Knowledge and Attitudes towards Biotechnology in High School Students in Córdoba, Argentina.

OCCELLI, M.; VALEIRAS, N.

Journal of Science Education

Beijing Science Education Innovation center

Lugar: Beijing; Año: 2021 vol. 21 p. 44 - 50

Biotechnological issues frequently raise debates before which society must make important informed decisions. This has been a driving force to promote the teaching of biotechnology contents in secondary education in several countries. After some years of this inclusion, several works have investigated the knowledge and attitudes of students towards biotechnological applications. However, few studies of this nature are recorded for Latin America and none for Argentina. Thus, the objectives of this work are to characterize students´ knowledge and attitudes about biotechnology, its procedures and applications. To this end, we designed and applied a semi-structured questionnaire to 836 students of Year 3 (14 years old) and 471 students of Year 6 (17 years old) in the city of Córdoba (Argentina). Based on the results we found that students present conceptual difficulties in defining biotechnology and tend to associate it mainly with genetic engineering processes. On the other hand, they express positive attitudes towards the use of biotechnology for therapeutic purposes while presenting reserves for other biotechnological applications. On this basis, we present reflections and guidelines for biotechnology education.