would accept the bait as they were so well fed in the dam. When the dam was drained, about 400 lb. of fish were obtained by the boys, at an average weight of 0.5 lb. to 1 lb. Over 1,000 dead fish were counted on the surface on the following day, when the dam was refilling. About one week later, when the water was clear, about five shoals of fish were seen with hundreds in each shoal. The method of counting was to count 20 close together and estimate how many times the group would fit into the shoal. For the tagging, sheets were issued. By positioning the tags, according to the weight range, i 't was felt that even if the tags were lost, it would still be possible to obtain some idea of the increase in mass whenever the fish was recaptured. Two kinds of tag were used. One sheet was impregnated with wax, and this was cut up into the squares, each of which were stapled on to the fish. The results being recorded, on copies of this sheet. Tags were also made of thin copper sheet, and the numbers were impressed on with a punch. The first tags were not very successful at all. A further improvement would be to use aluminium foil, possibly the heaviest grade used for cooking. It is hoped that when fish are caught in future competitions, an idea of the rate of growth may be obtained. It may also be possible to obtain an estimate of the total population by observing what proportion of tagged fish are caught. However, the observed territorial behaviour of adult Tilapia may make such results unreliable. The final excursion was indirectly the result of a field day, which had been organised for a science teachers' seminar. A work sheet had been issued to the teachers, but as they had arrived later than expected, after a 30-mile journey by a mountain road, the work was not properly finished, although they were able to gain some experience of the methods which were being used at Sogeri. The sheet was used with the two third forms, and as an experiment with the best fourth form, not without some trepidation. Three habitats were selected, and each class was split up into sufficient groups, so that all habitats were properly sampled. Specimens were brought back so that all the students saw each species. The habitats were the upper dam, the river in a slow flowing part, and the river in a rapids zone. The results were collected during the practical periods when the animals were being identified. This took about four 40-niinute periods. To save time they were copied co: from the board and duplicated, although many students preferred to make their own record. To obtain the maximum benefit from the results, a special question sheet was issued. After the students had answered the questions for an assignment, the sheet was examined in class so that the important biological principles could be emphasised. Questions 1, 2 and 3 were to bring out the point that the same microhabitats may exist in widely differing major habitats, and that one would expect to find similar animals in each. Question 4 refers to the mid-stream part of the rapids and the answer is no. This led to the point that they all lived under stones, or were anchored in some way. Further questioning produced the hypothesis that possibly the churning of the rapidly moving water might mean that there is more oxygen dissolved in it. Questions 6 to 9 were to lay the foundation of a food web, and form the basis for mineral cycles. To complete this, another sheet on the ecosystem was subsequently issued, and the completed result was rather more detailed. Each habitat had its producers, first and second order consumers, and decomposers. Question 10 brought out the generalisation that introduced species usually have a population explosion, if th there is adequate food. Further questioning produced the probable reason, which is lack of predators or disease. This led to a consideration of the dangers of introducing animals or plants without sufficient control, and examples were given such as rabbits in Australia, and Opuntia sp in the same country. The students were reminded of the legislation to prevent the same thing happening in the Territory. Question 13 was a reminder that there is oxygen dissolved in the water, and that various structures are present to utilise it. Question 14 for third year was an introduction to selection, and for fourth year served as a starting point for the revision of evolution. Question 15 revised one of the points to come from the Sirinumu excursion, and it led to a discussion of the problem of malaria and the advantages of biological control, especially if one could obtain the additional bonus of a food supply by fish farming. This was to be the end of the project as far as I was concerned, as I had to transfer to Port Moresby. However, I know that there will be sufficient continuity of staff to continue the project and I envisage such activities as classifications of features of adaptive significance, simple chemical analysis of the water and observation of successions in small isolated bodies of water. The final aim at the end of the two years being to produce a source book for the school library written by the students. It is difficult to obtain an absolute evaluation of the relative success of the project, but it is felt that the students showed a definite gain in attitudes. At the end of third form there was an external examination for Territory students. It would not be reasonable to isolate the results of 3A and 3D I because the class with the lowest ability range would be eliminated. As all classes followed the same core, which included a freshwater study, and many of the same sheets were used, and as these other classes had projects in similar areas, using the same methods, the results of the whole year are appended. The examination paper did not examine content but only measurement, observation and the ability of the student to discriminate and classify. The schools' assessment of the students was also taken into consideration. The school rated the students internally as follows: A-Top 7 %; B-8 to 25 %; C-26 to 75 %; D-76 to 93 %, E-93 to I 00 %. The Department ranked the students in the same way for the external examination, the final rating being a combination of the two, The Sogeri students were of a normal ability range, and the maths and English rating in the external examination are included to verify this. Table

Number of students from Sogeri High School:-166. Total number for the Territory Third Year:-3,148.

As no special attempt was made to coach the students in the skills needed to pass this particular examination, other than in their normal practical experience, it would appear that the gains they have made can be at least partly ascribed to the skills and attitudes developed in the project work. More important gains were an increase in the ability of the students in using reference books, and a preparedness to start working in the laboratory with the minimum instructions. The situation in which the students find it difficult to isolate hypotheses which can be tested experimentally still exists, but some of the better students can manage to do this at an elementary level. It is hoped that discussion between students will gradually improve the situation, as they are faced with more problems. References I The Beginning of a New Era of Secondary Science Education. M. N. Maddock. Papua and New Guinea Journal ofeducation. Vol. 5, no. 4. June,1968.

2 Progress Report. Science Syllabus T.P.N.G. November 1967.

3 Ibid.

4 Ibid.

5 Bottlenecks in Papua New Guinea Science Teaching. J. R. Prince. Papua and New Guinea Journal of Education. September 1967.

6 Direct Biology. J. A. Palframan. Nelson.

7 Science Syllabus. November 1967. Pp. 13 and 14.

8 A Key to the British Fresh- and Brackish-Water Gastropods. T. T. Macan. Freshwater Biological Association. Mollusea. W. J. Clench, in Fresh-water Biology. Ward and Whipple ed Edmonson. Wiley. 1965.

9 Sommermati, K. M. 1966. True-false key to the species of Alaskan biting mosquitoes. Mosquito News. 26.(4). Pp. 540, Reprinted in part in the News Bulletin of The Australian Entomological Society. Vol 4. Part 4. P 81.

10 Fundamentals of Ecology. Odun. Saumders. P. 295.

1 1Simple Experiments in Biology. C. Bibby. Heinemann. P. 37.

12 Ibid.

1 3A Handbook of The Dragonflies of Australia. F. C. Frazer. Royal Zoological Society of N.S.W. 1960.

13B Key to Species of Adults of New South Wales Zygoptera. (Mature Males.) Department of Zoology, University of New England. Armidale. N.S.W.

14 General Zoology.Tracy Storer. maegraw Hill.

Books which were necessary, but not referred to in the paper.

Freshwater Fishes of Australia. Gilbert Whitley. Jacaranda Press.

The Insect World of J. Henri Fabre. Prernier Paperback. Fawcett.

The various Keys. The Freshwater Biological Association.

An Evaluation of Some Aspects of Science Curricula in Territory of Papua and New Guinea Secondary Schools. L. D. Mackay. Monash University

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